Nets Win Jason's First Dress Rehearsal - The Official Web Site of Jason Kidd, Basketball Hall of Famer

It won’t go down in any record books, as preseason contests are often forgotten by time, but Jason Kidd will always remember October 8th as the night he won for the first time as a coach.

Playing their first preseason game of the season on the road in Washington, D.C. the Nets needed overtime, but managed to secure Coach Kidd that first victory by defeating the Wizards 111-106 on Tuesday night at the Verizon Center. Afterward, Jason lauded his team for their effort not only in Tuesday’s game, but throughout the previous week of practice to opening training camp.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better group to coach or to learn how to coach,” he said. “The beauty of this is trying to play it from a different seat. Being a player on the floor or being in a uniform, now being in a suit and trying to prepare, and give my insight of what I see and also what I felt worked to get these guys to execute out on the floor. This training camp, these guys have done everything I’ve asked.”

Fourteen players contributed to the victory for Coach Kidd, who chose to play his starters for the first six minutes of each of the first two quarters of the game before giving them the rest of the night to rest and recover.

Despite playing just 12-and-a-half minutes, Nets center Brook Lopez managed to score 15 points on 6-of-7 from the field. New comers Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett chipped in three and four points respectively. Garnett, who has looked across the court to see Jason playing for the other side dozens of times throughout his career admitted it was strange not only having Jason on his side, but having Jason on his side in a suit.

“It was weird, I’ll be honest, seeing him in his little tight suit drawing up plays,” Garnett joked. “It was good, though. It was great. We’re trying to be whatever he needs us to be here and I’m glad we were able to get a win for him tonight and, better yet, get better tonight. I thought we got better tonight.”

Jason said he believed the starters, who were outscored by three points while on the floor, looked good, but cautioned that there is still much work to be done. Among the tasks over the next several weeks for Coach Kidd and those starters will be incorporating point guard Deron Williams, who sat out the preseason opener and has been limited in practice thus far due to an ankle injury.

“It’s still a process,” Jason said. “It’s still a long ways to go because you’re missing one piece — and that’s Deron.”

Shaun Livingston started in place of Williams and played 19 minutes, but most of the heavy lifting on Tuesday was left to Brooklyn’s bench and the Nets reserves responded well. Backup point guard Tyshawn Taylor led all Nets players with 16 points, Andray Blatche chipped in 14, newcomers Alan Anderson and Andrei Kirilenko scored 13 and 11 points respectively and Mirza Teletovic sank three triples on his way to 15 points.

“Overall, I thought everyone competed from the start to the end. Those guys at the end played their butts off, and that just shows that everybody is on board,” Jason said. “The second group got us going defensively, and that became a game within a game for those two teams…That’s something with this team—the way we’re built, we’re deep. We should always be fresh on the defensive end.”

NEXT UP

The Nets play their second preseason game of the season on Saturday night when they host the Detroit Pistons in Jason’s coaching debut in his new home, the Barclays Center.

Tip-off of Saturday’s contest is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT. It will not be televised in the New York area.