History on their side

The Mavs do have some history on their side. Not only did Johnson’s 2005 squad rally from a two-game deficit to beat Houston – and both of those losses were in Dallas – but Game 3 success usually follows for teams down 0-2.

Going into the 2008 playoffs, teams that were down 2-0 in a best-of-7 series went 121-83 in the third game. Nineteen teams recovered to win the series, including Utah and Cleveland last year. So the Mavs aren’t facing the impossible.

“The guys are focused,” Josh Howard said. “We know we have to take care of homecourt. We can’t go back to New Orleans down 3-1. We’ve got to get these two wins.”

Again, if the past is any guide, the Mavs have to feel confident. The Hornets haven’t won in Dallas since a 94-92 victory on Jan. 24, 1998 at Reunion Arena. They’ve never won at the American Airlines Center, going 0-11.

“We’re a good home team,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “We beat some great teams here at home, so we should be confident that we can win big games here with our home crowd. That run we had at the end [of the season], we beat some tough teams, we beat Phoenix at Phoenix in a tough setting, so we should be confident we can win this game.”