Jason Kidd stat highlights Mavs’ struggles in Game 1s

The other three losses all came during the 2022 postseason, so the good news is that the Mavs actually came back to win the series two of those times. But they will have to do better than simply relying on history to overcome the Clippers this year.

Dallas’ lack of a pulse offensively outside of the star duo of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving played a major role in Sunday’s loss, especially their abhorrent second quarter where the Mavs made just two total field goals and scored eight points overall. But Kidd did not do himself any favors either by failing to manage his timeouts properly when the Clippers were pulling away and by relying on big minutes from reserves like Maxi Kleber and Tim Hardaway Jr. (neither of whom appear to be particularly playable in this series).

Sunday will ultimately go down as a major missed opportunity for the Mavs since the Clippers were without Kawhi Leonard, who seems likely to return at some point this series. Kidd will have to make the right adjustments from here and avoid falling back to his old bad habits that Mavs fans are used to.