After playing 10 of their first 16 games on the road, the Mavericks are headed home and staying awhile.
The schedule is about to play into their favor, or it would seem, with seven home games in two weeks -- the longest home stretch of the season and the longest since 1997. It's a great chance to finally gain some consistency and, even a better idea, nail down some much-needed victories. The Mavericks, 8-8 overall, are just 2-4 at the American Airlines Center with victories over Memphis and Indiana.
The Mavericks used to be virtually unbeatable at home. They lost just seven times in Dallas all of last season, and when teams such as the Clippers, Hawks, Bobcats and Thunder (formerly the Sonics) came to town, as they will in the coming days, it was a near-automatic win.
Those teams are 8-22 on the road. However, as the Mavericks' desperate rally to get by Indiana in the final minutes showed, nothing is automatic right now for Dallas.
"It's a crucial stretch for us," Jason Terry said. "We haven't played well at home all season long. We need to get a head of steam and get our momentum at home."
The Mavericks need to make headway against teams they're typically expected to beat at home because the Suns, Spurs and improving Nuggets are also on the agenda.
MAVERICKS 101, KINGS 78: Rarely does a team find the win column when only one starter scores in double figures. The Mavericks got 19 points from Dirk Nowitzki and just 20 points from the other four starters yet still won in a rout. The bench came through with 62 points, 46 in the second half. Jason Terry (24 points), Devean George (13) and Brandon Bass (10) did most of the damage in a game the Mavericks controlled nearly the entire way.
