Full-Court Press

So it can't get any worse?

Think again. Jerry Stackhouse has been scratched from the starting lineup because of a right groin strain. Jason Terry will start in his place.

The only good news for the Mavericks is that the Warriors played in Denver last night and did not get home until nearly 1 a.m. today. Golden State coach Don Nelson said he is concerned about fatigue, so perhaps we will see who has the advantage -- a tired team or an injured one.

-- Jan Hubbard

Avery talks on Galloway's show

Mavs coach Avery Johnson was a guest on Randy Galloway's radio show Friday. Here's a sampling of what Avery had to say:

On Thursday;s loss to the Rockets: Well, we're disappointed. We didn't have that emotional energy like I thought we were gonna have. ... That was one of our worst performances of the year.

On the increased heat he is taking: I always try to keep myself in the forefront of things if the games aren't going well. I've never been one to run and and hide. ... But we need to get something from the players ... more energy, leadership, fire ... we are still waiting to get it on a consistent basis. 

Six possibilities for big men

With Gana Diop heading out the door, it leaves a big question. A very big one. As we well know, Erick Dampier can not play 48 minutes every game. So, the question becomes: Do the Mavs just go small when Damp is hurt, in foul trouble or needs rest? If they go small, that puts Bass and Dirk on the floor playing a PF/C combo of which "undersized" doesn't begin to describe. So, unless the Mavs can cook up another trade, these are the free-agent big men out there that the Mavs could potentially sign. It's just pure speculation at this point, but in no particular order:

P.J. Brown
6-11 PF, 38 years old
He hasn't played yet this season, but played 72 games for the Bulls last season and averaged 6.1 points and 4.8 rebounds on 20 minutes per night. He could provide solid veteran leadership, but the Mavs seem to have enough of that these days.
Chances: Decent. If he wants to keep playing, the Mavs will likely explore adding yet another old timer to a team that just got a lot older already.

Michael Olowokandi
7-0 C, 32 years old
He's a former No. 1 overall pick, but that means nothing. The guy was about as washed up as they come in the 24 games he played last year for the Celtics. He's injury prone, and is known for attitude problems.
Chances: Low. The Mavs need a backup, not another bench warmer in a suit. Still, he's big, and not too old, which may be attractive.

Jackie Butler
6-10 F-C, 22 years old
The Spurs sent him to Houston this summer in the Luis Scola trade and the Rockets bought his contract out. He's been promising at points and is a big, strong player who is aggressive down low. Think Brandon Bass without the athleticism, jumper or defense.
Chances: Good. If it's one thing the Mavs need is a young guy who can be aggressive. He's a bit overweight and can't really defend well, but the Mavs can't be too picky right now.

Jelani McCoy
6-10 C, 30 years old
He can jump, and he can block shots, but it kind of ends there. He has little offensive game, can't hit a free throw and has bounced around the NBA since 1998 for six different NBA teams. His latest NBA venture was in late December when the Nuggets signed him and played him in six games.
Chances: Low. Although he is athletic, his lack of skills will likely deter the Mavs.

Dale Davis
6-11 F-C, 38 years old
Another ancient veteran who may still be able to play. He's tough as nails, but how much can he still contribute? He played 46 games for the Pistons last year and only averaged about 10 minutes per game.
Chances: Decent. His chances have to be as good as P.J. Brown. He's more of a center, and he would be a good leader. But, what kind of shape is he still in?

Chris Andersen
6-10 PF, 29 years old
Can The Birdman still fly? He was banned from the league until recently, and hasn't played an NBA game since the 2005-06 season. Supposedly, he kicked whatever stuff he tested positive for and worked out during his suspension. If he's in shape, he's a rare athlete who loves to dunk and block shots. He usually is trying to be everywhere at once, which doesn't always work.
Chances: That all depends on whether or not he's in shape. The Mavs have to take a look at him at least.

Everybody else: Lonny Baxter, Antonio Davis, Danny Fortson, Ervin Johnson, Alan Henderson, Slava Medvedenko, Lawrence Roberts, Wayne Simien, Michael Sweetney, Mo Taylor

-Scooter Hendon, Hoops Nerd

Making the best out of a loss

The Mavericks have a rare four-day break between games and Dirk Nowitzki has mixed feelings about it.

"I always like to keep going," he said. "Once in a awhile a 2-3 day break is not bad, but this is about the longest break I’ve ever had [other than an All-Star break]. It’s really weird going through it but we’ll make the best of it. It’s a little disappointing sitting on that loss for four days that we just had in Sacramento. We felt like we had a good chance to win that game. But maybe that keeps us humble, keeps us working the next couple of days. So maybe it was a good loss for us to know that we’ve got some work to do"

-- Jan Hubbard

First one-point win in a long time

Jerry Stackhouse lifted the Mavs to a one-point victory with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

Jerry Stackhouse's buzzer-beating 3-pointer last night lifted the Mavs to a season-high seventh straight victory. The Mavericks won by one point, which is the first time they have won a game by one point since they defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 94-93 on Feb. 3 in Dallas. That game didn't need a big shot from anyone, but rather a big defensive stop from Josh Howard and Devean George on Kevin Garnett. Howard came up with a loose ball after hassling KG, Dirk got the ball and was fouled. He nailed both free throws to put the Mavs up by four and Randy Foye drained a meaningless three to give the Mavs a one-point victory. The Mavs had also won the game before that by one point against Memphis.

