Jason Kidd Put on Hot Seat by Mavs Fans as Luka Dončić Drops 42 in Loss to Heat
April 2, 2023
On the day when FAU and the University of Miami played in their respective Final Four games, the Heat vs. Mavericks matchup wasn't exactly the center of the basketball world in South Florida.
Much to the chagrin of Dallas' fans, the Heat still showed up and showed out as they beat the Mavericks 129-122 at Miami-Dade Arena, wasting a brilliant 42-point, 10-rebound, eight assist performance from Luka Dončić.
The Heat led by double-digits for most of the night, but Dončić was able to nearly pull out the comeback for the Mavericks single-handedly.
Dallas has now lost six of its last seven games and have fallen even further behind in the Western Conference standings and are now a full game back of the play-in tournament slots.
While the frustration has been slowly mounting for the Mavericks fanbase over the last few weeks, they really let it out Saturday, directing most of their ire toward coach Jason Kidd and his coaching staff, who haven't been able to build off last season's success.
Kidd, Dončić and Co. made a surprise run to the conference finals, where they lost in five games to the Golden State Warriors.
Even the addition of All-Star Kyrie Irving ahead of the trade deadline hasn't been enough to turn this team around.
The Mavericks are lacking defense, chemistry and momentum, which is a really bad place to be.
And the franchise's fans were calling for Kidd's job following the debacle in Miami.
Ball Room Service🏀 @ballroomserviceI don't know if Javale McGee is injured but Jason Kidd really have an almost washed Kevin Love looking like Joel Embiid while Javale is sitting on the bench 😅. Someone needs to investigate what going on with Javale and Kidd/Nico <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/mffl?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#mffl</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lukadoncic?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#lukadoncic</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KyrieIrving?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KyrieIrving</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/miamiheat?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#miamiheat</a>
𝓙𝓪𝔁𝓸𝓵𝓼 @jaxolsJason Kidd is a horrible coach, this is two games in a row Christian Wood heats up and gets taken out after 12 minutes of play time. He just hit a three, blocked a shot and got a great assist in the last 5 mins, then benched… <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gamblingtwitter?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gamblingtwitter</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Mavericks?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Mavericks</a> <a href="https://t.co/fg4nJ5oL3A">pic.twitter.com/fg4nJ5oL3A</a>
While most of the attention went to Dallas' recent collapse, Miami's win is notable because the Heat have now closed the gap to the No. 6 seed in the East to just 1.5 games with four games to go. They have given themselves a good enough shot to get out of the play-in.
Dallas' hope, on the other hand, is slipping away fast.