When the Dallas Mavericks have needed a spark throughout the season, coach Rick Carlisle has implemented a lineup that relies on the playmaking ability of Jason Kidd.

So when the Golden State Warriors shot 79 percent from the field in the opening quarter to take a 34-25 lead on Wednesday night, Carlisle put three guards on the floor and the ball in J-Kidd’s hands.

With Jason’s knowledge of the game and management of the floor, the Dallas guards did the rest, as Eddie Sekfo of The Dallas Morning News noted:

"When the Mavericks had a big-time failure to show Wednesday night, they lived to tell about it by going small.

Using the three-guard lineup more extensively than they have all season,
the Mavericks made up an 18-point first-half deficit and canned the Golden
State Warriors, 112-106, Wednesday night to salvage a split of their quick trip to the West Coast.

Jason Terry, Roddy Beaubois and Jason Kidd were able to ramrod the Mavericks’ comeback after a terrible start. They were down 10-0 and 32-14 before coming alive."

The 112-106 victory broke a two-game losing streak for the Mavs and was their 20th win in their last 25 games. The win also moves Dallas back into a tie for second place in the Western Conference with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jason Terry, who finished with 19 points on 7-of-12, said having a point guard like No. 2 makes all the difference. According to Terry, J-Kidd’s skill allows the Mavs to have success in the three-guard lineup with relative ease:

"It’s beautiful basketball when you got two guys who can penetrate and J-Kidd makes it easier on everybody," Terry said. "That’s a lineup we are going to look at and it worked out for us tonight. In the summer, we envisioned it and talked a lot about it, we just hadn’t seen it yet this season."

No. 2 finished the game with four points and, more importantly, a game-high 11 assists to go along with five rebounds. He was also a solid +8 in point differential when out on the floor.

J-Kidd noted that early on, Dallas wasn’t ready for the second game of a back-to-back. But thanks to the infusion of reserves like Terry, the Mavs were able to get back on track:

"It didn’t look good at the beginning," Kidd said. "We were still on the bus. But that just shows how deep we are. I thought Roddy had a great game. He played 30-odd minutes and showed his growth."

J-Kidd led the three guard set beginning late in the second period and for much of the rest of the game. Just 30 seconds after re-entering, with his team trailing by 12, Jason found Beaubois for a triple. Then with little over a minute left in the half, No. 2 hit Shawn Marion for a mid-range jumper to cut the Warriors’ advantage to just four points, 57-53. Golden State led by six at the break.

In the third, Jason and his guard-mates were right back at it, providing the much needed spark to avoid a two-game losing streak. Jason fed Roddy and then Dirk in the opening minutes of the quarter to cut the deficit to four.

The Warriors still held onto a tenuous lead for the early part of the fourth. But Dallas finally broke through when J-Kidd found Dirk for a jumper inside the right wing to knot the game at 69. By the end of the third it was even at 81.

Carlisle said that the Mavs never panicked during those frightful moments early in the game, as quoted by Mavs Moneyball:

"Well, we’re never going to panic, but we certainly weren’t happy. When something like that happens, you’ve got to stick together and get motivated, and that’s what our guys did.

"We had to keep searching for a group that could get us some traction. We were sluggish to start the game, maybe a hangover from last night. Whatever it may be, maybe it’s just a team that had us on our heels. Whatever the case, NBA games are long and you’ve got to keep playing. And we had to stay positive with our guys."

J-Kidd turned it up in the fourth quarter, when it mattered most.

With his team trailing by three and four minutes remaining, No. 2 nailed a triple from the wing to tie the game at 96. Moments later he once again found Roddy B., who slashed to the hoop and finished with a layup as the Mavs took a 98-96 advantage.

Those two plays by J-Kidd keyed a 15-0 run that spanned the next four minutes to seal the Mavs’ victory.

LOCK TALK
As a kid growing up in the Bay Area, Jason rooted hard for the Oakland Raiders.

So the news this week that the NFL was locking out his players didn’t sit well with J-Kidd, but for more than just that reason. He’s also worried about a similar situation that might be upcoming for the NBA, as Dwain Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote:

"I hope that the NFL can get a deal done,” Kidd said, "and hopefully that will lay the groundwork for us to follow them and get the deal done.”

A huge Oakland Raiders fan, Kidd recalls the 1998-’99 NBA season when owners locked out the players as the two sides attempted to agree on a new collective bargaining agreement. When an agreement was finally reached, the revised 50-game season didn’t start until January, the NBA All-Star game was canceled, and every team was subjected to periods where they played three games in three days, often in three different cities.

"Especially if you had to come play the Texas triangle — Houston, Dallas and San Antonio %mdash; that was not a fun trip,” Kidd said. "So besides playing three days in a row, it was a tough season because there were 50 games played in a certain amount of days, and then they had the playoffs.

"It was a short quick season. But again, hopefully we don’t have that situation come up."

NEXT UP
Dallas’ win on Wednesday was purely an appetizer for Friday night’s heavyweight fight.

The Mavs welcome the San Antonio Spurs to the American Airlines Center tomorrow night for the final showdown of the season between the West’s best.

San Antonio has beaten Dallas in two of their three meetings this year, but both of those victories came with Dirk Nowitzki out of the Mavericks’ lineup. In the three previous matchups, Jason averaged 10.3 points, 7.3 assists and 6.7 rebounds per game.

Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. CST and the game can been seen locally on Fox Sports Southwest.

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