The Dallas Mavericks looked headed for a scheduled loss on Friday night against the Houston Rockets, as they entered that game without Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, Dante Exum, Dereck Lively II, Josh Green, and Maxi Kleber — six important rotation pieces. Even then, Mavs head coach Jason Kidd expected his team to put up a fight, which they failed to do in a 122-96 loss that wasn't as close as the final score line indicates.

The Mavs simply looked like they did not belong on the court; the Rockets dominated them thoroughly, with their lead growing to as many as 38 points late in the third quarter. Their offense looked rudderless without Doncic at the controls, with the team ending the night with a ghastly 34.7 field-goal percentage and an unsightly 17.5 percent from three.

This game was a huge reminder for how valuable Luka Doncic is as a player, and Mavs head coach Jason Kidd just wanted to emphasize that fact following their defeat to the Rockets.

“It just puts things in perspective how important Luka is to the team and the things that he creates for everyone. If he can't go tomorrow, we have to find a way to make shots,” Kidd said in his postgame presser, per Grant Afseth of Sports Illustrated.

Luka Doncic's presence makes everyone's job on offense that much easier; his three-level scoring mastery demands a ton of attention from opposing defenses, with some teams even opting to send hard double teams the Mavs star's way just to get the ball out of his hands. This gravity produces a ton of open shots, which, to the Mavs' credit, they've done a good job of making thus far in the 2023-24 season.

Are the Mavs too reliant on Doncic for their own good? Perhaps. But there's a reason why they have found success with Doncic as the heliocentric driving force of the team's offense.

Now, the Mavs will be hoping to get Luka Doncic back on the second night of a back-to-back against the San Antonio Spurs. If Doncic is unable to return, Jason Kidd will be hoping that Jaden Hardy and Tim Hardaway Jr. put up much-better shooting displays (they went 3-17 and 6-20, respectively) than they did against the Rockets.