DALLAS — The Dallas Mavericks were defeated by the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, losing 114-113. Dallas trailed early but utilized a halftime adjustment to bounce back. It was a back-and-forth second half, but the Suns held strong in the end. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving carried most of the load for the Mavs, and head coach Jason Kidd made it clear after the game that Dallas needs more production from the bench and more overall energy.

“For whatever reason we get off to a slow start,” Kidd said after Friday's game. “It's got to be addressed. We've talked about it. There's got to be action. There's got to be some energy. Somebody has to come with some f**king energy. We're f**king flat. That's where it starts… We got to be tough, no matter how many injuries we have or how small we are… Right now, we're not doing that. We will look at the tape, we will get back to seeing what we can do better.”

“The fatigue of running Luka (Doncic) and Kai (Kyrie Irving) 40 something minutes because our bench stinks right now. As deep as we are we got to get someone to f**king participate off the bench. Somebody has to join the party to help Kai and Luka, and that's just not happening right now. It's a team. It's not Luka and Kai and Klay (Thompson). Others have to participate… Played the whole f**king team tonight and we couldn't find anybody so we had to leave those two to carry the load and that's not fair for those two this early in the season.”

Mavericks must respond to Jason Kidd's fiery rant

Perhaps Kidd's rant will fire up the team. The Mavericks are dealing with injuries but Kidd believes they can play with more energy.

Luka Doncic addressed the Mavs' lack of energy early in the game as well.

“I think our starts have been very bad,” Doncic said. “So we just got to start better.”

Kidd's rant should catch the attention of the Mavericks' bench. Dallas needs players such as Quentin Grimes and Spencer Dinwiddie to step up. It is still early in the season so there is plenty of time for the Mavs' bench to find a groove.

The Mavericks will look to get back on track on Sunday against the Nuggets in Denver.