The NBA postseason tips off tomorrow and while many try to formulate how one team or another can or will win a championship, Jason looks at the whole tournament simplistically.

"If you’re good enough to win, you move on. At the end of the day that’s the way you’ve got to look at the playoffs, no matter who you play," he said. "You just have to have a seed. That’s where it starts. If you’ve got a seed, then you believe that you can win a championship. That’s the way that you have to think."

The Mavericks enter the postseason as the Western Conference’s No. 3 seed and they certainly believe they can win the title.

To start, they’ll have to make it through the Portland Trail Blazers, one of the strongest teams in the NBA over the second half of the season. But at this point, Jason noted, a new season begins with all teams back at square one:

"Our record is 0-0. It’s the first team to four," Mavs point guard Jason Kidd said of the first-round, best-of-7 series. "We’re going to have our hands full in the first round. We’re going to have to pay attention to the small details if want to have a chance to advance. The big thing is this is a veteran ballclub, so we know what it takes."

This season the Mavs and the Trail Blazers spilt four games, with each team winning both their games at home.

One key for the Mavericks will be breaking the 100-point threshold, as the team holds the NBA’s best record (43-4) when scoring at least 100 points. But one of those four losses did come at the hands of the Blazers. Passing 100 will be a heavy task against a team that ranks 6th in the NBA in fewest points allowed at 94.7, but the Mavs have done it before.

The season series began in Dallas on December 15th when the Mavericks, behind a near triple-double from J-Kidd (11-6-7), pulled off a 103-98 win.

The next game in the series was more of a defensive battle, with both teams shooting under 43 percent from the field. Jason scored eight points, dished eight assists and grabbed six rebounds. The result was an 84-81 Mavs victory in Dallas.

The series shifted to Portland last month where, despite 14 dimes from No. 2 and crossing the 100-point threshold, the Mavs didn’t have enough for the Blazers. Portland forced 15 Mavs turnovers and capitalized for a 104-101 win.

In the series finale, Portland shot the lights out, hitting a crippling 53.4 percent of their shots from the floor. Jason was held scoreless and limited to just four assists in the 104-96 loss. Following that loss, J-Kidd was given the next two games off and has come back fresh.

SCORING KIDD
While searching for an X-factor in the series, it’s easy to focus on Jason, who creates looks for the Mavs with his creative passing.

But Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas sees another aspect of J-Kidd’s game as critical to the series: his three-point shooting.

"Jason Kidd describes any point production he might amass on any given night as a bonus for his team. Perhaps he should look at it as being far more critical.

Kidd drained 4-of-6 shots from 3-point range, including a pair in the fourth quarter as the Mavs were burying the New Orleans Hornets. There’s little doubt the team receives a detectable boost when Kidd is firing in his shots. He finished with 12 points and it improved the Mavs to 24-6 when Kidd scores at least 10 points in a game.

That means they were 31-19 when he scores in single figures, not a shabby record at all, but not nearly as convincing as when he’s pumping in long-range jump shots. In fact, it could be considered crucial.

"It adds another shooter and it spreads the floor, gives Dirk Nowitzki opportunities to do what he does best," said Kidd of the ripple effects when he’s hitting his shot. "And then, I’m not the guy who’s going to score a lot of points, so it definitely is a bonus when I do score."

On a team that doesn’t always know where it’s second-leading scorer will come from on any given night behind Nowitzki, Kidd’s ability to score between 10 and 12 points a game significantly decreases the scoring burden on the streaky shooting guard Jason Terry as well as small forward Shawn Marion, who has considerably lifted his scoring average since becoming a full-time starter last month."

Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game writes that the Mavs have a big edge from the perimeter for Jason and his teammates to expose:

Dallas’ perimeter shooters should also be in for a field day. According to Synergy Sports Technology, the Blazers rank 25th in the league in their defense of spot-up jumpers on a per possession basis, while the Maverick shooters rank sixth in their points scored per spot-up possession.

This is where being a "jumpshooting team" comes in handy; spot-up jumpshots are a substantial part — 22.7 percent — of the Dallas offense, and happen to be one of Portland’s greatest defensive weaknesses. Let there be a turkey in every pot and a kick-out for every shooter — it’s gonna be a feast from the outside.

To hone in a bit: Portland ranks in the bottom 10 in three-point shooting defense — a big reason why both their points per spot up possession allowed and their opponents’ effective field goal percentage are so high."

But even with all that in mind, the two teams appear to be pretty evenly matched. Dave at Blazersedge provides a thorough break down of the numbers here.

The Mavericks will be making one big change in their lineup entering the playoffs, substituting DeShawn Stevenson for Rodrique Beaubois at the starting shooting guard position. J-Kidd thinks it’s the right move:

"D-Steve stretches the defense being able to shoot it," Jason said, "He’s a veteran guy so he understands different schemes defensively."

Stevenson also gives the Mavericks a little more size at the two-guard, an important factor against Portland’s big lineup. Dallas coach Rick Carlisle knows his team is in for a challenge, as he told the Dallas Morning News:

"They’ve had a terrific year," coach Rick Carlisle said of the Blazers. "They’re extremely physical. It’s going to be a tough series in the painted area. And we’re going to have to move the ball well and take care of it."

Like all the other Mavericks, Carlisle realizes his team is going to have to earn any respect they get from here on out.

"We’re going to go into this thing guns blazing," he said. "There are a lot of doubters. That’s OK. We’ve never said we could talk our way to a winning run in the playoffs. We know we have something to prove in every game and every series."

The series tips off on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. CDT and the game will be televised nationally on ESPN.

"For us right now we have to key in on, what we have to do to play our best," Carlisle said. "If we do that, the result will take care of itself. I like how we played

[in the season finale]. We played tough, physical, we played with an edge. We were efficient offensively and very tough-minded defensively and did a great job on the boards. Those are going to be the kinds of things that are going to be part of a winning formula for us."

Following is the schedule for the entire series:

Game 1 – Sat April 16 Portland at Dallas 8:30 p.m. ESPN

Game 2 – Tue April 19 Portland at Dallas 8:30 p.m. TNT

Game 3 – Thu April 21 Dallas at Portland 9:30 p.m. TNT

Game 4 – Sat April 23 Dallas at Portland 4 p.m. TNT

Game 5 * Mon April 25 Portland at Dallas TBD 

Game 6 * Thu April 28 Dallas at Portland TBD

Game 7 * Sat April 30 Portland at Dallas TBD TNT

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