Jason Kidd makes his feelings clear on Klay Thompson's reduced minutes in loss vs Bucks: "Have to figure out how to stop the leak"

The Dallas Mavericks suffered a 132-117 defeat to the Milwaukee Bucks at the American Airlines Center on Saturday. After the game, coach Jason Kidd was asked about Klay Thompson’s limited minutes in the third quarter, where the four-time champion played only 2:43.

Kidd offered a straightforward explanation for his decision to keep the veteran forward on the bench during that period. The Dallas coach emphasized that his choice was driven by a focus on preventing the Bucks from scoring freely and he kept Thompson off the court for extended stretches for defensive reasons.

"Well we were trying to get stops. You have to figure out how to stop the leak," Kidd said. "They’re scoring, we’re having trouble stopping them, so we brought him and P.J. out and that’s when P.J. was done for the night. So just looking at our defense, guarding the 3-point line, we just did not do a good job tonight."

Overall, Klay Thompson played 28:34 minutes and finished with 16 points on 5 of 14 shooting from the floor, including 4 of 9 from beyond the arc. He also recorded two rebounds, five assists and one steal.