With elimination staring them in the face, Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks delivered a blowout performance on Tuesday night against the San Antonio Spurs, extending their season for at least one more game.

Mavs forward Caron Butler stole the show with a career playoff-high 35 points, but he attributed his breakout performance to teammates like J-Kidd, as he told DallasBasketball.com after the game.

"Just being aggressive at all times, wasn’t second-guessing myself, if the shot was there taking it," Butler said. "Jason Kidd; all my teammates doing a great job of finding me in rhythm and flow. Just back against the wall. Didn’t want to go home."


Jason scoring during the blowout win that forced Game 6 (Getty Images).

No. 2 helped Butler’s flow by finding him under the basket twice in the 103-81 win. Jason ended the night with 10 points, seven assists, seven rebounds and two counts of hardwood thievery.

Gil LeBreton marveled at Jason’s uncanny ability to make his teammates better players, as he wrote in his story for the Star-Telegram:

"After averaging less than 18 points in the first quarter in their last three games, the Mavericks put 27 on the board in Game 5. It’s amazing, some might say, what Kidd can do when he has somebody to pass to."

Jason called the shots and played the game at his tempo – fast. The veteran capitalized on transition points and fast breaks all night, and Spurs forward Richard Jefferson couldn’t help but notice, as he told DallasBasketball.com.

"They’re a team where, with guys like Jason Kidd, Shawn Marion, and Caron Butler, whenever you turn the ball over they’re going to turn that into transition points and they did a good job of that tonight."

NEXT UP
There’s no time for celebration as J-Kidd and the Mavs have their eyes on winning Game 6 on Thursday night in San Antonio and heading back to Big D for Game 7.

Tip-off of Game 6 is at 7 p.m. CST and the game can be seen nationwide on TNT.

RELATED STORIES
Butler’s 35 points help Dallas close playoff gap (Star Telegram, April 28, 2010)
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/04/28/2147526_p2/butlers-35-points-help-dallas.html#ixzz0mPKsf7Gb
Game 5 quoteboard: ‘We’re coming back,’ says Mavs’ Jason Terry (DallasBasketball.com, April 28, 2010)
http://www.dallasbasketball.com/fullColumn.php?id=2972
Spurs at Mavericks Boxscore (NBA.com, April 28, 2010)
http://www.nba.com/games/20100427/SASDAL/gameinfo.html?ls=gt2hp0040900155