Jason Kidd speaks honestly about Anthony Davis’ 12-point performance vs LA Lakers 

What Jason Kidd thought about Anthony Davis’ 12-point performance

Mavericks Head Coach Jason Kidd, who is enduring one of the most challenging seasons of his career with the 5-15 Mavericks, would have been relieved to have his superstar center back.

What would have been less pleasing is to see him outperformed by his replacement, Deandre Ayton, who there was huge skepticism over at the start of the year. Ayton had 17 points and 8 rebounds on the night.

Lakers Player Comparison (2025/26)

Statistics 2025/26	Anthony Davis	Luka Dončić
Games Played	5	13
Points Per Game	20.8	35.2
Rebounds Per Game	10.2	8.8
Assists Per Game	2.2	9.2
Steals Per Game	1.6	1.9
Blocks Per Game	1.2	0.5
Field Goal Percentage	52.0%	47.0%
Three-Point Percentage	27.0%	33.3%

Despite that, Kidd remained positive about Davis’ play. He said, “I thought he was good for his first game back. Trying to get the rhythm. Trying to get the flow.

“Just being with those guys on the floor, I thought he was good on both ends. As we go forward, continuing to stack good minutes, and he did that.”

On any other game, Kidd would be completely correct, but not this one. Davis was determined to play against the Lakers, and after making it clear that he was targeting this game for a return, we expected more from the 10-time All-Star.

Especially when the man the Lakers swapped him for is on a historic run of form.

Jason Kidd called Luka Doncic one of the best players in the world

It was Nico Harrison, not Kidd, who traded Doncic, and it never really seemed like the championship-winning head coach was on board with the decision. He’s wise enough to know that you don’t trade away a player of that stature, and his words before the game showed exactly why.

Kidd essentially admitted there was no way of slowing Doncic down as he called the Slovenian one of the best players in the world. He explained: “When you look at Luka and the way he’s playing, he’s one of the best players in the world.

Luka Doncic wants to follow in the footsteps of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James

Kobe brought so many championships here. LeBron brought a championship here. So I want to be the next one to do that, for sure. I met Kobe, I’m playing with LeBron, just as a little kid in Slovenia, I just wanted to play basketball. Just wanted to touch the NBA. And now I’m playing with the best.

Luka Doncic

“If you show one pitch & you show it too many times, he’s going to be able to take advantage of that.

“Hopefully we can throw different defenses to throw him off, but he’s seen everything…He’s playing the game at a very high level.”

Hearing Kidd speak so glowingly of his former player, the player that carried the team to the NBA Finals in 2024, must sting for Mavs fans. But at this point there probably isn’t much more that can be done to hurt them.

As the days go on, what everyone called a disastrous trade at the time only looks worse, and worse, and worse.