Mavericks’ Head Coach Jason Kidd Defends his Comments about the Warriors’ Defense

Jason Kidd, the Mavericks’ head coach, spent a portion of his pre-Game 5 news conference on Thursday evening justifying statements he made during Game 4. Kidd was asked why he went out of his way to say the Golden State Warriors “can’t play us 1-on-1” on Tuesday.
He replied with this:
“I think this is the most that we’ve seen a zone. It’s for my guys in the sense that it’s a compliment. It really is. You have to do different things to be able to guard. We’ve seen the box-and-1 and zone a lot, from foul trouble or not being able to guard. It’s just a fact. I didn’t make that up.
“And I played the game. So, whenever you hear a coach say we have to do something that we haven’t done, it’s because we can’t do something. That’s just fact.”
Kidd emphasized three times during a seven-minute press conference after the Mavericks’ 119-109 win over the Warriors in Game 4 of the Western Conference playoffs that his team had faced a lot of zones this series. He even went so far as to state: “The biggest compliment we’ve gotten is they’ve got to play zone because they can’t play us 1-on-1, right?
“This is a championship-DNA team, and they’re giving you a compliment that they can’t guard you. It’s pretty cool. And they’re winning the series, but we believe if we can continue to keep getting the shots that we got — if we make them, it puts pressure on them.”
That comment he made instantly went viral on social media, prompting some to question if Kidd was aiming a dig at the Warriors. Was this the type of phrase that Golden State would post on their bulletin board?
The Warriors came within one victory of reaching their first NBA Finals since 2019 thanks to the help of their zone-heavy defensive approach that helped them win Games 1, 2, and 3 by a combined 43 points. The Mavericks, on the other hand, went 20-for-43 from 3-point range in Game 4 to force a Game 5 at Chase Center.
“There’s no shots being taken,” Kidd said of his buzzworthy comments from Tuesday. “But, we’ve got to make shots. If we can’t make shots, we can’t win.”