"Defend the 3" - Jason Kidd spills beans on Mavericks' strategy to boot Celtics in NBA Finals
Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd is not keeping his strategy against the Boston Celtics a secret. Kidd recently spilled the beans on how he may coach the Mavs to stop the Celtics in their NBA Finals matchup, set to start on June 6 in Boston.
In an appearance on "The Stephen A. Smith Show," Kidd discussed his first NBA Finals as a head coach and how he would deal with the Celtics' two-headed monster in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, as well as a star-studded supporting cast of Jrue Holiday, Derrick White and Kristaps Porzingis:
"Boston's well coached and they've been there before. You talk about the tandem of Tatum and Brown, they put a lot of pressure on your defense. And so for us, we got to try to find a way to just take care of the ball, get good looks. We're going to have to try to defend the 3," Kidd said.
He added:
"They shoot, they all shoot the three, they're all lasers and so this is going to be a great test for our defense. Hopefully, we can find a way to get the threes down and take away easy shots for them."
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Jason Kidd knows what he needs to do given that the Boston Celtics made the most 3-point shots by a team this season. The Celtics were also second in 3-point percentage in the regular season at 38.8%, just behind the OKC Thunder, who the Dallas Mavericks stopped in the second round of the playoffs.
The main difference between the Celtics and the Thunder is the experience. Most of the Celtics core players have been in this position before and know what to do. However, there's also a lot of pressure on Tatum and Brown given that this is their second trip to the NBA Finals and will need to finish the job.
Jason Kidd on P.J. Washington being an X-factor for Mavericks in NBA Finals
Stephen A. Smith said on his show that P.J. Washington would be a difference-maker in the NBA Finals and Kidd couldn't agree more. Kidd told Smith the importance of having an X-factor like Washington, who will get easy looks when the defense focuses on Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving:
"I think when you talk about P.J., being able to knock down the three, that corner three, because of Luka and Ky getting double-teamed. P.J.'s been great since the trade for us, not just offensively, but defensively. This young man plays the game the right way.
"He never complains, he goes out there and does his job at a high level and so we're going to need him to score the ball," Kidd added.
Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals will be on Thursday, June 6 at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. It will be the first NBA Finals matchup between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks in league history.