Mavericks hope to become physically to extend her season

The question gave coach Jason Kidd the opportunity to raise the curtain a little, which has been going on with his basketball team in the past two months.

It was of course a physical struggle with injuries in injuries.

But what about the mental aspect to switch off the noise of the Luka Doncic trade and avoid a hing-is-US thinking if the players fall quickly?

“We are lucky that the season is not over yet,” said Kidd. “We have the opportunity to find a way on Wednesday to win. It will be on the road, it is an enemy environment. We all know what is at stake. Win and go away. If you lose, the season is over.

“Some would say the season was a long time ago. We have never seen it that way. We continued to fight and had to fight tomorrow if we wanted to maintain the season.”

This “season was a long time ago” was probably accepted by fans when Kyrie Irving ended a knee injury at the end of the season when not earlier than the trade was done.

But the Mavericks could not afford to have this feeling of their system poisoned. Instead, they tried to become healthy as possible and are in the game tournament and opened in Sacramento on Wednesday evening at 9 p.m.

The Mavericks are confronted with long opportunities to reach the playoffs as No. 8. You don’t just have to win in Sacramento on Wednesday, you would have to win either Golden State or Memphis on Friday, depending on who loses your game on Tuesday evening.

But they have no intentions without fighting. In fact, it is their main order to make the game in a physical, defensive grind on Wednesday.

“Your crime is a real problem,” said Max Christie. “You have many good parts of your team that make an entire team. Really on both sides of the ball, but the offensive is the place where you really thrive.

“For us, we have to hang our hat at the defensive end and we will be careful for ourselves because we have so much talent. The challenge for us will be at the defensive end because they have so many weapons, so we have to adjust to it.”

As Daniel Gafford said: “To do with you at home, crazy energy, crazy atmosphere when it comes to this Sacramento amount. It will be a real, coarse -grained game. It will certainly be a dog fuck.

“I feel throughout the team that everyone wants (do it physically).”

One thing that the Mavericks shouldn’t disturb is their surroundings in the Golden 1 center, which will be loud and louder. But the Mavericks were pretty good at blocking noises all season.

“With the injuries, the trade, we have just focused on what we can control in this changing room, and these are energy and effort,” said Kidd. “I don’t want to say that it is easy, but we focused on it – energy and effort. And I think we did it at a high level.

“I would say it was easy because it is basketball. It is not political, it is basketball. It’s about playing a goal, defending yourself, helping each other, and this group did.

Expert advice: The Mavericks benefited this season that former head coach Frank Vogel acts as a consultant.

He was a common visitor and was the two exercises this week. And he is someone with whom Kidd previously went into battle. Vogel was head coach and Kidd his main assistant in 2021, when the Lakers defeated in game No. 7 against No. 8 Golden State 103-100.

“If you look at his basketball -iq, just different things you should think about when the game takes place, different scenarios that we may not consider as an employee, he is great in throwing out these things,” said Kidd. “I trust to be a sounding board and to be part of the staff as a consultant, and he is here to help us win.

Play time increase? With a few days between the games and the urgency that goes hand in hand with a situation of win-or-go home, the Mavericks are confident that they can give Daniel Gafford, Dereck Lively II and Caleb Martin longer runs than the minute-limited playing time in the last 10 days of the season.

“We hope,” said Kidd. “We will see what it looks like and how everyone feels. But that’s a real question. And hopefully the answer is that some of these restrictions are strengthened or removed. But if you don’t have it, we have dealt with it and we have to deal with it if you don’t change.”

Gafford was able to gradually enlarge his time, and he said that he “crossed my fingers” that he could go as long as necessary on Wednesday.

X: @esefko