The Dallas Mavericks were in need of a boost in Game 5 of the Western Conference Quarterfinals on Monday night. So Jason Kidd took the reigns and did what he does best.

J-Kidd dished out a game-high 14 assists, grabbed seven rebounds and even chipped in four points, leading the Mavericks to a 93-82 win over the Portland Trail Blazers. With the victory Dallas took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series, which now swings back to Portland on Thursday night.

"I thought we kept our head and we executed our game plan offensively and defensively," No. 2 said. "That’s how we got a win."

For Jason, it was a matter of giving the game what it needed, one of his mottos for his play. To secure victory in Games 1 and 2, Dallas needed Jason to score—and score he did, averaging 21 points.

In Game 5, back home in the friendly confines of the American Airlines Center after two tough losses in Portland, J-Kidd’s game was all about getting his team in rhythm, finding teammates and controlling the tempo.

According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas, Jason’s performance was exactly what the doctor ordered for the Mavericks:

"Jason Kidd had a pretty four-point performance.

‘You can’t say that often,’ Kidd said with a laugh.

Actually, his path to the Hall of Fame was paved by nights like this. Kidd dished out 14 assists, committed only two turnovers and grabbed seven rebounds while the Mavs had an 18-point edge in his 36 minutes. He was a key to the Mavs’ 93-82 win in over Portland in pivotal Game 5 despite his only bucket being a layup late in the game.

Not that Kidd planned a passing clinic at the expense of scoring points."

Dallas coach Rick Carlisle was thrilled with the future hall-of-famer’s game. But even more so, he said, it was the intangibles that No. 2 brought to the court, which made all the difference in getting the Mavs on track.

"Kidd played a great all-around game," he said. "His shot making wasn’t what it’s been in other games, but his leadership, his presence gives other guys confidence. That’s really important to us."

SETTING THE TONE
Jason’s leadership helped the Mavericks move past their back-to-back losses in Portland, including the historic Game 4 defeat.

Jason told Mavs Moneyball that having the time to think about the loss over the holiday weekend guaranteed that his team would be chomping at the bit, ready to take one back in Game 5.

"We had to sit there all day on Easter and think about it while we were egg hunting," he said.

So when the Mavs came out for shootaround on Monday, J-Kidd was focused:

"What’s happened in the past is over with," he said before the game. "We’ve got Game 5. That’s all we can focus on."

Jason set the pace early, dishing out his first assist on the Mavs’ opening bucket. He followed with three more in the opening quarter, finding Dirk Nowitzki for a pair of baskets and Jason Terry for a deuce.

All told, No. 2 had a hand in four of the six baskets that the Mavs scored in the quarter. He also had three rebounds in the first, but Dallas headed into the second trailing 20-15.

After sitting out the first half of the second quarter, Jason re-entered the game and immediately got back to work, finding his teammates and commanding the floor.

He found Jason Terry for a jumper to cut the Dallas deficit to three. Minutes later J-Kidd dished to JET again for a triple that gave his team its first lead of the game, 30-27. Portland countered with a bucket, but on the other end No. 2 quickly hit Peja Stojakovic for another three-pointer that increased that Mavs’ lead to four, 33-29.

"My guys were knocking down shots, which was a good thing early," J-Kidd told Dallas Basketball. "The big thing was I was finding open guys.

[I tried] to get the ball up the court with 19 or 18 seconds on the shot clock so if they did switch we had plenty of time to work our way through that."

Portland went on a 14-7 run to regain the lead, but No. 2 was able to stop the bleeding when he assisted Shawn Marion on a short jumper. By half the Mavs had captured the lead, 44-43. They would not trail again.

PUTTING THE D IN BIG D
The second half belonged to the Dallas defense.

Through the use of a zone, the Mavericks held the Trail Blazers to just 39 points in the second half and just 19 in the final quarter.

"We were up one at halftime. It’s anybody’s ball game," Jason said. "We came out with defense. It’s been like that the whole series, when we play defense, it gives us a chance to win."

The zone defense was pivotal in grinding the Portland offense to a halt, as No. 2 told Mavs Moneyball:

"It was something we talked about," J-Kidd said of the zone. "And we wanted to see how it looked tonight and I thought it slowed them down and got them against the shot clock. In the past two games, that’s what happened to us, we were fighting the shot clock. So they had to take some tough shots and they’re going to look at the zone and see what they can do to exploit it and it’s a chess match now."

While the defense rattled the Blazers, Jason continued his assist work. racking up four assists for the third straight quarter in the third. Dallas pushed the lead to 12 by the end of the quarter and got it to 20 in the fourth. But unlike Game 4, they refused to let up and give the game back to Portland.

"We got the lead up to 20 and we were right back in that same position," J-Kidd said. "We handled it the right way this time. They’re going to score points. We just wanted to run the clock, be aggressive and knock down our free throws. We did that."

No. 2 had all four of his points in the fourth scoring twice in the final five minutes of the game. He scored his lone bucket when he blew past his defender and went to the hole for a finger roll layup. Then, on Dallas’ next possession, Jason had his hands all over the dagger, as SLAM Online’s Maurice Bobb wrote:

"The signature play of the game was when Gerald Wallace raced down the court to block Shawn Marion’s dunk attempt, only to have the rebound end up in Kidd’s hands, who then kicked it out to Peja Stojakovic to nail a wide-open three ball. That was the nail in the coffin."

It was one of two assists in the fourth for Jason. He added a pair of free throws with 53.4 seconds to go as the Mavs cruised to a double-digit win. Rob Mahoney of The Two Man Game was happy to watch J-Kidd and the Mavs return to what they do best:

Jason Kidd scored four points, but as is usually the case, it didn’t matter. His 14 assists and seven rebounds more than made up for any perceived scoring deficit, and made those three-point-heavy outings to start the series seem like a thing of the past.

I’m sure the Mavs are pleased that the offense need not rely so heavily on Kidd for scoring; team-wide scoring balance is just more fun, and having so many players producing efficiently gives Dallas much greater operational latitude…the Maverick offense has returned to a more natural state, and is functioning as efficiently as ever.

NEXT UP
Dallas travels back to Portland for Game 6 on Thursday at the Rose Garden.

In order to finish the series there, the Mavs would have to become the first team in the nine games the teams have played this season to defeat the other at their home arena. Portland is 4-0 at home against the Mavs this year while the Mavs have taken all five games in Dallas. Closing on the road will be a difficult task, Jason said:

"The hardest thing in this league is to shut the door," he concluded. "We’re going to have our hands full up there in Portland."

Tip-off is scheduled for 9:30 p.m. CST and the game will be televised locally on KTXA and nationally on TNT.

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