Win or go home has taken on added meaning for Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks.

The Mavericks return home to Dallas today and find themselves in a do-or-die situation after dropping Game 4 of their first round playoff series to the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday night. After winning the first game of the series, the Mavs have lost three straight and the Spurs hold a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.


Jason during Sunday’s game (Getty Images).

Now the Mavericks must win on their home court on Tuesday or they can stay home for good. J-Kidd, who is averaging a team-high 42.3 minutes in this series, told ESPN he’s looking for his balance to help the Mavs survive.

"They’re running me off, they’re contesting the 3 so I got to make the adjustment to that and be a little bit more patient and be a little bit more aggressive, too, at the same time," Kidd said. "So I got to find that balance."

Dallas’ downfall on Sunday came in the third quarter when the Spurs took an 11-point lead, holding Big D to six scoreless minutes. Though they rallied late, Dallas was unable to complete a comeback. No. 2 scored 10 points, grabbed seven boards and dished out five assists in the 92-89 loss. But Jason, who averaged 9.2 assists per game in the regular season, is only averaging 7.3 apg in the playoffs.

He told ESPN that although he has been lacking in the assist column, he is staying positive and plans on he and his teammates heading back to San Antonio to play on Thursday night in Game 6.

"Well, we’re not making shots, which takes away from the assists," Kidd said. "The big thing is that we got great looks. We got to keep positive and knock down those shots when they present themselves on Tuesday and try to get back here on Thursday."

MINUTE MAN
No. 2 is averaging more minutes than anyone on his team in this series.

With that in mind, Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle excused Jason from practice on Saturday, giving him a well-deserved break. But J-Kidd told ESPN that he’s holding up well.

"I feel great. It’s just the ball’s not going in for me behind the arc," Kidd said. "The big thing is that I can do something different to help the team win. That’s maybe making plays and getting the ball in the paint."

The Spurs have been relentless in their efforts to stop the 37-year old guard and Carlisle has noticed, as he told ESPN.

"They’re closing out on him hard because of how well he shot the ball," Carlisle said. "We’ve got to have an awareness of that as a team and we’ve got to facilitate situations to take advantage of that."

He went on to say that even if Jason’s scoring is down, he’s still helping his team more than he knows.

"We just need him to play his overall game. He’s a great all-around player. He facilitates so many things for us and so much of the time it’s in very subtle ways," Carlisle said. "It’s not like we need him to have a breakout scoring game or a breakout this or that. We just need him to do what he does. We got to have everybody step up."

Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki knows his veteran teammate will do whatever he can to help his team, as he told the Star-Telegram.

"Kidd’s a warrior," Nowitzki said. "He’s going to be there for us. We know that."

NEXT UP
Do-or-die Game 5 is Tuesday Night at American Airlines Center in Dallas.

Jason’s plan is to take the series one game at a time from here on out, as he told DallasBasketball.com.

"We’re not looking at three straight," Kidd said. "We’re just looking at Game 5 and that’s as far as we can look."

Tip-off is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. CST and the game an be seen on NBATV.

RELATED STORIES
Mavericks at Spurs Boxscore (NBA.com, April 26, 2010)
http://www.nba.com/games/20100425/DALSAS/gameinfo.html?ls=gt2hp0040900154
Kidd, averaging 42 minutes, rests (ESPN.com, April 24, 2010)
/id/4668611/time-for-kidd-to-step-up-as-leader">http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/mavericks/post//id/4668611/time-for-kidd-to-step-up-as-leader