[外電] Jason's Triples Lead Mavs in Game 1

看板JasonKidd作者gsg (阿Q~~~~)時間13年前 (2011/04/19 06:13)推噓1(1推 0噓 1→)

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第一場打太好, 新聞不少~ 有空再來簡略翻一翻 04/18/2011 - 18:57 Jason's Triples Lead Mavs in Game 1 by Rob Tucker Jason Kidd was the first Maverick on the floor Saturday afternoon, taking some extra time for early shooting. He left it all out on the floor on Saturday night. J-Kidd buried six threes, including a dagger to give the Mavericks a seven-point lead with 25.4 ticks to go, leading Dallas to an 89-81 win over the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals. No. 2 finished with a season-high 24 points on 9-of-14 from the field and chipped in four assists, five rebounds, two steals and a block. It was the most points J-Kidd has scored in a playoff game since the 2005 postseason. Ever humble, Jason downplayed his big night: "I got lucky and made some shots tonight," he said. Jason's role doesn't often call for him to be the team's scorer. But with Dirk Nowitzki having scored just 10 points through three quarters, it was J-Kidd who almost single-handedly kept his team in the opening round playoff game. Thanks to some late season preperation, he was ready for the moment. At the end of the regular season, Jason took a few days off. He bided his time, waiting for the right spot to strike during the Mavs' postseason run. Who would have guessed it would come so quickly? Well, J-Kidd, for one: "There was talk that I needed to be a little bit more aggressive and look to score," he said. "We felt they were going to do a lot of switching and leave me a lot of times. That's what we've been working on the last few weeks.... Once I got my legs back and felt fresh, my mechanics started to come back." Jason noted that the offensive onslaught he provided was a matter of being more assertive than usual in his shot selection: "In this series I felt that I needed to look at the basket a little bit more," he said. "I know that our opponents are going to give me that jump shot and I have to be able to knock it down. Tonight was a good example of that." His head coach, Rick Carlisle, was happy to see another chapter in the J-Kidd legend unfold: "Jason was aggressive, he understood the situation, he was the guy that was getting open shots and he stepped into them," coach Rick Carlisle said. "He's one of the greatest players of all time and he's still great. "We very fortunate to have him. He knows we're going to need him to continue to be aggressive, but it's not going to be on his shoulders to get 25 points every game." GAME OF THE YEAR Jason's Dallas teammates didn't mince words when it came to describing Jason's performance on Saturday. Here's a few of the things Jason's colleagues said about the standout performance in Game 1: Dirk Nowitzki: "J-Kidd was big tonight. Phenomenal game by J-Kidd.'' JJ Barea: "Unbelievable game. I mean, his game kind of saved us." Shawn Marion: "That's J-Kidd, he's going to come to play. If he's feeling like that, he's got to just fire it up." DeShawn Stevenson: "I think it was a tremendous game. To see a guy out there who is 38 do the things he do is unbelievable. To go out there and shoot threes like that and get us in the game was big." Tyson Chandler: "He was huge for us tonight. He hit shots when we really needed it. He carried us in that first half. And it seemed like he made every big play down the stretch, whether he was knocking down a key shot or setting up another player." Coach Rick Carlisle described it best: "Spectacular. We had some guys that didn't play their best games, but Jason Kidd played the game of the year to this point. Every shot he made, every play he made was absolutely essential for us. His leadership is something you can't quantify." LOOKING FOR MORE Jason got the Mavs' "Game of the Year" started early, hitting two triples and a jumper from the free throw line to score eight points in the first quarter alone. After 12 minutes, Dallas trailed 22-21, but Blazers coach Nate McMillan could see Jason heating up: "Whenever Jason makes 1 or 2 [early]," McMillan said after the first quarter, "he's going to look for more." The Mavs opened the second period on a 12-4 run and by the time Jason re-entered the game at the midway-mark, his team led 35-31. Jason hit another triple at the two-minute mark that capped a 10-4 run and gave the Mavs a 45-35 lead. They would head into the locker room with a 47-37 advantage. Jason's hot shooting hand didn't cool during the break as he opened up the third quarter by hitting back-to-back triples. Two minutes later, No. 2 had added another long jumper and an assist to Marion maintained the Mavs' 10-point lead. Dallas' shooting cooled in the fourth and a 15-5 run that spanned six minutes put Portland ahead, 72-66. But on his big night it was who else but Jason that came through again. No. 2 snapped the run with a mid-range jumper from the right wing. That jumper keyed a 16-6 run that was capped by Jason's dagger with 25 seconds left, giving the Mavs an 85-78 advantage. In the end, John Canzano of The Oregonian was thoroughly impressed with Jason's play, noting that the point guard seems to be getting younger, not older: "He didn't look slow. He didn't wince when he reached for the basketball. He didn't raise his hand, and ask to come out, because you know, running around like that at 38 years old, you expect it. Nope. I have no proof that Jason Kidd isn't as old as he says -- well, other than the season-high 24 points he scored in Game 1 of the Blazers-Maverick NBA playoff series on Saturday. I even peeked into his locker. Lavender dress shirt, hung nicely. Dress slacks, dangling from a hook. Nothing on the floor except Kidd's shiny shoes, with a navy blue dress sock folded and tucked into each one. He's Benjamin Button." THE 'X' FACTOR No. 2's six triples made him the oldest guard in league history to hit more than five threes in a postseason game. J-Kidd told Star-Telegram columnist Dwain Price that his improved shooting came from extra shooting practice during his short rest at the close of the regular season: "When the Mavericks recently gave Kidd nearly a week off, he said he worked on some shooting fundamentals. And he looked at Nowitzki as a model. "Just understanding