'It's About Team for Them': Jason Kidd Calling Out Luka Doncic's Mavs After Celtics Loss?
Following a bounce-back win against the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday, the Dallas Mavericks faced a tall task against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden on Friday night.
Not only was it the final game of a tough four-game road trip, but it was the Mavs' third game in four night. Despite only being down by three points halfway through the third quarter, Dallas was ultimately overpowered down the stretch en route to a 138-110 blowout loss, falling to 34-26 on the season.
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"It's a very rare thing in this league to see a team like that with five shooters," Mavs coach Jason Kidd said of the Celtics, who shot 21-43 (48.8%) from deep and recorded 33 assists. "It's about team for them. You can see that with the ball movement. They're not worried about who is shooting it. A lot of times, the person shooting it is wide open."
Although Kidd was likely calling out his team as a whole and not singling out one player, that won't keep people who think Luka Doncic should pass the ball more from thinking that his comment was a shot at the five-time All-Star.
To those who think that, though, consider this: Dallas finished with 20 assists as a team, and Doncic had 11 of those assists to go along with his team-high 37 points and 12 rebounds. He does it all for the Mavs, and to insinuate that he doesn't move the ball enough is asinine.
If anything, Kidd was calling out everyone on the team aside from Doncic. Although it's not all on one player, let's take a look at Tim Hardaway Jr. for some context when it comes to other Mavs passing the ball. When Hardaway records at least three assists this season, the Mavs are 13-2. On Friday, he finished with 10 points and zero assists while being a -21 in 20 minutes off the bench.
Given how absurdly talented the Celtics are from top to bottom, it's probably unrealistic to expect the Mavs to move the ball at the same level going forward, but it starts with putting players on the court who are more capable of moving the ball around. And that part is on Kidd to figure out.
