Jason Kidd was not kidding after the Dallas Mavericks’ Game 1 loss. He was furious with his team and let them know about it. In the post-game presser, Kidd called their game “passive” while the LA Clippers played physically. Either the coach’s disappointment in his squad worked, or Luka Doncic and Co. decided that they weren’t losing the playoffs so easily. Not after they worked so hard to stay afloat in the regular season.

And the result was a 96-93 victory in Game 2! With tonight’s win, they tied the series and got a home-court advantage for the next round. It was also Kawhi Leonard‘s first matchup after being sidelined for three weeks. But even ‘The Klaw’ wasn’t enough to overpower a determined Dallas team.

While the final score might not jump off as incredible, especially when it’s all about the points, Coach Kidd was overjoyed. The reason for his happiness would sit well with several basketball enthusiasts. Particularly, the ’90s lovers.

“Jason Kidd on the score tonight: it was 90s basketball at its best,” Rachel Nichols tweeted via her X account.

There is no doubt his comment would have made all those Michael Jordan-era fans fall in love with the 51-year-old California native. Many consider ’90s basketball the best purely because of one player – MJ. The bad blood between him and the Bad Boy Pistons and the sheer physicality employed made the game more enjoyable.

In contrast, the primary focus of today’s basketball is player safety. As such, we see referees calling fouls a lot. Almost everything that was considered okay in the ’90s is most likely to be a foul today. In fact, there was said to be a motto back then – “No Blood, No Foul“. That pretty much sums up the style of ’90s basketball, doesn’t it now?

But the Dallas win wasn’t without its struggles.

Luka Doncic and Co. were fighting for a crucial advantage tonight

Here is an interesting fact. It would seem like history has taught us teams that start 2-0 in the seven-game series win it all 91.1% of the time. And in those games that are 1-1, whoever wins in Game 3 advances to the semi-finals, 73.7% of the time. The Mavericks hope the Game 2 wins and the subsequent home-court advantage will be enough to be the victors in Game 3.

Coach Kidd was clear on what he expected from the Dallas superstars during the pre-game presser. “They have to get off to a better start … set the tone.” But what actually happened was Doncic and Kyrie Irving both went 0-for-5 to start. Although the ‘Don’ warmed up soon after, Irving went scoreless until the second quarter. And it didn’t stop there. The pair struggled offensively from the field (a combined 19-of-44).

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The Mavericks rookie, Dereck Lively, said during the practice ahead of Game 2 that it was crucial to “throw the first punch.” If we are looking at the pace of the Mavericks as the “punch,” then it didn’t exactly pan out. Their first three quarters were nothing more than a slugfest – 23, 22, and 20, respectively.

Despite it all, they managed to turn the tide in their favor. Hopefully, they can continue this trend come Game 3.