what he does with his fingers, I tried to apply that with what I was doing with that week off," Kidd said. "He has all kinds of tendencies, but the big thing is just being confident shooting the ball. "My teammates have always believed that I could make the shots when I had to." With his teammates struggling to put points on the board J-Kidd saw an opportunity to step up. That extra practice and the confidence of his teammates allowed Jason to seize his chance and play a vintage game: "There's always going to be somebody that steps up - the X factor - or somebody unknown," Kidd said. "And as Dirk (Nowitzki) would say in the locker room when he told me they didn't have me on the board for scoring 24 points tonight. "So I guess I was the X factor in the game. But there's always, in the playoffs, there's going to be somebody who's going to make the shot or somebody gets hot that isn't looked upon, and we're just happy that it was somebody on our team that did that tonight." Jean-Jacques Taylor of the Dallas Morning News wrote that while his scoring number sticks out, it was more than Jason's shooting that pushed the Mavs on Saturday: Kidd didn't just control the game with his scoring; he also had the usual assortment of intuitive and intelligent plays that are often the difference between winning and losing in the playoffs. Midway through the second quarter, he stripped LaMarcus Aldridge near the baseline and dove to keep the ball inbounds. The possession ended with a basket and a surge of crowd noise. You can't expect Kidd to play this well most nights. We are talking about a guy who scored more than 20 points only twice during the regular season. He had five 3-pointers in a 21-point performance against the Lakers and six 3-pointers in a 20-point game against Sacramento. Notice the correlation. A performance like Kidd's is what it takes to win a seven-game series. Someone other than Dirk Nowitzki must help the Mavs win a game or two. Sekou Smith of NBA.com concurred: His performance in Game 1 wasn't necessarily a reminder of one of Kidd's jaw-dropping efforts of the past. It was more of a confirmation that Kidd has never and might never be fully appreciated for being the by-any-means-necessary tactician that he's always been. The six 3-pointers was a career-high in a playoff game and his 30th career 20-plus point scoring game in the playoffs. His Game 1 masterpiece was also a reminder that Kidd is still fiendishly effective on both ends of the floor. And it was more than just the 24 points, five assists, four rebounds, two steals and blocked shot that did it for the Mavericks. During the two most crucial stretches of the game for the Mavericks, Kidd was at his best. OUT EARLY Jason was working on the shot that won Game 1 right up until tip-off. He took the floor several hours before game time to fine-tune his shot just a little more before the moment arrived. Mike Fisher of Dallas Basketball documented his pre-game shooting session: It was almost two-and-a-half hours before the Portland-at-Dallas Game 1 tipoff, and the difference in 38-year-old Jason Kidd was already in evidence. He was clean-shaven, head and face, and his golf tan seemed a bit faded, too. He was also on the floor at that early hour in the day, the only Mav out there in an otherwise largely empty gym. And he was working up a sweat doing the one thing that, by reputation, is a wobble in his otherwise legendary game: Kidd worked ferociously on an array of jumpshots Then the game started. And the Dallas Mavericks' securing of an 89-81 victory is the result of him working ferociously again on an array of jumpshots – only these actually counted. "I was ready,'' said Kidd, who shocked the Blazers with 24 points. "The (end-of-regular-season) rest definitely helped. (The Mavs) did a great job of resting me and keeping me fresh and ready. I had my little rest. I got my legs back." RESPECT ACROSS THE FLOOR Even No. 2's opponents were impressed with his play, as Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted: "Blazers coach Nate McMillan, who was an assistant coach on the USA Olympics team in 2008 that won the gold medal with Kidd as a member, said nothing about the veteran amazes him. "I think he's an unbelievable general on the floor," McMillan said. "He's aware of situations before they happen on both ends of the floor. "He is not a guy that will take a lot of shots like that, but if he hits his first shot, he's going to look to be aggressive that particular night. But for the most part he tries to set up his teammates." Blazers budding star LaMarcus Aldridge, who saw his own 27-point night upstaged by No. 2, was also complimentary of J-Kidd: "He's a super vet, so he plays with confidence," Aldridge said. "He made one [3-pointer] early and that kind of fed his confidence. "We definitely didn't prepare for him making six threes," Aldridge told NBA.com, cracking a reluctant smile as he said it. "But that's what pros do. They step up when their team needs the most and deliver whatever is needed. "He's smart. Just like Andre Miller is still playing," Aldridge continued. "When you have guys who understand the game and are really smart they can play and be effective as long as they want to ... as long as they can walk. They don't have to be fast or explosive. They know the fundamentals of the game inside out." NEXT UP Jason and the Mavs will be focused on keeping their foot on the gas and not allowing Portland to gain any momentum when Game 2 tips off on Tuesday night. In series past—with the Spurs in particular—the Mavs won Game 1 but weren't ready for Game 2 and, as a result, watched their series lead slip away. Jason wants to make sure that doesn't happen again: "We talked about that," he said. "That was the first thing that Coach talked about before we watched film is that we've been in this situation before and we were mentally not ready to play Game 2 [against the Spurs], and we lost that game. "So that's something we can draw back from and use from past experience that Portland is going to come in and try to get a split." Game 2 is on Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. CST. The game will be televised locally on KTXA and nationally on TNT. -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 128.107.96.157