For one glorious period against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, Jason Kidd couldn’t miss.

Jason scored 17 points in the third quarter Wednesday, on 6-of-7 from the field and 5-of-6 from three. He buried five consecutive threes over an eight-minute span, turning a tenuous six-point Dallas lead into a 20-point bulge.

As the quarter wore on, it reached the point where, when J-Kidd shot, everyone in the arena knew where the ball was headed.

"He was on fire. I was like, ‘Is that thing wet, J-Kidd?’ He kept shooting that thing and it kept going in," Shawn Marion said. "So, I was like, ‘Keep shooting that thing, baby.’ He was 6-for-7 from the 3-point line and that’s tough."

No. 2 finally misfired on his seventh shot of the quarter with 34.8 seconds left, but the damage had been done.

"Kidd was great," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "Look, we got a bad start to the third quarter, they went on an 18-7 run or something like that, and he was the one that brought us back to life with his three-point shooting. He got the momentum back, and it sent the game back in our direction, so that was really important."

Jason’s outstanding performance spurred a 26-8 Mavs run to take a 96-76 lead at the end of three. With the game well in hand, he and the starters sat for most of the fourth as the Mavs cruised to the 116-100 victory.

No. 2 finished with a game-high 20 points and added four assists, two rebounds and two steals as Dallas ran away with the Wednesday night win at the American Airlines Center.

Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas described No. 2’s incredible game:

"It was the old guard who carried the Mavs after they let the King rally midway through the third quarter.

Jason Kidd had one of the most phenomenal shooting frames of his 17-year career in the third quarter. He hit six of seven shots in the quarter – five 3-pointers and a foot-on-the-line 2.

Kidd really heated up after the Kings, who trailed by 13 at halftime, tied it up. The Mavs responded with a 13-0 run, keyed by a pair of Kidd 3s and also featuring five points by Beaubois. Kidd also had a couple of 3s during a 9-0 run later in the quarter that pretty much put the Kings out of their misery."

Bryan Gutierrez of Mavs Moneyball lauded J-Kidd’s big night as well:

"The third quarter was incredible. The Mavericks had a 13-point lead to start the quarter and the Kings got the game tied up 68 within the first five minutes of the quarter.

Jason Kidd took over the game and scored 17 of his 20 points in the third quarter on 6-7 shooting from the field and 5-6 from beyond the arc. The Mavs outscored the Kings, 35-28, in the quarter and took a 20-point lead into the final quarter."

Gutierrez also framed Jason’s performance in a historical perspective:

"Jason Kidd’s stretch in the third quarter with the three-point shot was nothing short of impressive. It was only his second time since 2002-03 to have five made threes in a quarter (February 27, 2007 vs. Washington). Kidd went 6-9 in that game as a member of the New Jersey Nets and finished the game with 26 points. Kidd hit six shots from beyond the arc against the Kings and that marked a season-high (previous high was five against the Los Angeles Lakers on January 19, 2011)."

RETURN OF RODDY
Ever modest, even on his big night, J-Kidd was quick to give credit to teammates, especially Roddy Beaubois, who played his first game of the season Wednesday and opened up the court for Jason:

"I just got lucky. Roddy and Dirk and those guys found me in my new position, so I just got lucky and made some shots tonight," he said. "I wanted to get the ball to Roddy to get him comfortable. The more he has the ball the sooner he can maybe get more minutes and get him a little bit more comfortable. I’m not going to beat him down the court, so get him going towards the basket and trail and spot up and stretch the defense.

"If I can do what I did tonight, hopefully that just makes it easier for him to get to the basket and then also for others guys to do what they do best. You see J.J. finding guys. It just makes the game so much fun and easy for everybody."

No. 2 sees Beaubois’ potential as a combo-guard, though he feels the 22-year-old is naturally suited as a shooting guard:

"I think, for me, his strengths are his speed and being able to get out and score," Jason said before the game. "We were looking for him, before the injury, to kind of learn the point guard position, but he’s a natural two-guard in the sense of scoring and being able to put pressure on the defense. For that, me being on the floor, he doesn’t have to think about what plays to run, he just has to do what he does best and that’s score the ball."

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle believes Beaubois’ presence changes Jason’s impact on the game:

"Jason will probably have fewer assists now if he’s going to play with Roddy more," he said. "It allows him to play off the ball, which allows him to be a different kind of playmaker, which is a positive for us."

That’s exactly how it worked out on Wednesday.

"He’s going to get us a lot of wide-open looks," Jason said. "The big thing is just for him to get more minutes and to get more comfortable."

THEY’RE LOADED
The Mavs are healthy once again, and have been steamrolling opponents of late.

Now, with Beaubois back in the mix, Jason expects Dallas to be even more frightening down stretch and into the playoffs. Sacramento head coach Paul Westphal couldn’t agree more as Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas explains:

"Potent? Kings coach Paul Westphal, who spent a season as an assistant on Avery Johnson’s staff here sure thinks so.

"Yeah, they’re loaded. You start talking about the guys you have to defend on the 3-point line," Westphal said. "You go down their team and you’ve got Dirk and you’ve got

[Peja Stojakovic], two of the greatest 3-point shooters in history, Jason Terry and don’t forget about [Roddy] Beaubois, he’s back, and then there’s [J.J.] Barea and [Brian] Cardinal is shooting 47 percent [from 3] and oh, by the way, Jason Kidd, he’s made 6-of-7 on us.

"So, you can’t slump off those guys behind the line and at the same time they’re very good at attacking the basket and they play together. They know how to use screens and dive to the basket…They’re a very, very smart veteran team with great weapons and they’re very unselfish, too."

For the Mavs, the victory marked their 11th time scoring 100 points in their last 12 games and they improved their record to 28-2 when doing so:

"Our record is pretty good when we have scored over 100 points," he said. "The beauty of this team is that everyone is touching the ball, and we’re getting wide open—make or miss. There are not really contested shots when we’ve got two or three guys with their hand up. We’re making that extra pass and everybody is touching it. When you have that type of game or system, it’s hard to guard."

NEXT UP
The Mavs have one final game to go before the All-Star break tonight as they travel to Pheonix to take on the Suns.

After the game, Jason had already forgotten about his incredible performance and only focused on Phoenix:

"Now the test is to bounce back tomorrow but build on it and have an even better performance," he said. "A lot of times before the break, guys start thinking about where they’re going on vacation, so we can’t be distracted on that. We got to finish this out."

Tip-off is set for 9:30 p.m. CST and the game can be seen nationally on TNT.

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