Jet: “Do or die tonight”

Not only have the Mavs slipped to the bottom end of the Western Conference playoff picture, but as crazy as it may seem, scenarios are being painted that don’t include a postseason trip. Dallas has lost three in row, including Thursday’s listless 113-98 home loss to Houston.

The Mavs do have the easiest remaining schedule of the West contenders and face the first of five consecutive teams with losing records tonight with New Jersey.

“It’s do or die tonight,” Jason Terry said. “This obviously is a tremendous game for us. I’m very disappointed after our last performance, especially here at home in front of our fans. I feel like we let ourselves down and we let them down. We’re going to come out, its going to be an emotional game and we’re going to have to bring it for 48 minutes.”

The Mavs have been waiting to run off string of wins, particularly since the addition of Jason Kidd.

“There’s no holding back tonight at all, and for the rest of the season, for that matter,” Terry said. “Tonight especially. To get a streak going you have to win one and this has to be the one that gets us going.”

Jerry Stackhouse said there’s no sense worrying what’s going on above or below the Mavs in the standings.

“That’s the thing you can’t do,” Stackhouse said. “You’ve just got to worry about yourself and what we’re doing, and try to cure our ills. Winning is a cure-all.

“If we’re able to string together a couple wins and start feeling good about what we’re doing on the court, you always have ups and downs during the course of the game, but whenever you have a good end result, it always makes things a lot better.”