Dallas Mavs Practice Interviews in Sacramento: Tim Hardaway Jr. & Jason Kidd

Dallas Mavs Practice Interviews in Sacramento: Tim Hardaway Jr. & Jason Kidd

SM uh just worrying about my myself and the team not worry about the outside noise um know nice little 10 game stretch we have right now finishing up the season so just want to fin on a positive note um we know what position we are in so U can’t lie to you about

That we are watching everywhere around the league so we got to make sure that uh we take care of business and that’s what we focus on uh I guess after your after the game last night uh on your radio interview you gave some credit to Kyrie yeah in what respect has you been

Helpful it’s been helpful like I I mean not only Kai but all the rest of my team uh uh most importantly but you know when you’re out there on the floor there’s only a couple guys that are out there on the floor with you you know feeding you

The rock you know on a consistent basis and uh uh just being able to be out there Kai and uh with him giving me that confidence to tell me to stay aggressive stay attacking if I pass you the ball don’t turn down anything you know uh we need

That so make or miss those are all good shots uh um so shows the trust factor that your teammates have still you know in one another and uh moving forward that’s what we need you feel about the way this team has Jed seemingly just

Kind of the right I PE at the right time man peing at the right time right now and uh we’re understanding uh how valuable each possession is um especially as we get close to them the season postseason so uh like I said we know State we got we got to be prepared for

Anything um we taking each possession at a time and focusing on that probably be a little different sa team it’s going to be a real different sack team and you know we had the same type of um test you know earlier in the season with on

US court on us right no but no all all seriousness though yeah U we know what type of team is going to be they’re they’re going come out way more aggressive way more physical um and we got match assist assists what do you attribute like your personal

Like turn like I said turn down shots and being aggressive driving to the basket collap to the defense uh there’s going to be a lot of guys now obviously running out to me uh I see that uh so just trying to get into the paint uh

Find Shooters find our bigs on drop offs lobs um just reading the defense man and uh uh it’s making the game a lot easier for me it seems like everyone has a activity playing out of your actions in a half court even like you guys that were ated like Daniel Gord he’s watching

Your thoughts on like how the team executed like out of handoffs rolls like basically like all based off of reading Luka and Kai for the most part just because they’re our our dominant ball handlers I mean so just playing just playing them the full couple te what we got to do

Week side and what we got to do to read those guys but we know what they like uh each individually you know when they’re both in certain situations but ISO and a pick a roll so we read them and just play off their instincts um I know like

Not to Pride too much but I know you said like mentally and um spiritually you’ve been you know searching within yourself how has that helped during like the second half of the Season uh just uh it’s helped a lot you know just like I said you know you have to have great

Peers and great uh mentors and everybody around you thankfully I have both uh with you know put a phone call away with my father and then my peers my friends rest of my family teammates uh the staff on this on the MTH so um just everyone

In my in my corner just uh keep me positive like I said making sure that I I don’t uh mess up my mental be at peace with my mental and uh um don’t let nobody mess with me so that’s eliminating all the outside noise including you all

Little a little off topic but as you know leadership takes all all kinds of forms on a team what kind of we does Mar voice just as much weight as Luka and Kai um probably even more just because he won a championship been on a championship team and uh those I mean

He’s I think he’s our oldest guy on the team so he’s been around the block a lot so it’s just just great to have that veteran presence and that guy to knowing that he’s uh I’m talking to you each and every day feeding you in making reading

The game from a different point of view since he’s not really playing as much but he’s still making that big and that much of an impact you know talking to us when we’re coming out of time outs or when we’re in on defensive end in front

Of our bench you know just those little things go a long long way for us well I think just in the past so we can use our you know go farther back in the season New Orleans did the first one and quite go well the second time Utah

Recently we’re going to be a different team were G 40 first so just understanding uh they’ve had a couple days just like us to make some adjustments we look for the pace to be faster we understand the be one of the ways to game looking back on it three-point variance you know

Increasingly in this Le is that something you can factor in ahead of time can you say you know maybe we won’t hit as many threes just because that’s how the game goes and we have to prepare in some way or is that just you know completely backwards work think no no

It’s a good way to look at it uh if I ask all the guys how they feel are you guys up to making a couple thre I don’t know if I’m coach anybody ask how they’re doing oh they’re going to make some tonight um no I think

Uh we’ve talked about some of the guys not making shots uh but it happens in the season we keep working on those same shots and we believe that you know we’re going to knock them down and the other night us for those guys that have those same

Opportunity so the idea of a game plan going in a game though is it is it relying on 223s going down you know right no no no uh I think we used to be built that way uh now it’s being able to uh you know dominate the paint the

Rim turn this into live city a little bit a lot more um trying to score at the r then working inside out again PJ in the pick and roll being up the pop It’s ability to catch a shoot or be able to put it on the floor redrive it uh you know e

Those with a possible well it will be a two game swing one way or the other and the tiebreaker and everything else that’s involved uh do you do you have to remind uh guys that you know this is not the last game of the season it’s not the one

That’s going to make our just makeer Breakers compete on the road this is the schedule this is the way we you know have to play it uh this is the our best for for another good test on the road we passed the first two this is test number

Three um against the same opponent uh it’s one game it does have some meaning but uh you still got to finish out the season to have any of those other anything so uh from here we go back to Texas to play Houston and then we come back to California to play Golden State

So um we still got a couple games on this road trip but this is a good test that’s much this team is honor like you said there’s more work to be games left this team is on a similar Mark right now two years ago after the trade

Deadline do you think that this team might be better for that team did pretty well yeah we can’t disrespect that team had some talented players uh we’re playing as a team at a high level everyone was playing their role uh Theo uh played his role a Ru made up

After that was a good team this team is bigger atic no disrespect to to that last team but um we are playing well again at the right time and uh we want to continue to keep playing well uh win lose we learn from both and uh as you

Know in this leag we move on to the next one but this is a a great test tomorrow and we we’re up for the Chanel appreciate it thank you

Dallas Mavericks’ Jason Kidd and Tim Hardaway Jr. spoke to reporters after the team’s Thursday practice at Golden 1 Center before their rematch against the Sacramento Kings on Friday.

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