Jason Kidd’s share the wealth style of basketball is starting to rub off on his teammates and everyone on the team is benefiting from the movement.

With their offense thriving, the wins just keep on piling up for the Dallas Mavericks.

After their 102-91 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night, the Mavs have won four straight and it looks as though they could be regaining the form that propelled them to an early season record of 24-5. They now sit second in the Southwest Division at 31-15.

J-Kidd finished just shy of another double-double on Saturday, scoring 12 points to go along with eight rebounds, five assists and two steals.

It was the second-straight game that the Mavs had seven different scorers reach double-digit point totals and they dished out 28 assists as a team in the win over Atlanta. Coach Rick Carlisle was happy with the team’s ability to spread the rock and get everyone involved:

"We moved the ball well," Carlisle said. "I think that’s one of the characteristics of our team; we’re unselfish. When we move it good, good things happen."

That unselfish play, of course, starts with the Mavs’ future hall-of-fame point guard, J-Kidd. ESPN Dallas’ Tim MacMahon, wrote that the outstanding ball movement proved to be the difference in the game on Saturday:

"Ball movement is a beautiful thing.

"Shots just seem to go in when you make that extra pass," Jason Terry said.

The Mavs have proven that theory the last couple of games. They had seven players score in double figures for the first time all season in Thursday’s win over the Rockets. Then they did it again during Saturday night’s victory over the Hawks.

The key has been crisp ball movement. The Mavs have had assists on 53 of their 77 baskets in the two games, including 28 of 36 hoops against the Hawks.

"We don’t have one selfish bone on this team," Dirk Nowitzki said."

Both the Hawks and Mavs matched one another point-for-point for much of the opening period.

No. 2 got his night started with a driving layup just two minutes into the game to extend an early Dallas lead to 6-2. Several minutes later, Jason again put the Mavs in front by four when he found Jason Terry on the left wing for a three. After one, the Mavericks led 28-24.

Dallas pushed its lead as high as seven in the second, but Atlanta had cut that edge down to one by the time Jason re-entered the game with four minutes remaining in the first half.

But after the Hawks took the lead on a 7-2 run, No. 2 came up with a huge steal on Atlanta guard Jamal Crawford. The theft resulted in five unanswered points to end the half and give the Mavs a 52-49 lead at the break. Bryan Gutierrez of Mavs Moneyball described the sequence:

"Just before the end of the first half, Jason Kidd stole the ball from Jamal Crawford. Out of pure insanity, Crawford decided to grab Kidd for the foul. It was a clear path to the basket foul and Jason Kidd made both free throws. With the foul, the Mavericks kept possession and DeShawn Stevenson hit a three-point basket. So a turnover by the Hawks resulted in a 5-point swing which allowed the Mavericks to take a 52-49 lead into halftime."

Early in the third, Jason nailed a triple from the center of the arc to give Dallas a 57-51 lead, but by the end of the quarter the Mavs trailed 78-77. However at the beginning of the fourth, as if set to do so, Dallas exploded on a 14-1 run to take a 91-79 lead.

Atlanta fought back to within seven and had possession with less than three minutes to go. But after Al Horford missed a jumper that would have made it a two-possession game, Shawn Marion grabbed the rebound. On the other end the Mavs moved the ball until Marion got the it back and darted toward the lane, collapsing the defense and leaving a wide-open J-Kidd on the perimeter.

Marion dished to Jason, who had time to set his feet on the wing and bury a dagger three to put the Mavs up 10 with 2:17 to go. From there Dallas cruised to victory, holding the Hawks to a mere 13 fourth quarter points.

NEXT UP
Jason and the Mavs will have a chance to sweep their four-game homestand when they take on the Washington Wizards tonight at the American Airlines Center.

Dallas has a good chance of succeeding too. The Wizards have yet to win on the road this year (0-22).

Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. CST and the game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.

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