As Tuesday night’s intra-city battle between the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets came to a close in a 100-97 victory for the visiting Knicks at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Jason Kidd wound up at mid court and, in a rare show of on-court emotion, let out a huge fist pump toward the hardwood.


Jason Kidd knocked down his sixth three of the night with 24 seconds left to give the Knicks a win in Brooklyn (Getty Images).

After the game, when asked about the celebration, Jason wondered aloud if he looked like another athlete known for clutch shots on a different playing surface.

"Did I look like Tiger Woods? I’ve been working on that on the golf course," he joked. "I’m a competitor. I want to win. It might be biggest celebration you’ll get out of me."

It was J-Kidd who gave himself and his teammates something to celebrate, with another moment of out the "vintage Jason Kidd" category. His three-pointer with 24 seconds left in the game broke a 97-97 tie and, after two failed attempts by the Nets to send the game to overtime, sent New York to their 16th win of the season.

Jason finished with 18 points, all from beyond the arc, on 6-of-8 shooting. His continued success in his 19th NBA season — in which J-Kidd is shooting nearly 53 percent from three over the first quarter of the year — made Knicks center Tyson Chandler remark after the game that his teammate is "father time."

"He has a brilliant basketball IQ," Chandler said. "He makes shot after shot, play after play — whether it’s a steal, whether it’s a three, whether it’s diving for a ball. He just makes play after play after play, and I don’t understand it. That’s the reason why he’s a Hall of Famer."

But on Tuesday night, with the score tied at 97 and the clock ticking down in the second Clash of the Boroughs, the Nets didn’t pay J-Kidd the respect of a future Hall-of-Famer. With just less than 30 seconds left, Jason found himself all alone on the left wing.

On the other side of the court, teammate Raymond Felton had the ball and with the shot clock at eight seconds, Felton started a drive towards the paint. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw J-Kidd, then 5-for-7 for the night from three, standing out in three-point land with no Brooklyn players for what seemed like miles.

"I penetrated, saw his man took a step, two steps actually, inside the paint and said, ‘It was a wrap,’ Shot that pass right to him," Felton said. "That man’s 5-for-7 for the game. You leave him, I’m going right to him."

Felton delivered a perfect, chest high pass, Jason set his feet, and with the Nets’ Jerry Stackhouse closing in, sent a shot towards the rim in a high arc. As No. 5 came down from his shot, Stackhouse collided with him, sending the New York Knick sprawling onto the hardwood.

After hitting the floor, No. 5 looked up in time to watch his shot swish through the net. J-Kidd had just given his team a three-point lead with only 24 seconds left in the game.

"That’s why we went and got him," said teammate Carmelo Anthony, who played a starring role on Tuesday with 45 points of his own. "We know how much of a big-time player he is, especially coming down the stretch, how smart of a player he is. But for them to leave a guy like that open… he came up big-time for us tonight."

The collision that sent Jason to the ground was enough to draw a whistle from the ref. J-Kidd missed the resulting free throw, which would have pushed the game to a two-possession contest, but it was rendered irrelevant when the Nets missed two attempts to send the game to overtime.

"It was just a big game for us to come back and get a win," No. 5 said. "The fist pump was just the end of the game, the emotion."


Jason rises to his feet after his trey put the Knicks ahead by three with 24 seconds left Tuesday night (Getty Images).

According to Jason, the play that led to the deciding three-pointer was something that the Knicks ran through in practice. The original design is for the ball to go to Anthony, but when the Nets took him away, it was up to Felton to figure out who had the best shot at knocking it down.

"When they doubled Melo, we had practiced that somebody’s going to get a wide-open look, and Ray made a great pass," Jason said. "I talked to Ray about it a little bit and told him, ‘If there’s any trouble, I’ll be open.’"

ADJUSTING ON THE TREY
Perhaps it’s the Nets’ own fault that J-Kidd is as money as he is now from beyond the arc in those big spots.

There was a time, back when Jason was a member of the Nets 10 years ago, that he wouldn’t have been the guy to make that shot. During his first three seasons with the Nets, J-Kidd shot just 32.9 percent from deep and long range shooting was a weakness. But as he passed the age of 30, No. 5 could feel himself slowing down and as Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated tells it, knew he needed to adjust.

It was early in the 2005-2006 season, and Jason Kidd could feel himself starting to slow down. His speed in the open floor had diminished, his first step had dulled and, said Kidd, "I couldn’t keep up with the little guys."

