Tonight at 8:30 p.m. ET the San Antonio Spurs (22-7) will try to shake off a Christmas night loss against the Houston Rockets by taking on another Texas team, the Dallas Mavericks (16-12). Live stream the game by clicking this link. Spurs fans can listen to the game on 1200 WOAI, while Mavericks fans can tune in to Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket.
San Antonio was victimized by James Harden yet again last night as the Rockets pulled off a 111-98 win in the Spurs' home building. "We didn't play well," point guard Tony Parker said. "Move on to the next one, it's the NBA."
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich isn't going to be so quick to brush off the loss though, due to the nature of how Houston won. "We just didn't give very good performances," Popovich said. "You can live with that from time to time. Nobody's going to play perfect every night. But you can't combine poor performances with a lack of physicality and a lack of discipline. They whipped us. They whipped us good. That's an embarrassing loss."
Dallas won't be a pushover though, especially with a rejuvenated Dirk Nowitzki powering Rick Carlisle's offense. Nowitzki has regained much of his old form, but still isn't quite satisfied with his play.
"The driving the ball is what's missing a little now," Nowitzki said. "I do a lot of one or two dribble and then up, but I want to get back to driving some more to the basket and get to the foul line. I don't think I'm in '11 shape, but compared to the last two years I feel a lot better. The right knee is great and I feel better."
Monta Ellis has been a major boon to the Mavs' offense as well, helping Nowitzki shoulder the load. Like Harden, Ellis has a history of torching the Spurs, averaging 25.9 points per contest in his last 10 meetings with Popovich's crew.
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