The Mavericks know they have to get used to these kind of games - the rough-and-tumble aspect of them, not the losing aspect.

"Every one will be a dogfight from here on," said Bass. "But we got to pull these [expletive] dogfights out."

Over the next three weeks, the Mavericks will play 13 games, with 10 of them against Western Conference opponents. Six of those games will be against direct competitors for playoff positioning.

"It's going to be a beast," Dirk Nowitzki said.

At least they got a good lesson Friday on what not to do in the coming games. They played three good quarters and one lousy one. In a rugged match that was heavy on the defensive grit, that wasn't good enough. The Mavericks were torched in the third quarter, outscored, 24-4, in one stretch, and 37-10 stretching back to the late second quarter.

They were up by 16 points at one point. Then, with a stretch of poor possessions on both ends of the court, they were down, 68-57.

This against a Houston team that lost its starting backcourt in the last week, with Tracy McGrady needing season-ending knee surgery and Rafer Alston traded to Orlando.

All the Rockets did, apparently, was get better.

"Our undoing was the third quarter when we turned it over seven times and shot 35 percent," coach Rick Carlisle said. "We battled our tails off in the fourth. I loved our effort, but it just proved to be too big a hole. Both teams really played hard. But we needed to be better in the third."

Yao Ming had eight points and five rebounds in the third on his way to 22 points and 13 rebounds. Luis Scola had 15 points and 15 rebounds as the Rockets pounded the Mavericks on the glass.

But it was rookie Aaron Brooks, now starting at point guard, who came up biggest. He nailed a 3-pointer with 24.1 seconds left that put Houston up 92-86 and sealed the win.

Before that, Barea had run the pick and roll with Bass and piled up a career-best 26 points. But he also had five turnovers. Nowitzki was going through a brutal 4-for-18 shooting night.

"Dirk shooting like that only happens once a year," Bass said.

It was Bass' shooting from midrange and Barea that got the Mavericks back within 86-84. They were down 89-86 with under a minute to go, but Barea's pass on a drive to the bucket went awry.

"We had one bad quarter and that got us playing from behind," Barea said.

Briefly: The Mavericks have been in touch with the agents for Mikki Moore and Joe Smith, two players who are available after getting waived by their teams to clear room for trade-deadline acquisitions. Numerous teams have inquired about picking up both players, who will probably have to wait until Boston finds out how serious Kevin Garnett's injury is. ... The Rockets snapped a four-game home losing streak against the Mavericks.

Mavericks SCHEDULE

FEBRUARY

Day Date Opponent TV Time

Sat. 21 Sacramento FSSW 8:00

Tue. 24 at San Antonio Ch. 21 7:30

Wed. 25 Milwaukee FSSW 7:30

Fri. 27 Oklahoma City FSSW 7:30

MARCH

Day Date Opponent TV Time

Sun. 1 Toronto FSSW 8:00

Mon. 2 at Oklahoma City FSSW 7:00

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