Jason Kidd’s impact on Dallas’ Game 1 victory over the Spurs Sunday could not be understated — so much so that even San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich couldn’t deny it.
"Jason was the man," Popovich said. "He was a focused driven individual as usual. They had a lot of people who played well. They played sharper than we did."
No. 2 finished the night with 13 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds in the 100-94 win. The Mavericks now lead the best-of-seven first round series 1-0.
While doing work on the offensive end, J-Kidd also embraced his role as leader of the defense with seven of his eight rebounds made on the defensive end. Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle told DallasBasketball.com that he wasn’t surprised with Jason’s outstanding defense.
"Kidd played great. He was sensational, really, in all areas. In the second half he gave us a spark defensively … He’s been great all year. No surprise it carried into tonight."
Jason explained after the game how the Mavs defensive strategy led them to victory, as quoted on DallasBasketball.com:
"Our defense really played a part tonight even though we missed a lot of wide open shots," Kidd said. "We never got discouraged on the defense end and we deflected a bunch of passes and we were active and we tried to limit them to one tough shot and if they made we had to come down on the other end and make those guys work."
Although he played some tough D, J-Kidd also played a huge role on offense.
Every assist in the third quarter was dished out by none other than the assist king himself. But he wasn’t just facilitating, No. 2’s step-back shot from downtown in the fourth quarter gave the Mavs a comfortable 97-86 lead.
Former Nets teammate and Spurs forward Richard Jefferson told the Star Telegram how impressed he was with Jason’s performance.
"He’s a future Hall of Famer. And he’s going to keep playing at a high level. He’s one of those guys that can make people around him better, and he has a lot of talent around him now."
NEXT UP
Jason and the Mavs can take a commanding lead in their first round series when they take on the Spurs in game two on Wednesday night.
But Jason cautioned that the Mavs can’t let up because they now have the advantage.
"We got off to a really good start tonight but we have our work cut out for us. Tonight was just the beginning and it’s going to be a tough series."
Tip-off is at 8:30 p.m. CST and can be seen nationwide on TNT.
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