In his first season as Head Coach of the Dallas Mavericks, Jason Kidd has led a young and resilient squad to the Western Conference Finals. Dallas punched their ticket to the Conference Finals with a stunning 123-90 rout of the top-seeded Phoenix Suns in Game 7 on Sunday in Phoenix.
The Mavs became the first team to win a road game in the series, and did so in dominating fashion, and handled business from start to finish. They led by 30 points at halftime, and as many as 46 in the second half in the 33-point victory. Asked after the game about putting a “ceiling” on his team, Coach Kidd said he wants their play to determine their destiny, not some arbitrary statements.
“Why would you put a ceiling on somebody or a team? We believe, and that showed today,” Jason said. “But we’ve got to go through this journey. I hate when we label or cap something. We don’t know how far this can go. That’s why we show up to play them. That’s why we showed up to play this evening. No one gave us a chance. A lot of people said it was going to be a blowout. Well they were right. But they didn’t have us on the winning side.
Dallas ending up on the winning side through a team-wide commitment to the game plan. Superstar Luka Doncic led the offense, scoring with ease and efficiency. He connected on 12-of-19 attempts from the field while posting a double-double with 35 points and 10 rebounds. Spencer Dinwiddie came off the bench and was a scoring machine, knocking down five three-pointers and finishing with 30 points.
Though the Mavericks offense was at peak performance, the story of the game was their defense, which completely suffocated the Suns high-powered offense. Coach Kidd had the Mavs playing at a high level on that end due in large part to the unselfish efforts of two players: Reggie Bullock and Dorian Finney-Smith and their defensive performance on Suns All-Stars Devin Booker and Chris Paul.
“Reggie and Dorian are not going to get the big headlines, but those two were assigned, both of those guys [Booker and Paul] and they did a heck of a job of executing the game plan. The beauty of it is, there’s no ego on this team about who guards who. They just go out and do their job. That’s what makes those two special. When we made the change of putting Reggie on Book, just to give a different look and hopefully it was going to help us, Dorian easily could have come to me and said let’s not do this. But he accepted that and it turned out to help us both ways with the bigger body on Chris and Reggie on Book.”
As a result, Dallas held Booker to 11 points on 3-of-14 and Paul to just 10 and four assists. Phoenix had just 27 points at halftime, matched on the scoreboard by Doncic alone. Booker and Paul combined to shoot 0-for-11 from the field in the first half for just three points. Though some late game baskets pushed the Suns to 90 total points, the game was already out of reach as the Mavericks cruised to the win in a hostile Footprint Center.
After the game, Coach Kidd explained how his team approached Game 7 as if it was just another game and focused on executing the game plan, even after building a large halftime lead.
“Against, one of, if not the best team in basketball this season, to come in on the road and find a way to win, it was a great team win. Everybody had something to do with it,” Jason said. Defensively was where we set the tone. Our defense was at a high level…. You could see some of the pressure was probably on [Phoenix] early, because they missed some shots that they [usually] make. I thought the guys did a great job for 48 minutes. Even at halftime, we talked about what they did to us last time [in Game 5] here. And we won that [third] quarter. So a lot of improvement. We weren’t playing the score.”
Doncic put on a show from the opening tip. He took advantage of a mismatch early, with Deandre Ayton guarding and hit a quick two and seconds later utilized his signature step back to create space to hit a corner three. The Suns answered with a three of their own, but Doncic stayed hot by hitting another three from distance. He scored the first eight points for the Mavs while the Suns struggled to find their rhythm.
After the win, Coach Kidd discussed Doncic’s ability to embrace the moment and have an immediate impact.
“He loves the stage. As it gets bigger he gets better,” Coach Kidd said. “I thought he set the tone of getting everyone involved and taking shots when they presented themselves.”
Approaching the three minute mark Dallas got an offensive spark off the bench from Dinwiddie. He hit a 24-foot three and on the next possession Doncic found him for another three from the top of the key. Dinwiddie’s quick six points pushed the Dallas lead to double digits, 21-10. The Suns hit a few baskets late in the first, but the Mavs answered to keep their lead at 10, 27-17 after one.
Dallas continued to have active hands on defense in the second quarter and forced the Suns to make contested baskets. Despite scoring the first three points of the quarter, Phoenix struggled to keep pace with the Mavs offensive attack. A 7-2 run was keyed by Dinwiddie, who first drew a foul and sank both free throws and later closed the run with a pull-up triple to put the Mavs in front by 12 points.
