Though the Mavericks were able to obtain a victory on Tuesday night in the first game of the Western Conference Finals, the Game 1 performance left plenty to improve upon for Jason Kidd and his Dallas teammates.

That was particularly true on the defensive end, where the Mavs gave up more than 100 points in a game for the first time this postseason.

Through the first 10 games of the playoffs, the Mavs allowed, on average, 88.2 points per game. The highest point total allowed among those 10 games was the 96 points scored by the Trail Blazers during the closeout game of the first round in Portland. But on Tuesday the Thunder scored 112 points, their highest 48-minute output of the postseason.

"We have to play better defense," Jason said after the Game 1 win. "We gave up

[33] points in the fourth quarter. That’s a lot of points. We have to slow them down and keep them off the free throw line. In those first two quarters and a little bit of the third, we were playing defense and then once we got a lead we started to relax a little bit."


Jason and the Mavericks are looking to play better defense in Game 2 against the Thunder tonight.

The Thunder went to the free throw line 43 times in Game 1, including 19 trips from Kevin Durant and 18 trips from Jason’s point guard counterpart Russell Westbrook, who scored 20 points despite shooting 3-of-15 from the field. Durant said the Thunder will bet on Westbrook shooting better from the field in Game 2.

"I could bet the whole house that Russell Westbrook won’t shoot 3 for 15 again," Durant said. "You can quote me on that."

But Westbrook has struggled against the Mavericks dating back to the regular season. Including Game 1 of the West Finals, in four games against Dallas this season, Westbrook is shooting 28.8 percent (17-of-55) from the field. His 20 points in Game 1 did however raise his scoring average against the Mavs this season by more than a point, to 15.8 points per game. His 18 free throws against Dallas in Game 1 matched his total for the three regular season games combined.

Jason credited team defense with limiting Westbrook, but he claims that because Westbrook went to the free throw line so many times, Dallas can do and even better job on him in Game 2.

"With team defense, we tried to give him as many different looks as possible," J-Kidd said. "He missed some shots that he normally has made, but he got to the free throw line a lot. We have to try and keep him off the line so he doesn’t get in a rhythm."

Center Tyson Chandler agreed that Mavs must avoid fouls to succeed in Game 2.

"I think we did a great job defensively of forcing tough shots," Chandler said. "They just shot a lot of free throws and that’s what we’ve gotta get out of, the ticky-tack fouls."

The Thunder, meanwhile will be focused on slowing down Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 48 points in Game 1 on 12-of-15 from the field and 24-of-24 from the free throw line. J-Kidd knows the Mavs will have to give Dirk more help in Game 2:

"When a guy gets going like that, you expect that they might come and double-team strong," he said. "Those are things we’ve got to be prepared for, and if they do that we’ve got to be prepared to knock down the 3 on the weak side because something’s going to give.

"If we can knock down the 3, that will help Dirk out a lot."

Coach Rick Carlisle expects Oklahoma City to make adjustments and they’ve proven this postseason they know how to do so. In four games after a loss this postseason, the Thunder are 4-0. Conversely though, the Mavericks are 7-1 after a win this postseason and have won seven straight since a Game 4 loss to the Blazers in the first round.

"Well, they’ll adjust and we’ll have to be ready for some different things," Carlisle told Mavs Fastbreak after Wednesday practice. "The important thing for us is we’ve got to defend better…if we get in offensive shootouts with this team, that’s not our game. We have to defend a lot better. I understand that they’re a different type of team, but our attention to detail has got to be better in Game 2, our focus has to be better."

Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals between the Mavericks and Thunder tips tonight at 8 p.m. and can be seen on ESPN.

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