Jason Kidd Unexpectedly Delivers for Mavs As Blazers Fall in Game 1

Portland did not execute down the stretch, and Jason Kidd made them pay, leading Dallas to victory in Game 1. 

Kidd didn’t do much offensively in the regular season for the Dallas Mavericks, but the 38-year-old point guard proved the playoffs are a whole new ballgame.

He hit six three-pointers on his way to a season-high 24 points in defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in Game 1 of their first-round series.

No three was bigger than his 26-foot launch over Andre Miller in the closing minute. This basket that doomed Portland should have been stunning, but it wasn’t. He was in a zone.

It was just that kind of night for the future Hall of Famer. The unexpected should be expected come playoff time.

Portland’s defense was terrible against him. Maybe they thought he would get a couple of makes out of his system and go cold. They repeatedly slacked off him, and all he did was shoot over late-arriving outstretched hands.

The Blazers didn’t learn their lesson, so it was fitting that he drained the dagger late, with plenty of space between him and Miller.

It wasn’t just Kidd’s play that did Portland in. The free-throw disparity in the fourth quarter was an eye-opening 19-1 in favor of the Mavericks.

This is partly due to the Blazers' lack of overall aggressiveness, but I don’t believe the game was called evenly by the referees. Tim Donaghy wasn’t out there blowing whistles right and left, but it had that kind of feel on a lesser level.

That said, there are plenty of reasons why the referees aren’t entirely to blame for what took place in the fourth. Dallas native LaMarcus Aldridge took only four shots in the final quarter, making three.

He told The Basketball Jones’ Tas Melas before the game that he “knows he’s gonna get the ball in crunch time.”  He didn’t, which ultimately hurt Portland dearly.

Who handled the ball late instead? Brandon Roy, who is without a doubt a shell of his former self. Head coach Nate McMillan, given what Roy has done for the franchise in the past, clearly tried to give him the chance to deliver late.

Yet, as Roy showed, the moves aren’t there to accomplish what McMillan wants. Worse yet, he was in the lineup instead of center Marcus Camby, who had grabbed 18 rebounds prior to wasting away on the pine.

There was one play in particular where Camby was dearly missed. Portland was down four with 46 seconds left and had just forced Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki into his 13th miss of the night.

No one was there to corral the biggest rebound of the game. Mavericks guard Jason Terry snagged it easily, and a win was in their grasp.

What took place there falls on the five Blazers who were playing, but McMillan is at fault for not recognizing the great disparity in levels of effectiveness between Roy and Camby.

Before the odd substitution and late surge by the Mavericks, the Blazers had climbed out of a large hole. From the 4:37 mark of the third to the 5:28 mark of the fourth, they held Dallas without a field goal and outscored their opponent by 12.

This burst was made possible by a host of players, as Aldridge, Miller, Gerald Wallace, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum and Rudy Fernandez all played a role in turning the tables and making the crowd nervous.

Fittingly, it was Kidd who ended the field-goal drought and subsequently fired up his team. Nowitzki lent a helping hand, making an astounding 13 free throws in the fourth.

For Portland, Wallace had a poor game. Roy was woeful. Matthews was a non-factor. McMillan lost his marbles with that perplexing switch. To boot, the referees were under Nowitzki’s spell and took no notice of hacks on the other end.

All of this had a hand in Portland’s defeat, but there’s no taking away what ultimately fueled Dallas’s victory. Old man Kidd came up clutch.