Practice Report (02/06/12)

Earl K. Sneed reports from the Dallas Mavericks' Monday practice as the team tries to lean on leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki after third straight losses.

DALLAS — Despite the fact that their go-to player appears to be playing his best basketball of the season, the Dallas Mavericks haven’t been as successful as a team while falling to three straight losses. And now with three days between games, the defending champions hit the practice court Monday looking for a way to get leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki more involved while also stepping up around the superstar.

After taking Sunday off and getting away from the court while taking in the Super Bowl, the Mavericks (14-11) returned to the hardwood looking to bounce back from Saturday night’s 91-88 defeat in Cleveland. And with the team falling in three straight outings, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle returned to practice admittedly searching for a way to get the ball in Nowitzki’s hands as much as possible.

The 7-footer followed up Friday night’s season-high 30 points on 12-of-17 from the field and seven rebounds in a 98-87 home loss to Indiana with 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting to go along with eight boards one night later in a losing cause. And with three days to figure out how to keep the 10-time All-Star going, Carlisle preached to his players the importance of feeding the hot hand.

“It’s a priority, for sure. In our flow game, the ball’s gotta find our best players,” Carlisle explained. “And that’s always been one of our caveats to playing without a lot of play-calling. I don’t want to get into a thing where we’re calling a bunch of plays. We’re not gonna be the same kind of basketball team. It’s an emphasis, but it’s not just Dirk, it’s JET [Jason Terry], it’s ‘Trix [Shawn Marion], it’s Lamar [Odom], it’s all our good players. We’ve got to know who’s hot and we’ve also got to know when a hot guy is being double-teamed that other guys have got to be ready to step into shots.”

Still, neither of Nowitzki’s big offensive nights translated into wins. And with the Mavs still playing without injured point guard Jason Kidd, who has missed five games with a strained right calf, Nowitzki hopes to continue to elevate his play while also raising his teammates to a new level to help end the squad’s recent skid.

“It doesn’t help if we lose. We’ve got to find a way to all play at a high level,” Nowitzki simply said of his recent offensive performances. “If I’m playing better now then we can’t have other guys go down. It’s got to be collectively playing well, especially defensively, rebound and get back to doing some of the stuff we were doing when we were winning.”

Meanwhile, the Mavericks will try to improve with two days of practice before journeying back out on the road while looking to end their losing ways, practicing again on Tuesday before facing off with a Denver Nuggets team that sprinted to a 115-93 win in Dallas on Dec. 26. And with a collection of playoff-contending teams still ahead in the month of February, the Mavs know that they must correct things in a short period of time.

“It’s an opportunity for us to get two days of practice to work on a lot of things, but it starts with fundamentals,” Carlisle said. “Dribble penetration has been a problem for us defensively. We worked on that today, rebounding and then taking care of the ball. Those three things have really bit us the last three games.”

“I felt like it was a good practice today,” Nowitzki added. “I feel like in a season packed like that, you don’t really have time to work on stuff. … This little window should give us some time to look at some stuff — some of the turnovers, some of the offensive rebounds, some of the mental breakdowns we had on defense the other day. We’ve got to correct some of that and get moving back in the right direction and be on a string defensively, rebound the ball and then play our ball offensively. So, hopefully we’ll use these two days to get better and it’s a huge week. I mean, a week full of challenges, full of good teams, so we’ve gotta have a good week.”

Note: The Mavs return to action Wednesday night in Denver in a second matchup with the Nuggets. That game will air locally on Fox Sports Southwest at 8 p.m. CT. The Nuggets lead the season series 1-0 after a 115-93 win in Dallas on Dec. 26.

Single-game tickets are on sale and available at the American Airlines Center North Box Office, online at mavs.com, via phone by calling 214-747-MAVS or 1-800-4NBA-TIX and all Ticketmaster outlets (Fiesta Grocery Stores, Wal-Mart, Simon Mall in Garland and the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano).

Dr. Pepper Family Nights are here! Plans include four Mavs tickets and four McDonald’s extra value meals, starting at $49. Visit mavs.com or call 214-747-MAVS for a schedule of games and to purchase tickets.