Full attention on Denver before road trip

After the Mavs face Denver tonight at American Airlines Center, the next four are on the road. Getting a win before leaving town isn’t the sole motivation. Avery Johnson has plenty to think about with Allen Iverson, who torched the Mavs for 35 in the Nuggets’ 122-109 in early December.

“Just because we’re going out on this road trip, I think we need a win period,” Johnson said. “This is a team that we had one of our poorer efforts against, but we didn’t play well. We lost the night before [at San Antonio], we turned the ball over, we weren’t physical, Iverson had back-to-back great games. I think he had 50 points [51 actually] the night before against LA [Lakers] and then came against us and had a huge night. We’ve got to play much better.”

Is the upcoming stretch of 11 of 15 on the road the most difficult of the season?

“If we make it difficult,” Johnson replied. “If we play like we did in the third quarter against the Lakers when we built that 17-point lead, then we will have a chance. If we played like we did against Washington, then we have no chance.”