Well, one thing the Dallas Mavericks can be sure of for Monday night's game in Orlando is that they probably can't play any worse than they did Sunday.
Dallas is coming off a 90-67 loss at Detroit in which the Mavs shot a season-low 30.3 percent and scored their fewest points of the season. Dallas' leading scorers in the game, Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard, had only 15 points each.
Nowitzki saw his string of 15 consecutive games with at least 20 points snapped. Of the top 40 scorers in the NBA, only LeBron James and Allen Iverson had more than Nowitzki's 15 consecutive games of 20 points or more before Sunday.
"He was aggressive in the first half and just couldn't get it going in the second half," coach Avery Johnson said of Nowitzki, who only had two second-half points. "But it wasn't just Dirk, everybody had a tough second half."
Nowitzki says the team misses injured point guard Devin Harris, who likely will be out another two weeks.
"We miss Devin," Nowitzki said. "He's really improved over the last couple years. We need his defense, his scrappiness and definitely his ability to get to the rim."Dallas, which averages 100.1 points, has been held to 90 or fewer in three of the last four games, and the Mavs are only 11-12 on the road (Orlando is 12-8 at home).
Orlando, meanwhile, is on a five-game winning streak, thanks mostly to All-Star snub Hedo Turkoglu, who is averaging 25 points in the past four games; Turkoglu has scored 20 points or more in eight consecutive
games. And Dwight Howard has nine 30-point, 15-rebound games, this season. That's the good news. The bad? The inconsistent Rashard Lewis, who has just hit 27-of-69 shots (39.1 percent) in the past five games.
In the teams' first meeting this year, on Dec. 17, Dallas won 111-108. Nowitzki torched the Magic's Lewis to the tune of 31 points and 11 rebounds. Dallas has won three straight over the Magic, including a 111-95 victory at Orlando last season, but the Mavs have lost 12 of their last 15 played there.
The Magic rank among the top 10 teams in the league at 103.8 points per game and shooting at 46.9 percent, but they've been even better lately, averaging 105.0 points on 50.6 percent shooting in winning seven of their last eight games. Dallas, meanwhile, is last in the NBA in forcing turnovers (just 12.2/gm.), 28th in steals (6.0/gm.) and 20th in offensive rebounding (10.4/gm.).
With a victory, Orlando, a slight favorite on WagerWeb.com, would match its longest winning streak of the season, set from Nov. 13-19.
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