The Dallas Mavericks fell to 24-22 on the season with a 130-122 loss at dwelling to the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday evening, marking their third consecutive loss and third consecutive recreation permitting 130 or extra factors.

After the sport, head coach Jason Kidd was not shy about his frustrations with the defensive effort of his group, and definitely appeared to point that he doesn’t see a complete lot altering until there are some roster modifications to come back. When requested about how the Mavs can enhance on that finish, he led his reply off with “if it’s with this personnel, it’s a must to preserve asking or demanding for these guys to play protection,” which isn’t precisely an encouraging reply.

Kidd appears very fed up with the Mavs’ lack of care on protection, sarcastically closing by saying the group will really feel it’s okay to surrender 150 as a result of in addition they rating a bunch so it gained’t look so dangerous. Protection has at all times been Kidd’s calling card as a coach, so it’s not a shock that he’d be upset at what he’s seeing on the ground, however on the similar time, it’s additionally a part of his job to search out the way in which to get these guys to care. Whereas the Mavs definitely aren’t a group stuffed with defensive stalwarts (and are lacking a key piece in Maxi Kleber), that’s a part of why they went out and employed Kidd. A yr in the past they made it work, however including extra offensive minded gamers this offseason, like Christian Wooden, has additional shifted the steadiness and it appears Kidd’s message and scheme aren’t sufficient to cowl up these issues.

We’ll see how the Mavs proceed over the following couple of weeks with the commerce deadline looming, but it surely appears this mid-January dip might push them in direction of a shakeup to convey some extra roster steadiness, at the least if the coach has his method.