Jason tried to lead Dallas to another dramatic comeback victory, but in the end, Dallas dug itself too big of a hole, falling to the short-handed Oklahoma City Thunder, 96-87.
With the team out of sorts and down big entering the fourth quarter, Jason tried to orchestrate some late-game heroics. Down by 20, No. 2 got the Mavs running and managed to whittle the lead down to four points off of his 3-pointer. (J-Kidd also had three assists and three steals down the stretch.)
Jason finished with 9 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, and 6 steals.
Coach Carlisle talked to Mavs Moneyball about Dallas’ slow start Monday night:
“Well, I just though the first three quarters were a pitiful display for a team that has aspirations to be in the playoffs and try to move up in the standings. We’ve seen this before, too many times. We screw around for two or three quarters, and then we want Jason Kidd to bail us out with steals, hustle plays, and fast break opportunities. It’s just too much to ask.”
“I give OKC a lot of credit, for three quarters they dominated play with their sense of urgency and how well they were playing—without their two best players. That’s a credit to them but it reflected very poorly on us.”
BOWLING FOR CHARITY
Saturday night Josh Howard had his secnd annual Celebrity Bowling Night that many Mavs players participated in, including J-Kidd.
Anytime professional athletes compete there is a lot of trash-talking involved, and the bowling tournament was no different. Jason could be heard telling the Mavs Blog all about Nowitzki’s poor bowling game and accessing the chances of its host to take home the trophy:
“We know Dirk isn’t that good. He spends too much time in the gym.’‘
“Josh probably has three or four bowling balls and takes this seriously. So he would be the ‘A’ player. The rest of us would just fall in line.’‘
The tournament was a charity event for the Josh Howard Foundation that is geared mostly to helping out kids. With the kids on hand to get autographs and play video games to their hearts content, Jason talked about how great the event was that Josh had put on with the Mavs Blog:
“Anytime you can come support your teammate in any event, it’s always a good thing. Outside of basketball, it’s fun to raise money for charity. And kids get to see us trying something different and interacting.’‘
NEXT UP
The Mavs get another chance to beat their in-state rival the Spurs Wednesday night at 7pm. This game can be seen on ESPN.
RELATED STORIES
Mavericks 87, Thunder 96 (ESPN.com, Mar. 2nd, 2009)
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=290302025
Shame Game: Postgame Quotes (Mavs Moneyball, Mar. 2nd, 2009)
http://www.mavsmoneyball.com/2009/3/2/778605/shame-game-postgame-quotes
Mavericks @ OKC (MavsWiki, Mar. 2nd, 2009)
http://www.mavswiki.com/index.php?title=03/02/2009_Mavericks_%40_OKC
Mavericks are bowlers too (Mavs Blog, Mar. 1st, 2009)
http://mavsblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/03/mavericks-are-bowlers-too.html