Halfway through the second Doncic returned and picked up where he left off. He was aggressive and attacked the paint to get to the charity stripe. In the closing minutes before half Dallas had three consecutive three-point plays. Dinwiddie converted an and one and then Luka hit two three-pointers. The duo of Doncic and Dinwiddie combined for 48 points, with Luka matching the Suns point total. Dallas constant pressure on both ends of the court gave them a comfortable 57-27 lead entering halftime. Dinwiddie’s 21 points were a huge boost for the Mavs, with J-Kidd giving his reserve guard, acquired at the traded deadline to give his team depth, his flowers.
Spencer came out and was aggressive right off the bat. He didn’t wait. There was carryover from Game 6,” Coach Kidd said. “Not just Luka being out, but we ended with JB out in that second quarter and I thought Spencer was incredible for us off the bench.”
Brunson returned to start the second half and kept the momentum building by leading the offense early in the third. On the first possession, he hit a jumper and seconds later, he added a three-pointer. After a successful coach’s challenge from Coach Kidd had the Mavs maintain possession, Doncic hit a 29-foot three-pointer. The 8-0 run Dallas expanded the lead to 38 points. Phoenix answered with a pair of buckets, but Brunson kept the pedal to the floor for Dallas with another deuce followed by a trey. He totaled 10 points during a 13-4 Mavs run that pushed them up 70-31 just over three minutes into the third.
The Mavs kept expanding the lead as the third quarter continued. A Dwight Powell dunk made it 40, a three by Bullock later made it 41. Then with 48 seconds left in the third Dinwiddie buried a triple to give the Mavericks a 42-point, 92-50 lead, which they rode into the fourth quarter. In outscoring the Suns by 12 in the third to keep the pressure on, the Mavs were efficient from the field, shooting 13-of-21 which included seven three-pointers. Phoenix meanwhile, after being embarrassed on their home court in the first half had nothing in response. They made only hit eight shots in the third and one three.
“We’re not looking at the blowout, we just came in and executed our game plan,” J-Kidd said. “We talked about it before, guys have played in game seven on the road in L.A. and I thought they came out, as if it was just another game and played it at a high level. Offensively and defensively, we were active.”
With the game well in hand, Doncic didn’t play at all in the fourth, but Dinwiddie and Brunson handled backcourt duties to start the frame and pushed the lead as high as 46 before Suns coach Monty Williams waved the white flag by removing all of his starters, allowing J-Kidd to do the same, emptying his bench. Dallas managed to maintain a 40-plus point advantage for most of the quarter until a pair of Suns reserves got hit from deep in the final minutes, cutting the margin of victory to just 33 and robbing the Mavs of a record-breaking Game 7 road performance.
After Game 6, Coach Kidd alluded to Dallas needing to “figure out how to win on the road.” The Dallas Mavericks not only figured out a way to win, entering a tough atmosphere and playing Mavs basketball, they dominated. Coach Kidd had them prepared to execute, with active hands and effort on the defensive end and making sure the ball touched the paint, which created open looks from beyond the arc on offense.
“We are a young team. First year coaching staff. We’re getting to know each other,” Jason said. “But we have some special people in that locker room that believe in team and a lot of times in this league if you are a team, you find yourself winning games that you’re not supposed to.”
After coaching the Brooklyn Nets to the second round of the playoffs in his only season as their head coach and the Milwaukee Bucks to two first round playoff appearances in his three-and-a-half seasons there, Jason has the Mavericks in the Conference Finals in his first season as their head coach. Asked after the game what’s been the difference for him in Dallas, Jason Kidd credited his time as an assistant under Frank Vogel with the Los Angeles Lakers, where they won the championship in 2020, his learning experiences in Brooklyn and Milwaukee, and the players on this Mavericks team.
“Frank Vogel prepared me for this. And then also, my early stops in Brooklyn and Milwaukee,” J-Kidd said. “Understanding putting guys in position to be successful, and also listening to your star player. He wants to have fun, so let’s have fun. The accountability piece. Those are the words that we talked about this season. We hold each other accountable. Those words that we came up with. And no one is exempt from them. There are a lot of things I’ve learned in the last couple years about coaching, but you have to have talent too, to win. And that’s what I have here in Dallas.”
The Mavericks will matchup in the Western Conference Finals with the Golden State Warriors, who have played in five of the last seven NBA Finals, winning three titles during that span. Coach Kidd knows it will be another big test for his team, one he believes they are well prepared for.
“We’re playing a very special team in the Warriors, when you talk about a dynasty and one of the best coaches to ever do it,” Jason said. “We’ll celebrate this, enjoy this today, and then we’ll close the book and get ready for Golden State.”
The series begins Wednesday night in Jason’s old stomping grounds of Northern California. Tip-off of Game 1 from the Chase Center is slated for 8 p.m. CT and the game can be seen on TNT.