« They admit they can’t defend us, that’s cool »

Dallas is not dead yet, and the franchise will be able to play Game 5 at Golden State to extend its adventure in the playoffs. In any case, the confidence is there, according to the words of a key member of the team. This one declared that the Dubs could not padlock it in attack!

The beautiful season of the Mavs will therefore not have stopped on a humiliating sweep, in the conference finals. The Texans gave it their all in Game 4 to keep the series going, winning the game with a Luka Doncic in all-time mode (119-109). The delay is still substantial (3-1), but the Slovenian and his teammates were able to regain some momentum from the Warriors with this success. It remains to chain outside now to create the feat.

Not necessarily very skilful since the start of the opposition, Jason Kidd’s squad found the target at the best of times, with 50% shooting success, including 46.5% from afar, and 20 successful attempts behind the arc. The coach has also found that the Dubs played in a very particular way against his foals, namely by practicing zone defense. What push him to make the following observation, at a press conference:

Jason Kidd cash on Warriors defense

« The biggest compliment we’ve gotten is that they gotta play zone because they can’t play us one-on-one. This is a championship DNA team and they’re giving you a compliment that they can’t guard you. It’s pretty cool. »

Jason Kidd on the Warriors going zone in Game 4 👀 pic.twitter.com/TrVzKsEIcJ

—ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) May 25, 2022

The best compliment we got on this game is that they have to defend in zone because they can’t defend us one on one. It’s a team with champion DNA that we’re talking about, and they give you a big compliment by showing that they can’t defend you. It’s pretty cool.

It’s a fact, Dallas has a lot of extremely versatile ballhandlers in attack, between Doncic, Jalen Brunson and Spencer Dinwiddie for example. Moreover, El Matador is unstoppable when he enters the racket, which pushes his opponents to want to prevent him from accessing it. Except that in this case, the ROY 2019 can show off their passing skills, and in particular stuffed Dorian Finney-Smith with balloons last night (23 points at 4/7 at three points).

Locking down the Texans is in fact anything but an easy task, and Stephen Curry & co. have a hard time getting there, as Game 4 has proven. However, they pose just as many problems for their opponents on the other side of the field, if not more since they lead widely in the series. If Halleluka and others want to reverse the course of things, we will therefore also have to find solutions in their own half of the field.

Jason Kidd identified the Warriors’ defensive strategy, but be careful not to provoke them too much. Steve Kerr and his staff know how to adapt, and could surprise their opponents with new patterns of play in the next game.