It makes sense that they haven't had a lot of close wins. They are outscoring opponents by an average of 10.6 points per game in wins. They are being outscored in losses by 7.7 points. Although that is obviously slimmer than their average win margin, they haven't lost a one-point game this season. In fact, they haven't lost a game by one point since Game 5 of the NBA Finals against Miami when they lost 101-100. They haven't lost a regular-season game by one point since March 23, 2006 against Golden State.

-Scooter Hendon, Hoops Nerd

Looking at the next six games

On the surface, the Mavs upcoming stretch may look rather daunting. They play three straight on the West Coast, come home for one game, then go out East for two games before coming home to play a two-game home stand. Thats five of their next six in the far reaches of the country. Travel is always tough on a team, and the Mavs will likely have some sluggish bouts, but they could come out on top.

The schedule:
Fri. 1/11 @ Seattle
Sat. 1/12 @ LA Clippers
Mon. 1/14 @Sacramento
Sat. 1/19 vs. Seattle
Mon. 1/21 @Washington
Wed. 1/23 @Charlotte

A look at how things might go:

Three reasons why this trip might not turn out badly

1. The teams they are playing have a combined record of 62-104 and are weak enough that the Mavs should be able to take care of them without problem.
2. Even though they play five of their next six on the road, the home game is the fourth in that series. Even better, that game comes after a four-day rest between games. Any batteries that need recharging will get a lot of time to do so.
3. They play five different teams over these six games. The Mavs have won a combined 25 straight games against four of those teams. They have won 10 straight against the Sonics six straight against the Kings, 3 straight against the Clippers and have won all six meetings in the Bobcats existence. History says they should beat most of these teams.

Three reasons why this trip could be bad news

1. The Mavs will start the trip with back-to-back games in Seattle and Los Angeles. Getting off the plane at some ghastly hour of the morning in Los Angeles will likely take its toll on them, despite playing a poor team like the Sonics the night before. It's possible they could get burnt out of the gates and not recover.
2. That's almost 7,000 miles of flight over a week-and-a-half span. Travel is one thing, but after awhile, all that flying has to grate on you, especially when you're going coast-to-coast and changing climates like that.
3. It may look like they have a full day off in between the home game against Seattle and the road game against Washington, but the game against the Wizards starts at noon on Monday. That means that the Mavs will have to travel on Sunday and be up early on Monday. The early start coupled with the travel from the day before could slow them down and carry over into the final game of the trip in Charlotte.
   

-Scooter Hendon, Hoops Nerd

Bad memories, dude

The schedule always has a weird ways about it. It's like every time teams make a trade they play each other right away. Philly and Utah swapped Kyle Korver for Gordan Giricek the other day and now the teams meet in Utah tonight.

So here's another crazy deal. This week the schedule makers bring Golden State (tonight) and Miami (Friday) to Dallas. As you might remember, the Warriors and Heat are the last two teams to upset the Mavs in unfathomable ways.

"Again, that's something that we've got to deal with, but right now we're in 2008," Mavs coach Avery Johnson said after Wednesday morning's shootaround. "Any of that stuff that happened was in '07 or '06, and we're a different team in a lot of ways and we're the same team in some ways with some of the guys that we have here. So we just have to go out and defend and rebound and play good transition defense and move the ball on offense and play our game. When we play at the top of our game we're pretty hard to beat."

-- Jeff Caplan

Mavs take day off

The Mavs have had a really nice holiday schedule. They had no games scheduled from Dec. 22-25 and now have had three off days from Dec. 30 - Jan. 2 when Golden State comes to town.

Avery Johnson gave the team two days without practice before Christmas and they've got today, New Year's Day off to do what the rest of you do  -- eat and watch college football.

I say the rest of you because some of us still have to cobble together a story. In Wednesday's Star-Telegram, the Warriors' Stephen Jackson has some interesting things to say about playing against Dirk Nowitzki.

-- Jeff Caplan

3-ball not always money ball

Here's a pretty interesting stat about the Mavs and the 3-ball. As we all know, sometimes they fall in love with the arc. That was the case in the loss at Utah last week when they launched a season-high 26. They followed up with 20 attempts in the following loss to Cleveland.

Twenty is the magic number the Mavs don't want to hit. When they take 20 or more 3-pointers in a game, they're 2-7 and they've lost the last six in which they've shot 20 or more.

In those nine games, they've made 60-of-200 for 30 percent. They're shooting 34.9 percent on the season. In the seven losses, they've made 42-of-155 for 27.1 percent. In the two wins they've made 18-of-45 for 40.0 percent.

When the Mavs are launching too many 3s it typically signifies that they're not moving the ball around, they're not trying to take it to the basket and get to the foul line and they're allowing fatigue to dictate shooting jumpers rather than working harder to get a better shot.

Here's the chart:

Date   Opp.   3M-3A    Result

11/2   Atl      4-24         L

11/8    GS      10-24       W

11/20  Tor       8-21       W

11/24  Mil       9-22        L

11/26  Wash    3-21       L

12/1    N.O.     6-20      L

12/6    Den      7-22      L

12/26   Utah    9-26      L

12/27   Cleve   4-20     L

-- Jeff Caplan

Shooting woes cured?

Um, not exactly. The Mavs had a terrific first quarter, burning the Hawks with 5-of-5 shooting on 3-pointers making 13-of-21 shots, good for 61.9 percent and a 34-21 lead that was never really challenged.

But, the Mavs finished the game making 32 of 73 shots, 43.8 percent. So, that means that after the first quarter, the Mavs made just 19 more field goals and missed 33.

But, hey, who's counting? A win's a win, right?

-- Jeff Caplan