Mavs Practice Report (11/09/09)
While the Dallas fans had a lot to be excited about after the Mavericks ran away from the Toronto Raptors in a 129-101 blowout win on Saturday night, the team quickly tamed their enthusiasm.
After the Mavs shot a season-high 62 percent and scored a season-best in points in the win, the Mavs turned their attention immediately to the Southwest Division rival Houston Rockets.
(Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)
Mavs will see a tough-minded Rockets squad on Tuesday night
"For us, it was good," Nowitzki said about the offensive barrage the Mavs displayed against Toronto. "We had a couple of suspect offensive outings so far in the beginning of the year, only shooting low 40s, so that was definitely good. Everybody got touches, even the bench came in and made some big shots for us."
"That's definitely something we can build on, but as our offense gets better we don't want to take steps back defensively. We want to keep our defensive intensity at the same level and just get better offensively. We don't want to trade defense for offense now."
Dallas hopes both their offense and defense show up Tuesday night when the Rockets travel upstate. Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said the Rockets' blue-collar approach, with superstars Tracy McGrady (knee) and Yao Ming (foot) out with injuries, has Houston playing the most competitive basketball in the league. The Mavericks will see first-hand how competitive Houston is when the two squads meet on floor of the American Airlines Center.
"We're going to play a team tomorrow that's probably the hardest-playing team in the league," Carlisle said. "The challenge tomorrow with Houston is to meet their level of intensity. You don't do that and they beat you, that's what they've been doing to people."
"They've just got a bunch of hard-playing guys. They're very well-coached. They push the ball up fast, so you have to be extremely aggressive because they're going to be aggressive and it's an 'in the trenches' type of game."
The test against the Rockets will be a good measuring stick for how tough the Mavericks are at this stage of the 2009-10 season.
"We'll find out how tough we are on Tuesday night. I like our team, but this is a different kind of test than we've had," Carlisle said.
With Ming and McGrady sidelined, the Rockets play a very high-tempo, rugged style. New addition Trevor Ariza has impacted the team immediately with his do-it-all ability both on offense and on the defensive end.
"They (Houston) are pretty impressive, I have to admit," Nowitzki said. "We played them in the preseason and that was already a battle. They have a bunch of young guys that really play hard."
"I think Ariza really fits in well with them -- kind of long, moving, on the go, shooting the three, driving. They're a tough team to beat, so we have to be ready."
The Mavericks begin a stretch of five games in eight nights when they host the Rockets on Tuesday night, with the game airing on KTXA 21 and KTXA 21 HD at 7:30 p.m. CT. Tickets are still available, can be purchased by calling (214) 747-MAVS. The Mavericks then play four straight on the road beginning with the rival San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night.
"We've got a road trip, which is never easy in this league no matter who you play. It's a nice little stretch for us. I think here in the beginning our games were stretched out -- we always had two days in between, which is not really normal in this league. So now, the hits are going to keep coming. Hopefully we start off on the right foot tomorrow."
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