"Nobody to put in" - Jason Kidd rues shortage of players as injury-riddled Mavs struggle in loss to Suns

Jason Kidd openly discussed the player shortage after the Dallas Mavericks' 125-116 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. The head coach addressed the team's lack of bench strength after Kyrie Irving's season-ending ACL injury.

The Mavericks are without superstar Anthony Davis and their frontcourt is further depleted of talent, with Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford still on the mend. Speaking to the reporters after the loss, Jason Kidd said (via @BleacherReport on X):

“I’ve never seen this. Never been on a game where you cannot take someout out to rest them because we had no one to put in.The end of the bench, normally, you can put someone in… It’s tough. It is what it is, though. Gotta keep pushing forward.”

The Mavericks had nine players against Phoenix, except Klay Thompson, who has been in the regular starting lineup. The rest were rotational pieces. On the game front, Naji Marshall dropped a double-double with 34 points and 10 assists, while Thompson had 26 points, five rebounds and four assists. The loss now sees them 32-33 and 10th in the West.

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Jason Kidd makes feelings clear about helping Klay Thompson as the Dallas Mavericks struggle to get healthy

Ahead of the game against the Suns, Jason Kidd spoke of the team's need to help Klay Thompson as their injury-riddled outfit recovers. He added that the 4x NBA champion would need more from the team to be able to stay in contention for a playoff berth.

“They're (opposing teams) going to take away Klay anyway. If I say he's number one… They're gonna take him away. So the gist of saying that we're just about the team is hopefully that they don't take away Klay… We can get some easy looks for him. Again, it's a team game. We gotta generate shots, someone has to be able to touch the paint with the ball… Then we gotta be able to knock down open shots," he said (via clutchpoints.com).

Thompson has had a decent run in his first season in Dallas. The veteran forward is averaging 14.1 points on 41.3% shooting from the field and 40.1% from the deep, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.0 assists in his 56 games so far. The versatile Thompson will now be in focus, with the Mavericks' playoff hopes dimming steadily. Only time will tell if he receives enough support from the pieces on the roster to make a postseason surge.