Shootaround report: Mavs prepare for Utah's deep front line

Earl K. Sneed reports from the Dallas Mavericks' Monday morning shootaround in Salt Lake City, where the Mavs prepared for Utah's physical front line.

Shootaround report: Mavericks (13-21) at Jazz (17-18)
Mavs prepare for Utah's deep front line

SALT LAKE CITY — With two 7-footers at his disposal that weren’t available when Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle watched seemingly helplessly as an eight-point halftime advantage slipped away into a 113-94 road defeat to the Utah Jazz back on Oct. 31, there could be a different result Monday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

Without the services of front line starters Dirk Nowitzki and Chris Kaman, the Mavericks were outrebounded that night, 61-40, while losing the battle for second-chance points, 21-8. Dallas was outscored in the paint as well, 44-30, while falling on the second night of a back-to-back.

“In that game they had 12 more offensive rebounds than us and they had 12 more free throw makes than we did,” Carlisle remembered. “You’ve got to be physical in the paint, you’ve got to keep them off the free throw line and you’ve got to rebound. That’s the starting point.”

Monday night, however, both Nowitzki and Kaman will be available as the Mavs try to contain Utah’s four-deep frontcourt of Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter.

“They have a lot of aspects to their games that make it difficult and then the hard part is the coach is just shoving it down their throat all game,” Kaman said of the versatile big men. “It makes it that much harder. You have to defend them on every play and know where they’re at all the time. And then, after that is done, they’re going after every offensive rebound. … You don’t see a lot of teams with four guys that do what they do here and it makes it tough, but there’s more to basketball than two players. There's five players on the floor, so we’ve got to do our job. And they’re tough at home as well and everybody knows that.”

More importantly, the Mavs will try to get back on track after back-to-back overtime losses to fall to 0-7 this season in games decided in extra periods while tying an NBA record shared by three other teams following a 10th straight OT defeat. And with a focus on rebounding and interior defense, Carlisle hopes to both solve what went wrong in the first meeting and what has set the team back all season long.

“They’re a big paint points team, they’re a big rebounding team and a big offensive rebounding team, and when they get to the free throw line a lot they’re really difficult to deal with. So we’ve got to be physical, we’ve got to rebound and work to take away the post and we’ve got to keep them off the free throw line,” Carlisle concluded.

Note: The Mavericks head back on the road for the start of a three-game trip, touching down in Salt Lake City for a second meeting this season against the Jazz. The Mavs fell in Utah to a 113-94 loss on Oct. 31. The game will air locally at 8 p.m. CT on Fox Sports Southwest.