The Dallas Mavericks have insisted that there is a method to the madness of dismantling a championship roster and reassembling with veteran one year deals.

By now, we all know about the summer of 2012 and the two big names the Mavericks are prepared to go after in Dallas native, Deron Williams and Dwight Howard.

Well, you can count Tracy McGrady among the people who believe the Mavericks’ master plan will work. In an interview with Yahoo! McGrady says that the Mavericks will end up with Williams and Howard next year.

Full quotes after the jump.

“If it’s just Dwight and D-Will, he’s better off just staying in Orlando. You want to go to a team that’s championship caliber, and just him and D-Will won’t get it done. There’s got to be other pieces around to make it look sweet.”

….

D-Will is from Dallas,” McGrady said. “You’ve got Dirk Nowitzki there. They’re going to have [cap space] there. That looks sweet. Dirk. D-Will. And then you get Dwight Howard. That’s it, right there.”

….
“I’ve been watching Orlando play, and I think they let it go too far – to where they can’t compete for a championship,” McGrady said. “Dwight’s going to find a sweeter spot for him next year with him being a free agent, with D-Will being a free agent, and Dallas already having an established star there. … Yup, Dallas.”

And then he laughed and said, “You heard it from me first.”

Keep planting that seed and there’ll be a vet minimum deal in it for you, T-Mac.

Given the Mavericks’ drastic cost-cutting moves following their NBA championship victory last June, no one should be shocked that they’re struggling out of the gates this season. Just ask their former center, Tyson Chandler. Per the NY Post: “Chandler is now away from the Mavericks, who have started 0-2 and been outscored by a combined 33 points in the defeats. Chandler said he is not surprised by the early slide. ‘Honestly, I kind of saw it coming because when you put a team in a situation where you say, ‘You’re the defending champions, but we’re not necessarily trying to repeat,’ and when I say that, I’m not saying that they don’t have the pieces there, I obviously think very highly of those guys, but I say that because they offered everybody one-year deals,’ he said. ‘So they knew nobody was going to necessarily accept that. … And when you have veteran guys in the locker room, the type of guys they got, in this time of their career, it’s tough to face that. I think they’re just going through a little lull right now. But I’m hoping for those guys that it turns around because there’s truly good guys in that locker room.’”

Through the first two games of the 2011-2012 season, the defending champion Dallas Mavericks have shown little on the court that would even remotely resemble that of the best team in the NBA.

Some of this is understandable, as the Mavs have lost some key contributors from last season’s remarkable Finals run. Dallas is missing it’s defensive MVP from last season in Tyson Chandler, it’s best perimeter defender in DeShawn Stevenson and a spark plug off the bench in J.J. Barea.

However, the team’s lackluster effort thus far in the young season likely could not be described as understandable. With talented veterans Lamar Odom, Vince Carter and Delonte West coming aboard; the Mavericks were expected to be able to weather the storm early-on this season as the team gelled throughout the year.

This has not happened.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Mavericks’ head coach Rick Carlisle said after the team’s banner raising blunder against the Miami HEAT. “Every day we’re going to have to make some gradual strides to get better, so that’s where we’re at. We had some stretches where we got some traction, but our consistency is not there. We’ve got to keep studying and keep working on it.”

After last night’s 115-93 beat down at the hands of the Denver Nuggets, Dallas is now 0-2 on the season and has fallen behind by 30 or more points in each of those contests. Because of furious runs by the Mavs’ reserves in each of those games, neither final score was reflective of the type of effort Dallas exhibited on either end of the floor.

Aside from West, who has shown flashes of what he can do in leading the Mavs bench during garbage time, the other two Mavericks’ offseason acquisitions have failed to live up to the billing of their former All-Star pedigree. Odom is a combined 2-16 from the field to start his career with Dallas and was ejected from the first contest have arguing with an official, and Carter has been largely relegated to the bench during key stretches for the Mavs.

The aforementioned Carter, who started at the two-spot against the HEAT but was benched at halftime and subsequently came of the pine last night against Denver, believes this team can and will play better going forward.

“No excuses,” Carter told HOOPSWORLD Sunday evening. “We’ve got to find a way, plain and simple. We’ve just got to figure out how we can get it done. Everybody’s dealt the same deck of cards, its just who can figure it out the fastest.”

