After tireless work on his shot, Jason Kidd is seeing the results he so desired.

J-Kidd had another strong night from long range on Thursday, sinking 2-of-4 shots from deep to follow up his 5-of-8 performance from three on Wednesday night.

No. 2 finished with eight points Thursday, six of which came on those two threes, and is now 7 of his last 12 from beyond the arc. Jason’s success is a product of hard work and determination. He has learned over the years that the trick is to never give up and keep firing when open, as Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas documented after Wednesday’s game:

He got off to a rough start, with a couple of ugly misses of wide-open looks in the first quarter.

"I could have easily shut it down," Kidd said. "If I was younger, I probably wouldn’t have shot it anymore for the rest of the game."

Kidd is confident he can regain the touch he had while shooting better than 40 percent from 3-point range the previous three seasons.

Kidd vowed after Wednesday morning’s shootaround that he’d just keep shooting when open. It’s a mentality that doesn’t come naturally to one of the best passers of all time, but he understands the Mavs need him to be a perimeter threat to make a playoff run.

"I’ve got teammates who believe in what I’m doing, so they keep pushing me to keep shooting it," Kidd said. "It can only make us better if I can make a couple."

Along with his eight points, No. 2 grabbed six rebounds to go along with three assists, a steal and a block during the Mavs’ 82-77 loss to the Chicago Bulls. With those six rebounds, Jason moved into third place amongst Western Conference point guards as he averages nearly five per game.

Jason netted his first points of the game at the four-minute mark to knot the score at 12. On two of the next three Dallas possessions, J-Kidd found DeShawn Stevenson beyond the arc to help propel the Mavs to a one-point, 20-19, lead at the end of the first.

After a tough second quarter, in which they fell behind, the Mavs bounced right back in the third and erased the nine-point deficit with a 16-4 run that propelled them to a 53-50 lead. No. 2 took part in the scoring barrage by draining two triples from nearly the same spot.

Coach Rick Carlisle was very impressed with his team’s effort during the third:

"I love the way we came out in the third. We really battled defensively, got stops and really clawed our way back into the game. Our offense in the third was much better because we were getting stops."

The Bulls pulled ahead in the fourth and Dallas trailed by five with less than four minutes remaining. No. 2 dished out to Jason Terry for a long jumper to edge the score closer, 76-73 and the Mavs pulled within one at 78-77 with 2:14 to go. But they couldn’t close the gap completely and failed to make another shot in the final two minutes of play.

"For us, we had it right where we wanted it, after an emotional tough game last night," J-Kidd said. "We thought that if we came down the stretch in a one-possession game, it was to our advantage on the road. And we just couldn’t knock down the shot at the end."

Though Derrick Rose and the Bulls pulled out the win, Jason’s defense on the Bulls point guard, who needed 28 shots to score 26 points and shot just 32 percent from the field, drew a rave review from Bryan Gutierrez of Mavs Moneyball:

Jason Kidd did not have the scoring output that he had the previous night against the Lakers but his defensive effort on Derrick Rose was surprising. Kidd knew that Rose would be able zoom past him so he played off of Rose and anticipated his moves pretty well. The veteran guard had an incredible play early in the game where Rose was running on the break for a lay-up and Kidd reached out for the ball and grabbed it and stopped Rose cold in his tracks.

But Jason gave Rose credit for sticking with it and hitting some big shots down the stretch. Jason, a man whose point guard opinion is as well respected as anyone’s, told NBA.com that there’s a lot to like about Rose:

"He’s so athletic," Kidd said. "When they give him the ball, he doesn’t need a pick-and-roll to get to the basket or make something happen. It’s just understanding the time to score. That’s the biggest thing for a young guy.

"The next step, being around Chris Paul and Deron Williams is understanding what it takes to be the best. My big thing was just to be patient. You don’t always have to force it, because he’s athletic. But also to talk. Everybody’s talked about it—I was in that same situation. You don’t have to be a guy who’s a rah-rah, yeller. You just have to learn how to communicate with your teammates to get the best out of them."

NEXT UP
Jason returns to one of the places where he learned the tricks of the trade on Saturday night as the Mavs head to New Jersey to take on the Nets.

No. 2 wants his team to bounce back from their tough loss and improve their play away from home.

"We’ve got to try to get a better record on the road," he said. "We were doing well when the season first started, but now we’ve been giving up some games. So, we’ve got to find a way to win in New Jersey on Saturday, but it’s not gonna be easy."

Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. CST. The game will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.

RELATED STORIES