--Avery Johnson had lunch this week with an oil-and-gas tycoon. The conversation turned philosophical, as many with Johnson tend to become. Think wildcatting and basketball.
"He dug some wells before and he dug some wells that didn't produce what he thought they would produce, but he kept on digging," Johnson explained. "That's what we've got to do. Just keep on digging, keep on fighting and hopefully we'll hit one of those really big-time wells." Johnson likened the team's current state to a single-elimination tournament, much like the NCAA Tournament.
"That's the type of pressure that it is each and every one of these ballgames," Jason Terry said. "That's why every possession is critical, and we must come out and execute at both ends of the floor."
--The Mavs are 16-18 against teams with winning records going into the Denver game. That record would be considerably better had they been able to close games out in recent weeks. Avery Johnson spent much of a recent practice working on precisely that. The team went through drills -- example: score tied with two minutes left -- to simulate the end of close games.
"We're doing everything that we can to give the team some more confidence and being specific on how we want to execute in those situations," Johnson said.
Jerry Stackhouse added: "Sometimes you forget some of the little things. There have been some big games this week and I think we got away from some of our late-game execution, some of our plays and we weren't sharp.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "I just think everybody feels more responsible. The one thing that we don't want to happen is for one guy think that he can fill Dirk's shoes." -- Mavs coach Avery Johnson, on the team's attitude without Dirk Nowitzki.
