Kidd Silences Sonics Perhaps Motivated By Payton, Dallas Guard Keys 103-100 Win

Jason Kidd let his game do the talking.

Seattle’s Gary Payton recently questioned the fan voting that made Kidd a starter on the Western Conference All-Star team. The Dallas guard gave his answer Thursday night.

Kidd scored a season-high 36 points, mostly against Payton, and Dallas hit a club-record 14 3-pointers as the Mavericks halted Seattle’s six-game winning streak, 103-100.

Kidd flirted with his sixth triple-double of the season, racking up nine rebounds and eight assists, and fell three points short of a career-high scoring night.

Afterward, Kidd declined to gloat.

“I’m not going to get into any wars in the newspapers,” said Kidd, who went 14 for 22 from the field, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range, and added four steals. “I just let my game speak for me. They just gave me a lot of wide-open shots tonight and I was able to make them. The ball was falling for me.”

George McCloud added 23 points, Jim Jackson 15 and Popeye Jones had 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Mavericks, who had dropped two of their previous three games.

Shawn Kemp had 22 points and Payton added 20 for the Sonics, whose 32-12 record is still best in the Western Conference. But the lowly Mavericks have beaten the Sonics in two of three meetings this season.

“This should give you confidence and the impetus to do more,” Dallas coach Dick Motta said. “It shows what you can do if you come out and play hard from the start. A game like this makes it easy to sell that.”

The Sonics had a 98-97 lead with 2:42 to play on Detlef Schrempf’s 18-footer from the right side. But Jones converted two free throws with 59.2 seconds left to give the Mavericks a 99-98 edge, then Jones hit two more foul shots with 32.7 seconds to play for a 101-98 Dallas advantage.

Kemp’s layup with 27 seconds left pulled the Sonics to 101-100, but McCloud converted two free throws with 9.3 seconds remaining to push Dallas’ lead back to three.

“If Popeye and George don’t make their free throws, we’d be hanging our heads talking about what might have been,” Kidd said.

Seattle’s Vincent Askew missed a 3-pointer just before the buzzer.”All we had to do was be real serious on the defensive end of the court and I think that we would have won the game,” Karl said. “We had a little bit of an attitude and we got punished for it.”

Mavericks 103, SuperSonics 100

FG FT Reb SEATTLE Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts Schrempf 28 9-18 0-0 2-5 5 4 19 Kemp 43 8-20 6-9 7-15 1 4 22 Johnson 18 4-7 0-0 1-7 0 3 8 Payton 38 8-13 1-2 1-4 4 4 20 Hawkins 37 5-13 0-0 3-4 5 3 11 McMillan 21 0-3 2-2 0-7 5 2 2 Askew 25 3-11 0-0 3-8 5 3 6 Perkins 27 4-9 2-3 1-4 1 2 12 Wingate 3 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 Totals 240 41-94 11-16 18-54 26 25 100

Percentages: FG .436, FT .688.

3-Point Goals: 7-22, .318 (Payton 3-6, Perkins 2-4, Schrempf 1-4, Hawkins 1-5, McMillan 0-1, Askew 0-2). Team Rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 4 (Kemp 2, Johnson, Hawkins). Turnovers: 19 (Kemp 5, McMillan 4, Schrempf 3, Payton 2, Hawkins 2, Johnson, Askew, Perkins). Steals: 12 (Hawkins 3, Kemp 2, Johnson 2, Askew 2, Schrempf, McMillan, Perkins).

Technical fouls: Schrempf, 2:05 third; illegal defense, 8:42 third. Illegal defense: 1.

FG FT Reb DALLAS Min M-A M-A O-T A PF Pts McCloud 45 7-18 5-5 0-5 3 0 23 Jones 33 5-12 4-5 6-14 4 5 14 Meyer 28 2-5 1-2 0-6 4 5 5 Kidd 47 14-22 3-6 2-9 8 1 36 Jackson 35 4-12 4-6 1-4 0 2 15 Parks 14 1-4 0-0 1-4 1 2 2 Dumas 20 3-6 0-4 0-0 3 1 8 Hodge 14 0-0 0-0 2-5 0 4 0 Wood 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Brooks 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 Totals 240 36-80 17-28 12-47 23 22 103

Percentages: FG .450, FT .607.

3-Point Goals: 14-31, .452 (Kidd 5-8, McCloud 4-10, Jackson 3-7, Dumas 2-5, Wood 0-1). Team Rebounds: 6. Blocked shots: 7 (Parks 3, McCloud, Kidd, Jackson, Hodge). Turnovers: 22 (Kidd 5, Jackson 4, Dumas 4, McCloud 3, Jones 2, Meyer 2, Parks, Hodge). Steals: 8 (Kidd 4, McCloud 2, Jones, Parks).

Technical foul: illegal defense, 1:59 first. Illegal defense: 1. Seattle 29 30 22 19 - 100 Dallas 33 20 28 22 - 103

A-15,295 (17,502). T-2:09.

Officials-Bennett Salvatore, Luis Grillo, Gary Benson.