Jason Kidd brings to any team something Nuggets coach George Karl, for lack of a better term, called “veteran-ness.” Call it savvy, smarts, IQ, whatever you want. It was on display throughout the Knicks’ victory over Denver last night.
And it even landed Kidd in a hockey helmet after he took a shot to the head.
“That was compression. I needed something to keep the swelling down because my teammates were killing me about how big my head was getting. This was the only think I could think of,” joked Kidd, who wore the Rangers helmet to warm up at halftime of the Knicks’ 112-106 triumph over the Nuggets that kept them perfect at the Garden.
A hockey helmet? Back up to the middle of the second quarter. Kidd pump-faked, got Nuggets guard Ty Lawson off his feet and Lawson came down on Kidd’s noggin. The Knicks veteran admitted a little concern because he took a bump near the cut he sustained against the Pacers last month.
“I thought the scouting report says I can’t shoot, so I don’t know why everybody is going for the pump fake,” Kidd joked.
It’s that veteran-ness again, the stuff that caused coach Mike Woodson to employ Kidd at point guard for much of the fourth quarter when the game was won.
“I elected to go with him at the point,” Woodson said. “Nothing against Raymond [Felton, but] I thought Jason settled things down and got us into a lot of good things and we played off him.”
Kidd made play after play, racking up six assists (to four different guys) in the quarter and coming up with the put-it-away steal 25.9 seconds from the end when he victimized Lawson as the Nuggets were last-gasping, within four points.
“He is the difference-maker,” Steve Novak said. “You know the right thing is going to happen.”
Said Tyson Chandler, “[It’s] his veteran leadership, his savvy coming down stretches of the games.”
Everyone recognizes it. It was why Carmelo Anthony suggested a strategic shift in the decisive fourth quarter allowing Kidd to post up, forcing the Nuggets to alter their approach and opening the floor for teammates. Anthony emphatically hugged Kidd (17 points, seven assists) after the game.
“It’s huge because he trusts me coming down the stretch,” Kidd said of Anthony. “He told me, ‘Let’s play through you.’ Coach said he wanted to play through Melo and Melo was like, ‘No, I want to play through Jason.’ That’s the greatest compliment a teammate can give.”
Woodson always talks about keeping minutes in check for Kidd, who turns 40 in March. But then he rides him down the stretch. Kidd logged 34 minutes last night after the Knicks getting home extremely late from Saturday’s game in Chicago.
“I’m fine,” said Kidd, who missed four games with back spasms prior to the just concluded road trip. “The back situation, we’ve been through it before and we know what we have to do to maintain that. I felt great.”