Dallas Mavericks’ Jason Kidd Interview Before Game 5 vs. Boston Celtics – NBA Finals

Dallas Mavericks’ Jason Kidd Interview Before Game 5 vs. Boston Celtics – NBA Finals

we’ll go right in the front with Shane on your right coach Shane Forbes uh you forced them into a lot of tough looks at The Rim in game four I’m just curious what you thought of The Help The Help their situations and just your help principles in general yeah I thought um they were really good in game four uh that helped us get to game five but just you know understand we can’t have three on the ball uh they’re too good of being able to make that pass and they’re they’re the best team is shooting the three so um there’s some things that we can clean up and that we’re going to have to be better here in game five if we want to win again we have the microphones around the room so please raise your hand we’ll take questions over here Sam on fourth row hello sir oh wow good to see you again good afteron I saw a clip the other day of of tyo talking about the Cavs 3-1 recovery against the Warriors a few years back and on the one hand it seems you know cliche when you tell your team one game at a time but he drilled that in like I do not want you thinking about anything past this game I imagine there’s some version of that for you guys right now but how are you handling the the mental focus to not look at the bigger picture yeah I think it’s um I think what helps is we were we were in that situation last game and so um not to change or deviate from um what we talked about in game four is just take each possession one possession at a time um and hopefully we can put ourselves of winning each quarter and um we ended up doing that um same thing that we’re talking about today and tomorrow is um we can only focus on game five and uh trying to find a way uh to win here in Boston any other questions over here on the fourth row Jeff zet USA Today Jason how you doing um it seems like you got a little closer in game two game three and you finally pulled off in game four I I was wondering sort of in in real time what you’re seeing about the progression of your team and learning in the moment what’s required to win in the finals yeah it’s it’s one it’s hard to win in the finals um and so I think uh as you brought up each game we’ve gotten better um on both ends offensively and defensively and so uh if the trend is to continue to get better hopefully we can do that in game five uh where we can get better defensively and offensively uh we start to knock down shots here in game four and and hopefully we can do get those same shots in game five and and have the opportunity to knock them down but looking at Luca and Kai they those two have to set the tone for us and uh everybody else will follow Tim here in your left and you mentioned Kyrie setting the tone uh you know obviously unique circumstances for him struggled in the first couple games here in Boston having been through those first couple games how do you think that might uh benefit him coming back for for another crack at it here in Boston yeah I think um and I’m not speaking for him but just from experience um you just you know as an athlete you want to get another opportunity and uh he has that opportunity here tomorrow night and uh hopefully he can take full advantage of that um make some adjustments uh that he can you know look back at game one and two and see uh what they were doing to him defensively and uh hopefully take advantage in game five on your right Joe joar in the athletic after game four in your postgame comments you mentioned that Luca needs to be ready tomorrow to be put back into pick and roll situations did you guys do something in game four to I guess protect him from that because it didn’t seem like he was run through the I guess the the ringer like he had been in those first three games um I our our defense didn’t really change I think uh just the effort I think Luca um participated at a high level um he was really good on on the ball um came up with some deflections and Steals and we believe that he’s going to be uh involved in a pick and roll uh tomorrow and so uh we’re going to need that same effort from him uh but also for the the guys that um are there to help protect him um they you know they’ll be ready to protect him and but he’s got to participate at a high level and we believe he will Mike here on your left Mike Curtis Dallas Morning News um you mentioned three-point shooting and just the fact that shots went down in game four um I know the game was already decided in the fourth quarter but Tim Hardway making five threes in that span did you see anything that kind of like I guess you can lean on for game five yeah he looked like the he joined a special company he looked like Ray and Steph um and so we’re going to we’re going to need that uh you know here in game five um if we if it’s a close game hopefully uh he’s able to be able to knock down those same shots get those same shots um but it was great to see Timmy you know knock down those shots and hopefully we can build he can build on that but as a team we can build on that and we’re going to need that here uh in game five last two here on the left and then Brad Jason Al said after game four that they didn’t really have to make adjustments the Celtics after the first three games and now they’re going to have to go back see what they need to change so what changes are you anticipating from them um they’re not team that changes they they’re the team that makes you change and so uh they’re going to probably look to see that they had some good looks from three that didn’t go down and also you know um being able to probably you know get uh Tatum and brown going early um having those two attacked uh you know our defense early is probably something that um could be um adjustment um but for them it’s you know shooting the three um creating the three and then capitalizing know on your mistakes and and hopefully you know for us we our mistakes were low in game four and hopefully they’re they’re low in game five Brad final question Nico was noting a couple of days ago that four of your top eight guys really have not been in Long playoff runs before in some very little playoff all of y’all’s best games in each series have been game fives and I was just wondering if is there something to that players kind of getting adjusted to the opponent and the level of the level of competition as series get get older yeah I think there’s probably something to that um if we look at the analytics of of our group you know they’re young um and as the series goes on they get better and so um hopefully that’s true tomorrow night um sometimes when you do play an opponent um and you over and over you get used to the uh Tendencies and you start to uh you know capitalize on that on both ends defensively and offensively and so um hopefully our group uh has seen enough of Boston to understand what they what they’re good at and hopefully we can take that away uh tomorrow night thank

Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd spoke to reporters before Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics.

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