Last night Dallas played the Atlanta Hawks in Atlanta...and guess what? Jason Kidd beat them! The Hawks are a young and upcoming team...and an almost 37 year old man, picked them apart, shredded them, outsmarted them, and even made their coach look like a complete idiot. It was a thing of beauty.
Kidd's stat line: 19 points, 16 rebounds, and 17 assists.
That is incredible! Kidd is incredible! He took over this game in the latter half of the fourth quarter and took the Hawks to school. Check out this progression...
4th quarter;
8:23 Hawks take a 15 point lead, 86-71
7:59 Dirk scores. Kidd assists. 86-73
7:27 Terry scores. Kidd assists. 86-75
6:58 Dirk scores. Kidd assists. 86-77
(Thats three assists in a row, three baskets in a row. )
4:55 Haywood gets a basket and one and sets up at the line 81-90
4:53 Haywood misses free throw, Kidd gets offensive rebound.
4:50 Terry hits a three, Kidd assists. 84-90
4:32 Kidd steal.
4:28 Barea scores, Kidd assists. 86-90
3:55 Dirk scores a three, Kidd assists. 89-90
2:58 Kidd scores a three. 92-91
2:10 Kidd scores a three. 95-94
(Mike Bibby hits a three so the Mavs' are down 95-97)
1:37 weird play happens...Hawk coach Mike Woodson steps onto the court as Kidd brings the ball up on offense; then Jason Kidd does one of the smartest things I've ever heard of a basketball player doing...he runs into Mike Woodson. Check out the video there. Its amazing. Point is, Mavs' get a technical free throw from Kidd's smart play, Dirk knocks it down. 96-97
0:56 Kidd scores a three. 99-97 Dallas.
The game goes into overtime, where the Mavs' out score the Hawks 12-4 and get their sixth straight win 111-103.
So as I see it, Jason Kidd put the Mavs on his back and willed them to a win last night. Assist, assist, assist, offensive rebound, assist, steal, assist, assist, three-pointer, three-pointer, GENIUS play, three-pointer. What more can I say? Thats twelve HUGE game changing plays that he made in the final minutes of the game. How often can you say that Dirk Nowitzki scored 37 points but he was the second best player on the court tonight? Almost never! Dirks 37 is a huge deal...but he scored Jason Kidd's age, and the bigger deal is that Kidd would not let his team lose!
Kidd's 15+,15+,15+ (points, rebounds, assists) is the first time that he anyone in the NBA has done that since 1996 when a young man named...Jason Kidd did it! This was his 104th triple-double...he's third on the all-time list behind Magic Johnson and Oscar Robertson. To put this in perspective, the two "greatest players in the world" Lebron James and Kobe Bryant only have 18 and 14 respectively...Kobe has been in the league 12 years...he's only got 14 triple-doubles. Kidd has played for 14 years and has 104. Incredible!
The Mavs' did this again without (seemingly) their second biggest threat in Caron Butler and their (seemingly, now) backup center in Erick Dampier. They beat the Lakers short handed, and the beat a very good Hawks team by coming from 15 down in the final 6 minutes short handed. How good are they? Kidd looks young, Dirk looks rejuvenated, Terry looks comfortable, Marion is getting better and better, Haywood looks like a beast under the basket...is there anywhere to go but up? How far can this Mavericks team go? I guess we'll have to see. But the schedule bodes well for the Mavs' coming up is a 12 game stretch where the only good team they have to play is Boston once at home; in fact 7 of those games are at home. They should win a bunch of games the next couple of weeks.
Once again, in the words of Rick Carlisle: "Jason Kidd was the driving force behind everything at the end of the game," he said. "The performance he had was an all-time performance, especially for someone who's 36 years old. This is one for the ages. I don't think there's ever been a smarter player in this league than Jason Kidd. There may be a few equals, like Magic, Larry Bird and Michael [Jordan], but none smarter."
There you have it...there's no one smarter on a basketball court than Jason Kidd. He's...Unbelievable!
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