'No One Gives Us a Chance' vs. 'Best Team in NBA': Coach Kidd on Mavs at Suns
Coach Jason Kidd is sending a message.
A message about the Phoenix Suns.
And a message about his Dallas Mavs.
“They’re the best team in the NBA,” Kidd said of the Suns, who play host to Dallas in Game 1 of a best-of-seven Western Conference semifinals series on Monday at 9 p.m. CT. “When you look at the season they had, they have the best coach in basketball ...''
Phoenix coach Monty Williams has indeed assembled a powerhouse, a Suns team that earned the West's No. 1 seed. Of course, Kidd, in his first year coaching in Dallas, is no slouch; his Luka Doncic-led team just ousted a talented Utah Jazz club and comes into the NBA Playoffs as the West's No. 3 seed.
Nevertheless, along with playing the "overdog'' card regarding the Suns, he's pushing the "underdog'' card for Dallas.
“No one is going to favor us or give us a chance in this series,'' Kidd said. "We just got to take one possession at a time, continue to have fun and execute and play hard and see what happens.''
What can "happen,'' of course, is ... anything. That's the positive result of having Doncic on this team.
But Dallas was favored in Round 1. That won't be the case here, and it won't likely be the case as the series progresses, with Game 2 also in Phoenix on Wednesday at 9 p.m. CT before the series shifts back here to the AAC for Game 3 and 4 on Friday at 8:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., respectively. (More series info here.)
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Unless Dallas wins early on in this series. That could change the opinion of anybody who thinks Dallas has "no chance.''
But Kidd is certainly right about the best qualities of the Suns. Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, Mikal Bridges, and in clutch time, the all-timer, Chris Paul, make Phoenix the best closing team in the NBA.
“They can put a lot of pressure on you on defense, and then on the offensive end there’s a lot of guys that can score the ball,'' Kidd said. "We’ve got our hands fill and hopefully we can just keep the game close going into the fourth and find a way to win.”
"Keeping it close'' is a good idea ... but again, there are two sides to the coin.
Few teams are more clutch than Dallas, at least for the second half of this season; since Feb. 4, the Mavs are 13-2 during clutch time.
But ... the Mavs - though sporting an amazing record when underdogs - have failed to win against the Suns in their past nine meetings, including in all three games this year despite holding late leads in all three. In the end, it's Phoenix that can boast of being "most clutch'' as the Suns' record in clutch time is an intimidating 33-9.
“It’s not us against the world,” Kidd said. “It’s just us against the Suns, and everybody has the Suns favored. But the games are scheduled, so we’ve got to go play them and we’ll see what happens.”
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