On his quest to record a career-high in rebounds, Jason Kidd had to battle a beast in Dwight Howard.
Jason Kidd has always been an outstanding rebounder.
Even though he was a point guard, he was crashing the boards and grabbing almost as many rebounds as the assists he was dishing (which was a lot).
But on this particular night, he was phenomenal on the boards.
It was Nov. 16, 2007, and the New Jersey Nets hosted the Orlando Magic.
The Magic were an up-and-coming young team that was on their way to taking over the Eastern Conference. The Nets, on the other hand, were an aging powerhouse.
And the main match-up of this game was such as well.
It was a battle between a 34-year-old Kidd and a 22-year-old Dwight Howard.
Now, I know. I know. Kidd is a guard and Howard is a center. Kidd may be a big point guard, but Howard was a big center.
Nets vs. Magic, Kidd vs. Howard
Well, it’s because both of them boxed out and crashed the boards like it was their last game.
In the first quarter, Kidd out-rebounded the young center. He grabbed seven rebounds while Howard only grabbed four.
In the second quarter, Howard, who was touted as the next “Great Big,” must have felt embarrassed or something because he fought his ass off to grab more rebounds than Kidd.
He snatched seven boards and Kidd only managed to grab five this quarter.
Both players played pretty much the entirety of the third quarter. But Kidd and Howard must have been fatigued because they barely got any rebounds.
The Nets’ point guard grabbed five while the Magic’s star only grabbed three.
After three-quarters of play, Kidd had 17 rebounds and Howard had 14 rebounds, and the score was 69-59 for the Orlando Magic.
In the first few minutes of the final quarter of the game, the Nets sensed that they were on the verge of being blown out by their opponents and Lawrence Frank, the Nets’ head coach, decided to bench Kidd for the remainder of the game, which was nearly the entirety of the quarter.
He played less than five minutes and added two more rebounds to his stat line.
Howard played a little more than nine minutes in the fourth and grabbed another five rebounds.
The Results
By the end of the game, both players had 19 rebounds each.
Kidd recorded a career-high in rebounds that night as he took on Howard in a David-vs-Goliath-type battle.
Unfortunately, Orlando was too young and athletic for New Jersey and Kidd’s special night was spoiled with a loss.
The Magic beat the Nets 95-70.
