Trying times aren’t an excuse anymore

Before the Mavericks stepped onto the court to face Houston, Avery Johnson acknowledged his team had been through more mentally than most.

“If you look at the timing of our trade and all that went on before, it was pretty draining in a lot of different ways,” he said then. “We had that one practice before New Orleans and, ‘Boom, off we go.’”

Before facing New Jersey, he said it was time to spit out the pacifier, stop making the same mistakes and, for the new guys, quit reverting to old habits.

“Some things are going to have to start clicking, especially the A, B and Cs of what we’re all about,” he said.

Did the General undergo a change of heart/loss of patience in two days? Probably not. Both statements explain the concerns as the regular season nears its last month. The Mavs (40-23) hit the third game of a five-game stand at American Airlines Center with New York’s visit Monday night.

Read the rest of this story with a Knicks’ preview at mavs.com.