[外電] J-Kidd Dishes Mavs to Game 5 Win
04/06/2011 - 22:05
J-Kidd Dishes Mavs to Game 5 Win
by Rob Tucker
The Dallas Mavericks were in need of a boost in Game 5 of the Western
Conference Quarterfinals on Monday night. So Jason Kidd took the reigns and
did what he does best.
J-Kidd dished out a game-high 14 assists, grabbed seven rebounds and even
chipped in four points, leading the Mavericks to a 93-82 win over the
Portland Trail Blazers. With the victory Dallas took a 3-2 lead in the
best-of-seven series, which now swings back to Portland on Thursday night.
"I thought we kept our head and we executed our game plan offensively and
defensively," No. 2 said. "That's how we got a win."
For Jason, it was a matter of giving the game what it needed, one of his
mottos for his play. To secure victory in Games 1 and 2, Dallas needed Jason
to score—and score he did, averaging 21 points.
In Game 5, back home in the friendly confines of the American Airlines Center
after two tough losses in Portland, J-Kidd's game was all about getting his
team in rhythm, finding teammates and controlling the tempo.
According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas, Jason's performance was exactly
what the doctor ordered for the Mavericks:
"Jason Kidd had a pretty four-point performance.
‘You can't say that often,' Kidd said with a laugh.
Actually, his path to the Hall of Fame was paved by nights like this. Kidd
dished out 14 assists, committed only two turnovers and grabbed seven
rebounds while the Mavs had an 18-point edge in his 36 minutes. He was a key
to the Mavs' 93-82 win in over Portland in pivotal Game 5 despite his only
bucket being a layup late in the game.
Not that Kidd planned a passing clinic at the expense of scoring points."
Dallas coach Rick Carlisle was thrilled with the future hall-of-famer's game.
But even more so, he said, it was the intangibles that No. 2 brought to the
court, which made all the difference in getting the Mavs on track.
"Kidd played a great all-around game," he said. "His shot making wasn't what
it's been in other games, but his leadership, his presence gives other guys
confidence. That's really important to us."
SETTING THE TONE
Jason's leadership helped the Mavericks move past their back-to-back losses
in Portland, including the historic Game 4 defeat.
Jason told Mavs Moneyball that having the time to think about the loss over
the holiday weekend guaranteed that his team would be chomping at the bit,
ready to take one back in Game 5.
"We had to sit there all day on Easter and think about it while we were egg
hunting," he said.
So when the Mavs came out for shootaround on Monday, J-Kidd was focused:
"What's happened in the past is over with," he said before the game. "We've
got Game 5. That's all we can focus on."
Jason set the pace early, dishing out his first assist on the Mavs' opening
bucket. He followed with three more in the opening quarter, finding Dirk
Nowitzki for a pair of baskets and Jason Terry for a deuce.
All told, No. 2 had a hand in four of the six baskets that the Mavs scored in
the quarter. He also had three rebounds in the first, but Dallas headed into
the second trailing 20-15.
After sitting out the first half of the second quarter, Jason re-entered the
game and immediately got back to work, finding his teammates and commanding
the floor.
He found Jason Terry for a jumper to cut the Dallas deficit to three. Minutes
later J-Kidd dished to JET again for a triple that gave his team its first
lead of the game, 30-27. Portland countered with a bucket, but on the other
end No. 2 quickly hit Peja Stojakovic for another three-pointer that
increased that Mavs' lead to four, 33-29.
"My guys were knocking down shots, which was a good thing early," J-Kidd told
Dallas Basketball. "The big thing was I was finding open guys. [I tried] to
get the ball up the court with 19 or 18 seconds on the shot clock so if they
did switch we had plenty of time to work our way through that."
Portland went on a 14-7 run to regain the lead, but No. 2 was able to stop
the bleeding when he assisted Shawn Marion on a short jumper. By half the
Mavs had captured the lead, 44-43. They would not trail again.
PUTTING THE D IN BIG D
The second half belonged to the Dallas defense.
Through the use of a zone, the Mavericks held the Trail Blazers to just 39
points in the second half and just 19 in the final quarter.
"We were up one at halftime. It's anybody's ball game," Jason said. "We came
out with defense. It's been like that the whole series, when we play defense,
it gives us a chance to win."
The zone defense was pivotal in grinding the Portland offense to a halt, as
No. 2 told Mavs Moneyball:
"It was something we talked about," J-Kidd said of the zone. "And we wanted
to see how it looked tonight and I thought it slowed them down and got them
against the shot clock. In the past two games, that's what happened to us, we
were fighting the shot clock. So they had to take some tough shots and
they're going to look at the zone and see what they can do to exploit it and
it's a chess match now."
While the defense rattled the Blazers, Jason continued his assist work.
racking up four assists for the third straight quarter in the third. Dallas
pushed the lead to 12 by the end of the quarter and got it to 20 in the
fourth. But unlike Game 4, they refused to let up and give the game back to
Portland.
"We got the lead up to 20 and we were right back in that same position,"
J-Kidd said. "We handled it the right way this time. They're going to score
points. We just wanted to run the clock, be aggressive and knock down our
free throws. We did that."
No. 2 had all four of his points in the fourth scoring twice in the final
five minutes of the game. He scored his lone bucket when he blew past his
defender and went to the hole for a finger roll layup. Then, on Dallas' next
possession, Jason had his hands all over the dagger, as SLAM Online's Maurice
Bobb wrote:
"The signature play of the game was when Gerald Wallace raced down the court
to block Shawn Marion's dunk attempt, only to have the rebound end up in
Kidd's hands, who then kicked it out to Peja Stojakovic to nail a wide-open
three ball. That was the nail in the coffin."
It was one of two assists in the fourth for Jason. He added a pair of free
throws with 53.4 seconds to go as the Mavs cruised to a double-digit win. Rob
Mahoney of The Two Man Game was happy to watch J-Kidd and the Mavs return to
what they do best:
Jason Kidd scored four points, but as is usually the case, it didn't matter.
His 14 assists and seven rebounds more than made up for any perceived scoring
deficit, and made those three-point-heavy outings to start the series seem
like a thing of the past.
I'm sure the Mavs are pleased that the offense need not rely so heavily on
Kidd for scoring; team-wide scoring balance is just more fun, and having so
many players producing efficiently gives Dallas much greater operational
latitude…the Maverick offense has returned to a more natural state, and is
functioning as efficiently as ever.
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