Earl K. Sneed, Mavs.com
Houston Rockets (14-11) at Dallas Mavericks (19-7)
While a five-game winning streak is turning heads around the NBA, the Dallas Mavericks are keeping their excitement to a minimum.
The Mavericks are quietly confident as they sit atop the Southwest Division after 26 games, knowing that they have yet to play their best basketball. The team is more so focused on not becoming overconfident, with a lot of basketball left on the schedule.
"I think we've played well," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said after the team's morning shootaround Friday morning. "But we're always trying to play better. That continues to be the goal. There's always things when you study your games, even when you win games, there's things you can do better. We have to be careful not to accept things in victory that we wouldn't in defeat, and we'll keep working to get our team playing as well as we can play."
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
The Mavs didn't accept the way they played in their two previous meetings against the Houston Rockets, falling behind by double digits in the first half of both games before staging comebacks to win in routs. The average margin of victory in those two wins was just under 25 points per game, but the first half deficits stick out to the Mavs.
Friday night, with the Rockets in Dallas for the third of four meetings this regular season, the Mavericks know they must come out of the gates quickly to make an early statement to their cross-state rival.
"I think guys just haven't been alert and just not ready to play (in the first halves against the Rockets)," Mavs sixth man Jason Terry said. "But I don't think that's going to be the case tonight. We've put an emphasis on it, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing how we come out and respond to the challenge."
The Mavericks will also try not to put the home crowd through so much suspense, after playing nail-biter after nail-biter at home. Though Dallas is 9-3 at the American Airlines Center, the Mavs admit that they have yet to play their best 48 minutes on the home floor. The Rockets are the perfect opponent to welcome to Dallas with some southern hospitality and home cooking.
"This is a team that is basically a division rival, and they're going to come out fired up. But it's our job, at home, to get this thing turned around. And it only takes one game to really turn it on at home to really get your confidence," Terry said.
Though the Rockets have gotten superstar Tracy McGrady back on the court for limited action, nine months after undergoing microfracture surgery on his left knee, the Dallas defense knows it must first attempt to slow down one of the league's quickest point guards in Aaron Brooks.
(Photo by Glenn James/NBAE via Getty Images)
Brooks has tormented Dallas defenders in recent memory, but Mavs guard Jason Kidd says that will have to change if Dallas is going to run its winning streak to six.
"(Brooks) has had a great season up to this point, and so for us, it's just to make him work on the defensive end and just try to take the ball out of his hands on offense -- make him become a play-maker and not some much a guy who can score."
"(Brooks) is a priority," Carlisle said. "One of the reasons that he's so important is because he generates their tempo. He gets them playing fast -- which leads to transition buckets, transition threes, chances to drive and get in the paint. It's just important that we get everybody back and build walls so he can't be taking runs at us and getting open shots."
The team's defense-first mentality has been instrumental for the Mavericks during their recent streak, learning to win when shots aren't falling. Kidd says it is important that the Mavs don't lose their edge on the defensive end in an attempt to blow out the Rockets.
"For us, it's been about defense all year. We can't forget about playing defense. That's helped us win some ugly games and it's helped us win games where both teams were scoring and we got stops. If we're going to try to win a championship, we have to play defense," Kidd said.
Dallas will try to slow Brooks and the Rockets down, while also looking for their sixth straight win, as the Mavs start a four-game home stand on Friday night. The game will air locally on TXA 21 and TXA HD at 7:30 p.m. CT. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (214) 747-MAVS.
The Mavericks and the NBA have introduced the official NBA All-Star game ballot, featuring Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Josh Howard, Shawn Marion and Jason Terry. For more on how to vote for your favorite Mavs for the All-Star game, to be held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, visit Mavs.com.
Follow Mavs.com’s Earl K. Sneed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EarlKSneed.
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