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Kidd's Fountain Of Youth

DALLAS -- Jason Kidd has apparently found the fountain of youth in 12-ounce plastic bottles.

The Dallas Mavericks' iron-man point guard is racking up big minutes this season, in particular during the team's eye-opening 5-1 run since the All-Star break. That's when owner Mark Cuban pulled the trigger on a seven-player trade, shipping the discontented Josh Howard to Washington and delivering three playoff-starved souls in Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson.

The newcomers have clearly added a spark to a previously lethargic team that limped into the break having lost five of seven while playing no defense. Suddenly, though the Lakers, Nuggets, Jazz and Thunder are the rage of the Western Conference, the re-energized Kidd and the Mavs are lurking beneath the surface.

More proof came Wednesday night when the Mavericks outgunned Kobe Bryant and the visiting Lakers in the fourth quarter for a 101-96 victory, tying Dallas' longest win streak of the season at five and pushing it to a season-best 16 games over .500. While Dirk Nowitzki scored 19 of his 31 points in the second half and Jason Terry poured in 18 of his 30 in the first half -- on a night when Caron Butler was a late scratch due to a bad reaction to medication -- it was the consistent, end-to-end play for 40 solid minutes by old man Kidd that stamped this victory.

Kidd finished with 14 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds. All four of his field goals were 3-pointers. His bomb to beat the third-quarter buzzer put the Mavs back up by two and set up a quick burst to start a fourth quarter in which they never trailed.

Kidd will turn 37 on March 23. When he does, his age will finally be greater than the minutes he's currently averaging this season (36.1). In the past six games, he's made age seem irrelevant. He's averaged 37.7 minutes while posting 40 or more minutes in four of the six games. Only a 28-minute outing in a blowout of Indiana on Monday dipped his average.

He's averaged 14.2 points during the stretch, pouring in double figures in each game, while knocking down 45 percent of his 3-pointers (18-of-40), not bad for a guy who hasn't averaged double-digit points since the 2007-08 season. During the six-game stretch, Kidd has also dished out 9.0 assists, grabbed 6.3 rebounds and made 16 steals, mostly by anticipating the passer's intention and picking it off.

"I feel as if I'm 20-something years old. I mean, I don't have any aches or pains when I wake up, nothing's really sore," Kidd said. "I've just been doing my same routine I've been doing for the last some-odd years."

For a player who has missed just eight games in the last six-plus seasons, there's nothing terribly scientific or cutting edge about Kidd's maintenance program.

"After games I sit in the ice tub for 15 minutes," Kidd said, "shower, go home, have something to eat."

Then he paused and thought about one thing he has changed in his routine since coming to Dallas, a change inspired by team trainer Casey Smith, who Kidd has come to know closely not only with the Mavs but also with Team USA during the Summer Games in Beijing. Smith served as an athletic trainer for the gold-medal winners.

"The biggest thing Casey has helped me with is to drink water," Kidd said matter-of-factly. "He started with baby steps, getting me to three bottles a day and now I drink a lot more than that and it's made me feel a lot better.

"It's funny how you take things for granted, but water has helped me."

Nowitzki has certainly been impressed with Kidd's post-All-Star stretch, easily Kidd's most productive run since February 2008 when he returned to the team that drafted him 17 years ago.

"I think he just knows that after the [All-Star] break you have to step your game up. He's been around for so long and he's just taking it a little further, taking his game to the next level after the break," Nowitzki said. "He's been phenomenal. He looks energized, he's pushing the ball. He's battling big guys in the paint, so he's been great."

Water, Nowitzki was informed, is Kidd's anti-aging secret.

"Water?" Nowitzki said, chuckling. "All right, sweet. Whatever it takes."

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