Those looking for lessons in leadership need look no further than Jason Kidd. The future hall-of-famer continues to epitomize that quality on a daily basis.

There is, after all, a reason that Miami Heat coach Eric Spoelstra recently called No. 2 the "ultimate quarterback."

J-Kidd’s leadership shone through once again after the Dallas Mavericks suffered a 92-87 defeat in Game 1 of the NBA Finals at the hands of Spoelstra’s Heat.


Jason shrugged of the Mavs’ Game 1 loss and turned his focus to getting one back in Game 2.

The loss marked the first time this postseason that Dallas has fallen behind in a series. But J-Kidd quickly shrugged off suggestions that the defeat had somehow clinched the series for the Heat.

"There’s a first for everything," he said. "We’ve got to find a way to win on Thursday."

Then Jason went about pinpointing the reasons behind the defeat and how the Mavericks can get better for Game 2. Although the future hall-of-famer had stuffed the stat sheet and contributed to the tune of nine points, six assists, four rebounds and a block, No. 2 started by taking the onus on himself to be better in leading the Dallas offense, as Calvin Watkins of ESPN Dallas’ writes:

"After a Game 1 performance where the Mavericks offense shot a playoff-low 37.3 percent from the floor and looked tentative at times, veteran point guard Jason Kidd took the blame.

"No, it’s on me," Kidd said before Wednesday’s practice. "We’ve got to get out and run,

[get] easy baskets and also play in flow and put pressure on their defense and make them rotate."

"We didn’t play our game," Kidd said. "If we would have won, we might have played our game. Again, we did too many things where we didn’t rebound the ball or we turned the ball over again. We’ve got to make shots and we just didn’t."

Jason’s teammate Shawn Marion agreed with the floor general’s analysis and said the Mavericks need to get back to their style of playing on the go.

"I think we were calling so many sets, it just kind of took the rhythm out of everything we normally do," Marion said. "When we’re out there freelancing and just playing the game and making it up as we go, we’re one of the best."

A DEFENSIVE STRUGGLE
Despite the Mavs’ offensive troubles, their defense was outstanding. Dallas held Miami to just 92 points and allowed them to make just 38 percent of their shots.

According to Bob Sturm of the Dallas Morning News, the effort bodes well for the Mavs:

"We must all keep our heads. It is merely 1 game. But, we must also realize that last night gave us many clues about how some of these match-ups are going to go.

There is no doubt that the Mavericks now have enough defensive talent on their squad that they can make teams really, really work for points. I am so impressed with how Dallas has put a lineup on the floor where defense is not near the issue it has been over the years. I am equally impressed with how Carlisle has designed a zone defense that actually works.

Miami took so many 3 pointers last night that they were clearly kept from the places they like to score. In the regular season, Miami attempted about 18 3’s a game. In the playoffs, it has dropped to 16.8 3s per game. Last night, they took 24 and made 11 of them. Very impressive work by Dallas to force long shots from all of the Miami a offensive threats."

The defensive tone of the game was set early on both sides. as the Mavs scored just 17 points in the opening 12 minutes while holding their high-powered counterparts to just 16. Jason had high praise for the Miami defense, as quoted by Mavs Moneyball:

"They’re physical," he said. "They’re not going to let you get to your spot. They’re going to be physical and make sure that you got to go to your second move, and that’s what they did tonight."

The Mavs grabbed the lead after one thanks to some clutch shooting from No. 2. With his team having fallen behind early, Jason delivered triples on back-to-back possessions to cut the deficit very quickly to a mere two points, 13-11. Prior to the quarter’s end, J-Kidd would find Jason Terry for another three-pointer, part of a 9-3 run as Dallas took a 17-16 lead into the second.

Jason re-entered the game late in the first half, after taking a breather, and immediately got to work on getting Dirk Nowitzki into a scoring rhythm. He found the big man for a quick layup and then dished to Nowitzki in the right corner for a trey that pulled the Mavs to within one, 35-34, with three minutes remaining in the half. At the break, Dallas had regained a slim lead, 44-43.

The third started off in fantastic fashion for the Mavs. After a short jumper by Shawn Marion, a bucket from Dirk off a J-Kidd pass and a triple from DeShawn Stevenson, Dallas had its largest lead of the game.

The Heat responded, however, with an 18-6 run that spanned the majority of the quarter. The Mavs managed to cut into their deficit with a few points at the end of the quarter and trailed by just four, 65-61, entering the fourth. But Miami kept their foot on the gas to take a double-digit lead midway through the fourth.

Dallas pulled back to within six with a minute remaining in the game, but could never quite close the deficit. Jason scored his final three points with a shot that hit nothing but net in the final three seconds of play. According to J-Kidd, if the Mavs hope to win Game 2, they will need to a better job of selecting and making shots.

"We’ve got to get more shots up," he said. Shooting 67 shots isn’t going to win any games. That puts too much pressure on your defense."

NEXT UP
Jason and the Mavs now face an important game on Thursday night in Miami.

A victory would put the Mavs in excellent position heading back to Dallas for Game 3 on Sunday. Head coach Rick Carlisle is sure that his team will be better prepared for Game 2:

"We’ll play better, I’m very certain of that. Shots we normally make, they didn’t go down. But it’s a long series. They were more opportunistic tonight than we were. That’s been one of the traits of our run — we’ve been very opportunistic."

The game tips off at 8 CST and will be televised on ABC.

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