Game 36 Preview: Nets (10-25) at Dallas Mavericks (21-13)

D-Will is a Dallas-area native and going home to play the Mavs will no doubt stir up rumors of him and Dwight Howard teaming up in Big D next season. My take, don't believe the hype.

In their first game after the All-Star break, the Nets take on the defending-NBA champion Dallas Mavericks down in Texas later tonight. Both teams have been bit by the injury bug as the Nets will probably be missing Mehmet Okur and Jordan Farmar while Dallas will be without the services of Lamar Odom, who has been mainly ineffective with the Mavs since coming over from the LA Lakers in a preseason trade. Brook Lopez is expected to play around 30 minutes in this contest between two teams that have multiple players that have played in both Dallas and New Jersey with Vince Carter and Jason Kidd being the most notable.

Background on Dallas

As most of you know, tonight's game with the Mavs will be the backstory to the Dwightmare situation that is going on right now, with the Nets and Dallas implicated right in the middle of it. The Mavericks scrapped much of their championship-winning team last offseason in order to have enough cap room to be able to sign Dwight Howard and/or D-Will by the summer. Don't get me wrong, they are still a good team but without key pieces like Tyson Chandler and DeShawn Stevenson out of the picture, Dallas is much less formidable than they were at this time last year. Dirk, Kidd, Terry, and even Marion are all still there but this Mavs team is very different from a year ago.

Previous Game
Right before the All-Star break, the Mavericks lost to the LA Lakers by a score of 96-91 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. The loss was only Dallas' 2nd setback in their 9 games and really clogged up the team's momentum heading into the break. Dirk and Vince Carter led the Mavs with 25 and 20 points respectively but they didn't get much other help from their teammates, as Dallas as a team only shot 40 percent from the field compared to the Lakers' 46 percent.

In one of the most hyped games of the season, the Nets fell to Dwight Howard and the Magic the Wednesday before All-Stra weekend by the score of 108-91. The trade rumors were flying like Orlando's 3-pointers, of which they hit 13 in the game, mostly uncontested by the Nets defenders. Dwight had 20 and 17 but was helped by the fact that Kris Humphries missed the game due to calf injury so the superstar center didn't have to face New Jersey's top rebounder and interior defender. 

Probable Lineups 

NJN- D.Williams (PG), Brooks (SG), Stevenson (SF), Humphries (PF), Lopez (C)

DAL- Kidd (PG), Carter (SG), Marion (SF), Nowitzki (PF), Haywood (C)

Prediction
With the way the Nets have played of late on the road, I wouldn't be surprised of nay result to the game. However, I'm going to go with the defending champs by the score of 105-94.