Two of the biggest factors in the Mavs’ poor start this season, rebounding and defense, have been embarrassingly inept through two games. Dallas has allowed each team to shoot nearly 49 percent from the field and were out-rebounded by a combined 30 boards against the HEAT and Nuggets.

Aside from turning back time and deciding to keep Chandler from signing with the New York Knicks, a revival of energy and a focus on continuity are the only things that can help Dallas get back to playing championship-style basketball. With not much time between games and a shortened overall schedule, this team must find a way to speed up that process if it hopes to be a contender in April.

“We’re going to have to play a lot better basketball and we’re going to have to forge an identity with this team,” Carlisle said. “It’s a different team and that’s work. It’s going to take work,  it’s going take honesty and it’s not going to be easy.

“We’ve got to work to make quantum leaps as quickly and as often as we can.”

The one positive for Dallas going forward is the simple fact that there are still 64 games left on the schedule. With the type of talent that still resides on this team, namely former NBA and Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki, a strong run deep into the playoffs should still be a realistic possibility.

“I think we’ll be OK.  I think we’re going to make it happen sooner than later,” Mavs’ forward Shawn Marion told HOOPSWORLD.  “One game at a time, man… Just one game at a time, that’s all you can do.”

It’s way too early to start throwing out absolutes here in regards to what this team is going to be going forward but it’s difficult to simply shrug off the disturbing lack of effort the starters of this team have exuded through the first two days of the season. Energy has nothing to do with chemistry and this squad’s demeanor suggests a Finals hangover is in desperate need of getting a remedy.

The defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks have started out 0-2.

An ugly 0-2. They have been blown out by the Heat and the Nuggets on their home court, losing by a combined 33 points (and it wasn’t really that close, garbage time runs have made it look better than it was).

What in the name of Mark Cuban is going on?

The problem is, it’s not just one thing. Both the offense and the defense have taken steps back so far this season. Big steps. At the heart of the issue is the team chemistry and selfless team play — the great offensive ball movement, the coordinated defense — have disappeared.

Dallas last season won because the whole was greater than the sum of their parts. Their chemistry made up for the lack of athleticism. This year so far they are just parts. Here is what Dirk Nowitzki told the Dallas Morning News.

“We look old and slow and out of shape — a bad combination,” said Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 20 points and sat out the entire fourth quarter for a second straight game, yet another indication of how bad things are going. “I still think this team has a lot of potential. But we have to turn the corner.”

That should come with time — Lamar Odom just looks lost right now trying to find his way, but he will find his spots. Eventually. It’s just that in a condensed season the Mavs have less time to make this all happen.

And there are a lot of areas that need work.

Transition defense is at the top of the list. Both Denver and the Heat ran against Mavericks embarrassed the Mavs. To be kind. Both the Heat and Nuggets created mismatches in transition and exploited them mercilessly. Dallas started out focused on it against Denver but those plans wilted as they game wore on.

More than just transition, it was things like baseline drives that Dallas used to shut off (thank you Tyson Chandler) which they are giving up now in bunches.

On offense the Mavs have scored 16 points fewer per 100 possessions compared to last year, and they are playing at a faster pace through two games, exacerbating the problem. They are not getting good looks through ball movement, they are looking more isolated and their shots more contested.

The problem is they are a jump shooting team and those misses are long rebounds and the Heat and Nuggets turned those misses into fast beaks, and we talked about the lack of transition defense.

Coach Rick Carlisle is looking for solutions. He is starting Delonte West over Vince Carter (mostly for the defense). He gave Sean Williams run and he looked good, providing them the athleticism the Mavericks need.

But the real solution is time. The core of the Dallas team that won the title and had been together for years has been broken up in the name of cap space and there is a new learning curve. Eventually Dallas will get back close to what they were. But the bumps in the road are painful.

The real concern is that in this condensed schedule, the hole they are digging at the start of the season is going to hurt them more later.

NBA Game of the Week for the Week of December 26-January 1

The first full week of the 2011-2012 NBA season includes 60 games that will help the season get into full swing. All thirty teams in the league will play at least three games this week and most teams will play four.

