The part of their game that Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks prided themselves on during their early season run has let them down of late.

The Dallas offense continued to run like a well-oiled machine on Tuesday night, producing 30 assists, including 14 from J-Kidd. Those dimes led to a remarkable 59.7 percent shooting percentage from the field for the Mavs. For all intensive purposes, those numbers generally mean a ‘W.’

But it was once again the Dallas defense that was their undoing in a 104-101 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Portland shot 47 percent from the field and was the beneficiary of 15 offensive rebounds and 15 turnovers. Their second efforts produced just enough for the win.

In an interview with the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram earlier this month, J-Kidd addressed what he thought was the biggest issue for the Mavs as the season winds down.

"Defensively, that’s something that we’ve got to address is being able to get stops,” Jason said last week. "Making sure that we can bring the shooting percentage down for some of these teams that have been shooting 47 or 50 percent against us.

"We’ve been still winning,” Kidd said. "But we’ve got to address (the defense) if we want to have any chance to win in the playoffs.”

Two weeks later, that defense J-Kidd was referring to is costing the Mavericks games they should win.

The last time the Mavs shot as well as they did Tuesday and still suffered defeat was exactly 20 years ago—March 15, 1991.

The Mavs started Tuesday’s game off in fantastic style, hitting each of their first 11 shots. No. 2, as per usual, was a big part of the scoring barrage early, finding his teammates for open looks and easy buckets.

After jumping out to an early 7-5 lead, Jason fed his teammates on five of the next eight scoring trips to push the Mavs’ lead to 24-18 with five minutes remaining in the first period. By the end of the first quarter, No. 2 had seven dimes and Dallas led 32-29.

After playing the entire first, Jason took a short breather and then re-entered the contest late in the second with his team trailing. He immediately began doing what he does best.

J-Kidd first found Jason Terry for a mid-range jumper at the three-minute mark that snatched the lead back, 48-47. Moments later, Jason hit a free throw for his only point of the night and then capped the half by finding Roddy Beaubois at the top of the arc for a triple that gave the Mavs a 56-53 lead.

J-Kidd didn’t miss a beat early in the second half as he found Dirk and then Beaubois again for the trey to cap a 7-2 run. But the Mavs’ defense faltered and Portland answered with a 14-5 run that spanned nearly four minutes.

The Blazers entered the final frame with a tenuous two-point lead, 82-80, but Dallas was never able to get closer than that and a last second 3-point attempt to tie rimmed out. Head coach Rick Carlisle told Mavs Moneyball that offensive rebounding and turnovers were to blame for the loss.

"I think the story of the game was just the possessions. They got 18 more shots up than we did, because we struggled to finish off possessions and they got a lot of offensive rebounds. And the turnovers they forced turned into 22 points and we forced seven that turned into eight, so that’s a huge difference. That to me is the biggest part of the game and down the stretch they made plays."

For the season, the Mavs remain an outstanding team when scoring at least 100 points. This was just their fourth loss in 40 such games this year. Along with J-Kidd’s assist totals, he grabbed five rebounds and finished with a solid plus-four rating. The 14 dimes were the most of his career when scoring one point or fewer.

J-KIDD OR THE GLOVE?
The current generation is dominated by point guard play and a new superstar point enters the league at a seemingly yearly pace.

But it wasn’t too long ago when two point men ruled the roost, Gary Payton and J-Kidd. In an editorial for Dime Magazine, Kristofer Habbas examines the two and tries to pick the best:

When you get into the all-time ranks and numbers list, these two are closer than you think. While Kidd is far and away ahead in certain categories, so is Payton.

The clear edge for Kidd is in assists (11,438 to 8,966) and a small lead in steals (2,447 to 2,445), where historically he is ranked second and third all-time respectively. Always known as a pass-first point guard, Kidd has the ability to retire far enough ahead of the pack in assists (will not catch Stockton) and steals (should be No. 1).

Then you have Payton who scored more (21,813 to 16,665) and had a better grip on the orange (3,030 to 3,797) with less turnovers. He is well ahead of Kidd in both of those categories with no threat of being caught. As a scorer, Payton was much more dynamic and prolific.

Pretty even overall.

The Trump Card comes in two forms. The first is rebounding, where Kidd all-time has more boards than big men like Chris Webber, Alonzo Mourning and Kevin McHale. Despite Payton’s physical nature, athleticism and size, he never was a major impact on the boards throughout his career. Kidd is arguably the best under 6-6 rebounder ever, and is currently 55th all-time in rebounds, first among point guards who played in the era where rebounding was tracked. Payton is 187th all-time and fouth among point guards.

The second is miscellaneous statistics, but they back Kidd as well in a large way. He has 485 double-doubles and 107 triple-doubles compared to Payton’s 260 and 15. Kidd is third all-time in triple-doubles, and among the greats in double-doubles.

To read Habbas’ entire piece and see who he believes is the better of the two, click here.

NEXT UP
Tonight, J-Kidd returns to an area where he and Payton both dominated as youngsters, the Bay Area in Northern California.

The Mavs are in NoCal to take on the Golden State Warriors, a team they have beaten four-straight times. Dallas will be looking to get back on track after two consecutive defeats.

Tip-off is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. CST. The game can be viewed locally on Fox Sports Southwest and nationally on ESPN.

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