The Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat lock up in a pivotal Game 5 of the NBA Finals tonight at the American Airlines Center and, as has been the theme of the series, the game will likely revolve around who gets the defensive stops to put their opponent away.

In that regard, Jason Kidd will once again be relied upon heavily to check the Miami guards Dwyane Wade, Mike Bibby and Mario Chalmers, as well as forward LeBron James.


LeBron James will be one of the many Heat players Jason Kidd checks tonight in Game 5.

James finished with just eight points in Game 4 and spent much of the second half with J-Kidd attached to his every move. But No. 2 knows the Mavs must be mindful of an aggressive James looking to assert himself this evening.

"He’s so talented you try to make it tough on him," Jason said. "He’s going to score. He’s going to find open guys."

Jason’s role in making it tough on both James and Wade to create opportunities, both for themselves and for others, can not be understated, writes Zach Lowe of SI.com’s The Point Forward:

"Once those feet are set, though, Kidd can fight an opponent. Watch film of his pick-and-roll defense in this series, and one thing jumps out: He is never, ever out of position. He’s not a lockdown pick-and-roll defender; he falls behind Wade and James while chasing them over screens, just like everyone else does. He needs Tyson Chandler’s help in jumping off the screener and containing the ball-handler for a few seconds to recover from the pick.

This is basic stuff, but it’s stuff teams screw up all the time. You’ll often see the guard and the big man who are defending pick-and-rolls miscommunicate, jump to the wrong side or bump into each other. You hardly ever see this with Kidd and Chandler, or even Kidd and Nowitzki. Kidd will gamble for a steal now and then, and he has lost Wade on some box-outs and backdoor cuts at the end of Miami possessions. But he plays his part in the most fundamental aspect of the Mavericks’ defense, and he does so almost perfectly."

In the final quarter of Game 4, J-Kidd and the Mavericks used multiple defensive schemes to frustrate the Heat. The result was just 14 points scored by Miami in the fourth, allowing the Mavs to seize control late in the game and pull out the series-tying win. Of the schemes Dallas used, perhaps most successful was the zone defense, which kept Miami from scoring in the paint.

Miami scored 40 of their 83 points in the paint in Game 4, but only six in the fourth quarter. The Dallas zone defense helped limit the Heat to just four shot opportunities in the paint in the fourth. But Jason realizes that the key to the effectiveness of the zone defense is making it an uncommon and confusing look for the opponent.

"You can’t show them a steady diet of a zone, because they’ll make their adjustments on the fly," he said. "They did that in Game 1 when they got a lot of open threes. So you have to throw some change-ups on them where they get a different look here and there. And then you hope they miss so they take a tough shot."

TAKING CONTROL
Game 5 represents another opportunity for the Mavericks to seize control of the series. A win tonight would put Dallas just one win away from a championship and give them two chances to clinch it.

It’s an opportunity Jason has longed for since he was in an identical position eight years ago when his Nets split the first four with the San Antonio Spurs in the 2003 Finals. The Spurs went on to win the next two games to claim the NBA title. J-Kidd’s trade to Dallas and the extension he signed with the Mavs were moves aimed at reaching his goal of returning to this point.

"It’s hard for me to say what I needed to do in that way with my career, but I just knew that I wanted to compete for a championship," Jason told Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. "I knew the opportunity that would be here, the chance to play with Dirk, to try and do this all now."

Tonight will also mark the 100th game of the season for J-Kidd, between 80 regular season games and now 20 in the playoffs, but he says he’s not feeling too many after effects of the grind. He is, however, focused on improving his play over the next two to three games to help the Mavericks close out a title.

"I feel great," he said. "I have to make sure I take better care of the ball especially at the beginning of the game. I feel mentally and physically good."


Tonight marks the last game of the season for the Mavs at American Airlines Center.

Win or lose, Game 5 will be the last one the Mavs play at American Airlines Center this season with Games 6 and 7 (if necessary) both slated for Miami. Dallas is focused on going out strong.

"Well, this is our last game this year in this building, and our fans have been phenomenal all three years I’ve been here, especially this year," coach Rick Carlisle told Mavs Fastbreak. "So, this is an opportunity for us to really put it all out there, because we’re not gonna be back in here. … We love pressure. And I think the more the pressure’s on, the better our team has functioned all year long. So, you know, bring it on."

Game 5 of the NBA Finals tips off at 8 p.m. CST and can be seen on ABC.

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