Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks knew that the Cleveland Cavaliers would be hungry for a win.

Cleveland entered its game with Dallas on Monday night sporting an NBA-record 24-game losing streak. But the Cavs had been in close games throughout the streak and seemed to be closing in on a win.

They got close again at the American Airlines Center Monday, but J-Kidd did everything he could to get his team the win. No. 2 finished with six points, eight assists, four rebounds, two steals and a block as the Mavs managed to grab their ninth-straight victory on Monday, 99-96 over Cleveland.

The win maintained Dallas’ second place position in the Western Conference with a record of 36-15. The Mavs had to endure a fight to get there.

Dallas fell behind 8-1 at the outset, but when Jason got his newest teammate Peja Stojakovic, active for the first time this season, involved with a pass that Stojakovic finished with a reverse layup to make it 8-5, things started to get rolling.

The incredible ball movement of the Mavs’ offense impressed Stojakovic.

"It’s a lot of ball movement, and playing with guys like Jason

[Kidd], Dirk [Nowitzki] and Jet [Jason Terry], we draw a lot of attention defensively and there’s definitely going to be a lot of good looks out there," he told ESPN Dallas.

Cleveland pushed its lead back out to seven toward the end of the first, but the Mavs quickly cut it to two when J-Kidd found Jason Terry and DeShawn Stevenson for back-to-back scores. Dallas then finished the quarter on a 5-1 run to take their first lead of the game.

The Mavs held the lead deep into the second quarter as Jason took his first breather of the night. When he returned to the game with just over five minutes left in the half, No. 2 got his three-point shot going and let loose on consecutive triples to push his team to a 15-point advantage, 53-38.

Marc Stein of ESPN noted the amazing three-point threat that Jason has become over the last 10 years:

Jason Kidd is No. 3 all-time in 3-point makes with 1,746 entering Monday’s play. Stojakovic is fifth with 1,718. Boston’s Ray Allen, meanwhile, needs just four 3s more to pass Reggie Miller” 2,560 career triples to seize the all-time league lead.

There was little hint during Kidd’s first seven seasons that he’d be part of this conversation, given that he sunk only 507 3s in that span — 1.03 per game — at a success rate of 32.3 percent. But Kidd’s move to New Jersey in 2001 and subsequent work with shooting guru Bob Thate has resulted in 1,239 triples over the past 10 seasons, good for an average of 1.66 per game on 36.1 percent shooting from long range.

The Mavs led by 10 at halftime, but Cleveland started to close the gap in the third and trailed by just six when Jason made the game’s top play as he found Tyson Chandler on a mid-court inbound pass for the alley-oop. As has been the case so many times this season, Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas gave the duo Play of the Game honors:

"Play of the game: There have been all sorts of Jason Kidd-to-Tyson Chandler alley-oops this season, but this might have been the first off an inbounds play. Chandler caught J.J. Hickson sleeping with a backdoor cut. Kidd delivered the pinpoint pass from about 30 feet away. Chandler soared high above the rim and finished with both hands, eliciting a lot of oohs and ahhs from the crowd in an otherwise rather boring game."

Cleveland tied the game at 77 early in the fourth, but the Mavericks never let them pull ahead and J-Kidd led a charge to the finish. Dallas went on a 16-6 run, during which Jason found three different teammates for key scores. The run was capped when No. 2 fed Ian Mahinmi for a sweet bank shot that gave the Mavs a 93-83 edge. Dallas would not trail the rest of the way.

MANO Y MANO
While adjusting to the pitfalls of an NBA season, Jason and the Mavericks have also adapted their defense to feature a little less in the way of zone principles and a little more man-to-man.

Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas writes that it’s a natural adjustment:

The zone defense that stormed the league and carried the Dallas Mavericks to a 24-5 record is no longer as prominent as the Mavs look to ratchet up their man coverage.

"Teams around the league are getting more sophisticated at attacking it because they’re seeing it more, not just from us, but from other teams," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "If you play it all the time, teams are going to adjust and they’re going to be able to attack it well, so you’ve got to be able to change it up. Look, man defense is going to be your foundation."

As J-Kidd told Caplan, the Mavericks will have to play a lot of man-to-man in the postseason, so now is the right time to start adapting:

"I think we probably have been playing more man of late because you’re going to have to be able to guard at some point in this season," guard Jason Kidd said. "And for us, we’re working on double-teaming and coming out of the double-team…"

Still the Mavericks’ zone can be an effective tool in confusing a team in its offensive sets, if the zone is mixed in adequately. Sebastian Pruiti of Basketball Prospectus recently broke down the Mavs’ zone and what makes it successful in an article you can see here.

MAVS’ POWER RISING
With the NBA’s longest current win-streak under their belts, the Mavs have moved up the ESPN Power Rankings for the week, as Marc Stein explains:

"The Mavericks have climbed five spots to No. 2 in ESPN.com’s weekly NBA Power Rankings.

It’s Dallas’ highest ranking in six weeks, since they appeared at No. 1 on Dec. 27 … which is the same day Dirk Nowitzki suffered a sprained knee in Oklahoma City that wound up costing him nine games in the longest injury absence of Nowitzki’s career.

The Mavs made the jump from No. 7 largely on the strength on their current eight-game winning streak — which is the league’s longest — and a win in Boston on Friday night that gave Dallas regular-season sweeps of the top two teams in the East and improved its record to 6-2 against the Spurs, Celtics, Heat and Lakers. Nowitzki didn’t play in the two losses, both of them inflicted by San Antonio.

This week’s Mavs comment:

"If anyone in Big D feels triumphant after a week of havoc-wreaking, rep-staining weather, it’s the Mavs. Their mojo is back and they’re now 5-2 against the Spurs, Celtics and Heat. (PS: Dirk didn’t play in either L.)"

Jason, however, still wants to see how the Mavericks play at full strength against the NBA’s best:

"We want to see where we stand against one of the elite teams in this league," Jason told CBS Sports.

He’ll have to wait a while, the Mavericks don’t play another game against a division-leading team until after the All-Star Break, March 12th when the Lakers come to Dallas. Between now and then, the Mavs play 14 games, including nine against teams that currently have losing records.

NEXT UP
J-Kidd and the Mavs will be looking to stretch out a winning streak to double digits for the second time this season on Wednesday as they travel to the Golden State where they will take on the Sacramento Kings in the first game of a three-game road trip.

Tip-off is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. CST and game can be seen locally on KTXA.

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