He resolved then, at 32, to change. To develop some distance, some diversity in his game. He started working with shooting coach Bob Thate, who corrected his balance, squared him up and extended his release. Kidd made 35 percent of his three-pointers in 2005-06. In ’08-09, he made 40.6 percent, and 42.5 percent the following year. This season Kidd, 39, has knocked down 52.8 percent of his threes, including a backbreaking bomb with 24.1 seconds left to push New York to a 100-97 victory over the Nets on Tuesday.

Twenty-something players, take note: Kidd uncovered the secret to NBA longevity years ago. Most players on Kidd’s level can’t be bothered to adapt or talked into changing. Allen Iverson could still be a contributing sixth man if he didn’t find a reserve role insulting. Gilbert Arenas would be wearing an NBA uniform, not a Chinese one, if he better adjusted to his limitations. Few understand that when age catches up to you, you need something to beat it back.

"I’ve always taken pride in defense, in competing," Kidd said. "But at some point you have to be able to do something different. That’s when I felt if I’m going to be around in this game for a little bit, I have to make a jump shot."

The work Jason has put in seems to be paying off in a big way. He is currently second in the NBA in three-point field goal percentage and stands as one of many threats for the Knicks beyond the arc.

As a team they shot 50 percent (14-of-28) from deep against the Nets and Jason made plenty of other big threes in the game.

His triple just a minute into the second half brought New York within a single-point of the lead and when Felton hit a mid-range jumper moments later, the Knicks had officially erased a 17-point deficit to pull ahead.

Deron Williams led the Nets on a big run to establish an eight point lead late in the third, but J-Kidd hit another three to cut it back down to five and the Knicks trailed by that margin entering the fourth.

After a brief break, No. 5 returned to the game with just under nine minutes remaining and the Knicks mounting another surge. His only steal of the night set up Anthony for free throws to trim Brooklyn’s lead to four.

Then he dished one of his six assists on the night to Anthony for a jumper to make it a one-point game.

A dunk by Andray Blatche put the Nets back in front by three, but Jason answered with triple from the corner to tie the game at 91, setting up a four-minute race to the finish.

A CALL TO ACTION
Somehow, despite all of that, the Nets left him wide open on that last Knicks play, perhaps because they were fearful of Anthony, he of the 45 points on a ridiculous 15-of-24 from the field.

"I just try to make the game easy for him," Jason said. "With Melo, I’ve been working with him every day, telling him that he doesn’t have to fight to get the ball. Just relax."

That mentality from J-Kidd has helped Anthony mature into a bonafide MVP candidate this season. And if you ask Tyson Chandler, he’ll tell you he saw it coming. It’s why he placed a call to Jason this offseason, trying to lure him to New York as a free agent. Tyson had seen the way that J-Kidd worked with Dirk Nowitzki during their stint together on the 10-11 NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks and saw him as a perfect fit to help the Knicks reach that level.

"I told him, ‘You’re needed over here and we have an opportunity to get your second

[championship] ring," Chandler recalled to Ken Berger of CBS Sports after Tuesday’s win. "I told him, ‘This organization is willing to make moves and willing to chase a ring, willing to put the players in the right place.’ I told him, ‘We have some other guys that we may get in free agency, so this could be a really deep roster and we need a guy like you.’ I felt like he could be the key to put us over the hump."


No. 5 and his teammates celebrate his big trey in the fourth (Getty Images).

So far, so good. Behind the leadership of J-Kidd, the MVP play of Anthony and the defensive intensity of Chandler, the Knicks are 16-5, tops in the Eastern Conference. They’ve had some big wins — two 20-point victories over the Miami Heat come to mind — but perhaps none more important than Tuesday’s win over the upstart Nets, New York’s new team and the last team to represent the area in the NBA Finals, when Jason led them there 10 years ago.

But that was a long time ago and J-Kidd is on the other side now, though he says beating his former team bears no special meaning. He sounds like the leader New York needs him to be when he talks about the Nets now.

"I think it’s great for the city to have two good teams. I’m happy they’re here in Brooklyn, got a great arena, a great fan base and a good team. I wish them well," he said. "Different uniform, different team, I’m too old for [vengefulness]. It’s just another game."

NEXT UP
J-Kidd and the Knicks will be back on their home floor on Thursday night for another nationally televised game against the floundering Los Angeles Lakers.

The Lakers have lost three straight games and at 9-13 sit near the bottom of the Western Conference. They have been without point guard Steve Nash, one of Jason’s good friends, since the second game of the season. Still the Knicks realize Los Angeles is a dangerous opponent that can’t be taken lightly.

"They have so much talent over there, so we’re going to have our hands full on Thursday," Jason said. "Kobe is leading the league in scoring and you look around that roster, they’re very deep and talented."

Tip-off from Madison Square Garden is scheduled for 8 p.m. and the game can be seen on TNT.

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