Art Garcia | Mavs.com
Posted: Oct. 17, 2007

HOUSTON – Devin Harris had no doubt Josh Howard would be at his side. Better yet, in Brad Miller’s face.

“If anything ever escalates or anything ever happens, I know he has my back and it’s the same way [with me],” Harris said late Tuesday night. “It’s unfortunate that situation happened, but it happened the way it did.”

What happened was one of those incidents the NBA would rather not see, but one that sometimes can’t be avoided. Miller, the veteran Sacramento center, knocked Harris over with a hard two-handed shove in the second quarter of the Mavericks’ 101-99 win in Las Cruces, N.M., leading to Howard’s retaliation – a forearm up near Miller’s head.

Miller is one of the league’s more aggressive personalities on the court, so the move wasn’t surprising. The reason and his explanation afterwards were. He decided to take out his frustrations on Harris after being tangled up with Mavs rookie Nick Fazekas under the basket.

“Sometimes you mean to just grab a guy, to get the foul so you can talk to the ref,” Miller said. “I guess I got stronger over the summer.”

Harris wasn’t buying it. Told of Miller’s logic shortly after the Mavs arrived in Houston, Harris just shook his head and said it’s best to just move on.

But it’s not the first time he’s run into Miller. Literally.

“About three times by my count,” Harris said Wednesday after practice at the Toyota Center, site of Thursday night’s meeting with the Rockets. “He sets those screens in the backcourt and my first year he got me real bad. He knocked me out of a game. We’ve had a couple more since.”

Harris wasn’t surprised Howard came to his defense.

“Always know,” Harris said. “That’s how me and him work.”

The two are close friends and the former first-round picks – Howard in 2003 and Harris the following year – are integral parts of the team’s nucleus. Howard received a contract extension before last season and Harris signed his last month.

Howard is also ready to put the events of Tuesday behind him, though he and Miller may face additional punishment from the league office. Word likely won’t come until Thursday at the earliest. Howard did receive a Flagrant 2 foul and was ejected, while Miller was hit with a Flagrant 1.

“I protected my teammate,” said Howard, who added it was a “dirty play” by Miller. “There wasn’t no animosity. Brad’s a great guy. I have to protect my teammates first.”

No one in the Mavs camp has a problem with that, including Harris confronting Miller before Howard stepped in. Miller is listed at 7-feet and 261 pounds. Harris checks in at 6-3 and 185.

“He’s got to defend himself,” Dallas coach Avery Johnson said. “I don’t advocate anybody necessarily fighting. We don’t advocate cheap shots, but he got pushed and he needed to do something about it in a legal way.”

Though he doesn’t think a suspension is warranted for Howard, Johnson made clear that: “We’re a team that tries not to back down.” So if their All-Star small forward does have to face the league’s wrath, the Mavs are ready.

“We’re going to have each other’s back,” Jason Terry said with obvious pride, “and if it means a guy is going to have to miss a game, then so be it.”