Jason Kidd knows just how important it is for a team to peak at the right time over the course of a long NBA season and this year his New York Knicks are doing just that.


The Knicks clinched the Atlantic Division title with a 120-99 win over the Wizards on Tuesday night (Getty Images).

On Tuesday night, the Knicks won their 13th straight game with a 120-99 drubbing of the Washington Wizards and in the process clinched the franchise’s first Atlantic Division crown since the 1993-1994 season.

But afterward, J-Kidd, who was a part of four Atlantic Division championships in New Jersey and a Southwest Division title in Dallas downplayed the feat and was sure to mention that the work is far from over the Knicks.

"I’ve been there, done that. I don’t get excited about this. This is just a small step. The season isn’t over. We still have five games left," Jason said. "It’s one building block toward what our goals were when we started the training camp, to win the division, and we did that this evening. But we’ve still got a long way to go.

J-Kidd did his part to extend the winning streak on Tuesday by knocking down his only shot for three points to go along with six rebounds, an assist and a pair of steals in 22 minutes. The Knicks were +17 with him on the floor.

The game itself was in hand essentially from the outset for the Knicks. They trailed for less than a minute, after Washington’s Martell Webster opened the scoring with a putback just 35 seconds into the game. Raymond Felton answered with a three 51 seconds into the game that, incredibly, gave the Knicks the lead for good.

When J-Kidd entered with 4:16 to go in the first, New York’s lead was six and he quickly set about adding to it. He grabbed his first rebound with 1:40 left in the frame and dished ahead to Carmelo Anthony. Six seconds later, No. 5 got a dish back from Anthony on the perimeter and knocked down his lone shot of the night to extend the Knicks lead to nine.


Jason and the Knicks were able to put the clamps on John Wall and the Wizards from the outset (Getty Images).

In the final 90 seconds of the quarter, Jason added a rebound that led to a Chris Copeland three and a steal that led to a J.R. Smith layup. By the end of the first, the New York lead was 13. J-Kidd grabbed three more boards in the second as the Knicks controlled the pace of the game. They were in front by 15 at halftime and only pushed it from there on the back of Anthony.

After a 15-point first half, the Knicks star caught fire in the third, connecting for 21 points on 8-of-11 from the field in the third. With Melo going strong, the pace quickened and New York spent much of the penultimate frame leading by 20 or more.


Jason and J.R. Smith share a light during Tuesday’s win over the Wizards (Getty Images).

At the end of the frame with the Knicks looking to close strong, Jason grabbed a rebound off one of only three misses for Anthony in the third and quickly gave it back to his red-hot teammate, who finished with a finger roll at the rim as the buzzer sounded. The bucket gave the Knicks a 24-point lead, their highest of the game, entering the fourth quarter

"There in that third quarter, Melo got going and he carried us," Jason said afterward.

Anthony didn’t return at all in the fourth, taking some hard-earned rest on the bench and Jason played just the first half of the final frame before coming out to rest himself. But during that time, he pulled off his second steal of the night, a slick pick of a Kevin Seraphin pass, which led to an alley-oop from Pablo Prigioni to J.R. Smith that put New York up by 26 with just over seven minutes remaining. Jason checked out to an ovation shortly thereafter and the Knicks cruised to their 13th straight victory.

But the news wasn’t all good for the Knicks on Tuesday night. Early in the fourth, big man Kenyon Martin turned his ankle after pulling down a rebound. He was helped off the court and did not return. He was later diagnosed with a "severe" ankle sprain. But afterward, Jason continued to preach New York’s next man up mentality as they go about combating another injury to their front line.

"One way to look at the injuries is that everybody is going to get a chance to play," he said. "We’re a deep team. We lose another one tonight. It makes us small, but we always find a win and we play as a team."

NEXT UP
With five games remaining, the Knicks are still jockeying for position at the top of the Eastern Conference. They currently sit 2.5 games ahead of the Pacers for the second seed in the East and can lock up that spot with just a few more wins. The two seed would lock the Knicks into homecourt advantage for at least the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Their first chance to move closer to that goal comes Thursday when they head to Chicago to take on the Bulls. The Knicks will also be looking to extend their winning streak to 14 against a Chicago team that just two weeks ago ended the Miami Heat’s 27-game winning streak.

Tip-off in the Windy City is scheduled for 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday night and the game can be seen nationwide on TNT.

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