Jason 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 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 Andre Miller.
It wasn’t just Kidd that did Portland in. The free-throw disparity in the fourth quarter was an eye-opening 19 to 1 in favor of the Mavericks. This is partly due to the Blazers lack of overall aggressiveness, but it’s hard to truthfully say that the game was called evenly by the referees. That is nothing new. 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? One 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 twelve. 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 wasn’t his usual self offensively, but it didn’t matter. For Portland, Wallace had a poor game. Roy was woeful. Matthews was a non-factor. McMillan lost his marbles with that perplexing switch. The referees played off the boisterous Mavericks crowd. All of this led to Portland’s defeat, but there’s no taking away what fueled the Dallas victory. Old man Kidd got it done.
(Photo: REUTERS/Mike Stone, through Daylife)
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Author and owner of the Swamigp’s Sports Blog, Nick loves to write about his hometown Portland Trail Blazers as well as the Boston Red Sox. 