Rise and Shine

The pregame move by Avery Johnson was somewhat surprising. The Mavericks gathered for an impromptu practice session the morning before facing Orlando after playing the day before at Detroit.

Morning shootarounds don’t happen on the second leg of a back-to-back, especially on the road. But this was a special circumstance. The Mavs had lost two straight and were absolutely dreadful against the Pistons.

“I actually thought we needed that,” Eddie Jones said. “We had to get up, get going, moving around and get our stuff together because we’ve been in a funk.”

Not so much anymore. Responding with their most complete effort in a three-game tour of Eastern Conference division leaders, the Mavs picked up a convincing 107-98 victory on the Magic’s home court.

Josh Howard scored 28 and Dirk Nowitzki added another 20 – nothing shocking there. Jason Terry’s 20 points off the bench were unexpected and welcome on a couple of counts. Not only did he return to the pine after starting three games in place of injured Devin Harris, but the ‘Jet’ regained his quick trigger and decisiveness.

Read the rest of this note, Devean George’s request for more playing time and get a preview of the Bucks in today’s notebook at mavs.com.