Make That 103 and a W

On the night he racked up his 103rd triple-double, Jason also catapulted his team into the playoffs with a victory and the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference.

With the 95-84 win over the Houston Rockets, Dallas picked up its 50th win of the season, giving the franchise its ninth consecutive year with at least that many Ws. The Mavs are hot at the right time, 15-1 at home since the All-Star break and 7-3 over their last ten games.

In a gritty effort, Dallas showed that it isn’t a team to take lightly. Down 61-47, the Mavs picked up their defensive effort and stopped settling for jump shots. An important force behind the Mavs run in the 3rd quarter was Jason getting Howard involved.

Coach Carlisle talked with Mavs Moneyball about J-Kidd and Josh’s impact in the 3rd quarter:

“

[Josh] had a tough start, and I was just hoping Jason would find a way to get him into the game. He hit the one jumper and we finally started to get stops. When we get stop the ball moves up the court and that’s his dimension. He makes great things happen. It led to one trip to the line, then another, and then another. Jason got in some pick and roll stuff with him that was productive. Josh made a couple of good passes as well. That was really a key stretch because we needed to get our fans into the game. That was important.”

After the stretch keyed by Jason, the Mavs were tied with just over five minutes left. Dallasbaketball.com described best the run orchestrated by J-Kidd to end the game and give the Mavs the victory:

And then there was the final push, when so often this year it’s been Kidd Time.

I’m quite certain that part of Dallas’ nightly game plan is to make sure to keep the game in range for 43 minutes or so. … because in a shortened five-minute game, few NBA players are better at orchestrating victory than Jason Kidd.

And it happened again here.

The game was tied 80-80 with 4:47 to go in the fourth quarter. There were a number of take-over-the-game candidates, including Yao and Artest.

But Kidd was the successful candidate, quarterbacking the Mavs to a 15-4 run to close the night.

No.2 finished the game with 11 points, 12 assists, and 10 boards to give him his third triple-double of the season. Only LeBron and Chris Paul have more triple-double’s than him this season, as Jason continues to demonstrate his worth to the Mavs.

J-Kidd talked with Dallasbasketball.com about his excitement for the playoffs and how impressive the Mavs recovery from their rough start to the season was.

“It’s gonna be fun.”

“To have started out 2-7 and then to still end up with 50 wins, which is usually the mark of a good team, that’s pretty impressive.”

NEXT UP
The Mavs start their playoff series against the Spurs Saturday night at 7 pm CST on ESPN.

Though Jason struggled in the first game against the Spurs this year, he averaged 16.7 points, 10.3 assists, and 7.7 boards in the other three. As J-Kidd told the Star-Telegram, he knows that the Spurs won’t be an easy out:

“You’re talking about a team that knows how to win. You can talk about age or whatever it may be, but they have a great coach. And Duncan, [Tony] Parker, Finley, those guys all know how to win. “We’ve got our hands full.’’

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