The drastically improved defense that helped the Dallas Mavericks make a run to last season's Western Conference finals seems like a distant memory, prompting Coach Jason Kidd to call out his team's lackluster effort on that end of the floor.

The drastically improved defense that helped the Dallas Mavericks make a run to last season's Western Conference finals seems like a distant memory, prompting Coach Jason Kidd to call out his team's lackluster effort on that end of the floor.

Kidd made his pointed comments after the Atlanta Hawks' 130-122 win over the Mavericks at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night, sprinkling in a healthy dose of sarcasm. The Mavs have lost three straight allowing at least 130 points in each game of this skid.

Dallas, which ranked seventh in the NBA in defensive efficiency last season, dropped to 25th in that category, allowing 115.0 points per 100 possessions.

If it's with this staff, you have to ask or demand those guys play defense," Kidd said when asked about possible solutions to Dallas' defensive woes.

"It's not just the offensive end. Tonight, we gave up 130 points and a team that shot 57 percent. It's a shooting round.

In this league, if you do that, whether you have Luca or Kareem or LeBron, you're going to lose. It doesn't matter how many points you score, you're always going to fall short.

So until we make a better effort to play defense and understand what we have to do, we're going to score 120, but we're going to give up 130, 140. One night we might give up 150, but we'll be fine because we scored, so don't feel too bad.

Injuries have been a factor in Dallas' defensive slide. Wings Dorian Finney-Smith (adductor) and Josh Green (elbow), one of the Mavs' best perimeter defenders, returned Wednesday night after missing 14 and 20 games, respectively.

Injuries have been a factor in Dallas' defensive slide. Wings Dorian Finney-Smith (adductor) and Josh Green (elbow), one of the Mavs' best perimeter defenders, returned Wednesday night after missing 14 and 20 games, respectively.