The young, maturing Oklahoma City Thunder will host the defending NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks in this week’s NBA Game of the Week. When the Mavericks and Thunder last met, a trip to the 2011 NBA Finals was at stake.

This game alone will not determine the ultimate fate of either of these teams this year. But it can serve as a gauge. Oklahoma City can get an idea of just how much they have grown since losing Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals to Dallas last season. The Mavericks can use the game to help them figure out how new additions Vince Carter, Lamar Odom and Delonte West can be used to help fill in the void left by the departures of J.J. Barea and Tyson Chandler.

(All statistics and records are through December 25)

Thursday, December 29, Dallas Mavericks (0-1) at Oklahoma City Thunder (1-0), 8:00 p.m. ET on TNT

Unlike the Mavericks, Oklahoma City had an uneventful offseason personnel wise. The Thunder maintained their core and are hoping that their growth and cohesiveness will help them in an abbreviated 66-game season.

Both the Mavericks and Thunder played on Christmas Day and their performances could not have been more different. After unveiling their championship banner, the Dallas Mavericks were totally outplayed by the Miami Heat in their season opener. The final score of 105-94 is not indicative of how much of a blowout this game really was. Dallas never held a lead in the game and at one point the defending champions trailed the Heat 78-43.

Two-time scoring champion Kevin Durant opened the season with an even 30 points in Oklahoma City’s 97-89 victory over the Orlando Magic. Defensively, the Thunder hounded the Magic into 18 turnovers and held them to 37 percent shooting from the field.

If the Mavericks want to defeat the Thunder on Thursday, they will have to play with much more intensity than they did against the Heat. After their flat performance on Sunday, the defending NBA champions will have to play with some championship pride to get a victory over the maturing Oklahoma City Thunder.

Mark is a lifelong fan of the NBA who has loved the game of basketball ever since his first trip to an NBA arena. Mark has watched more basketball games than anyone can count and has more than 100 articles about the NBA published on the internet. Mark also shares his random NBA musings on RandomNBAFan.com.

Information from ESPN.com’s NBA Schedule, Miami Heat vs. Dallas Mavericks—Play By Play—December 25, 2011 and Orlando Magic vs. Oklahoma City Thunder—Box Score—December 25, 2011 was used for this article.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Nuggets-Mavericks Preview

By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN

STATS Senior Writer

(AP) — The start of the Dallas Mavericks’ title defense couldn’t have gone much worse.

The Mavericks won’t have to wait long to try to bounce back Monday night at home in the Denver Nuggets’ season opener.

After Dallas raised a banner to celebrate its first NBA title Sunday, the Mavericks fell behind by as many as 35 points in a 105-94 loss to Miami in a finals rematch that was not as close as the final score.

Coach Rick Carlisle preached patience for his new-look squad, which lost center Tyson Chandler and backup point guard J.J. Barea and added forward Lamar Odom and guards Vince Carter and Delonte West.

“We’re going to have to forge an identity with this team; it’s a different team,” Carlisle said. “That’s work, and it’s going to take honesty, and it’s not going to be easy.”

Odom had a terrible Mavericks debut with four points, four rebounds and four fouls in 13 minutes. The reigning NBA Sixth Man of the Year was 1 of 6 from the field before getting ejected in the third quarter.

“We’ve got to get better and it will take a little time to get better,” Odom said.

Jason Terry led Dallas with 23 points while star Dirk Nowitzki added 21 on 6-of-15 shooting.

The Mavericks lost both home games against the Nuggets last season, going 1-3 in the season series. Three of those meetings, however, came when Carmelo Anthony was with Denver.

This will be Denver’s first full season without Anthony since 2002-03. The Nuggets went 18-7 after trading Anthony to New York to finish with 50 wins last season, losing to Oklahoma City in five games in the first round of the playoffs.

In a league in which teams like the Knicks and Heat are trying for success by stockpiling superstars, Denver is without one. Danilo Gallinari averaged 14.7 points in 14 games for Denver last season after being acquired from New York.

“What we’re trying to do is start where we left off last year and I think we feel now we can get there,” coach George Karl said.

One reason for optimism is that Denver re-signed its top two free agents, Nene and Arron Afflalo. Nene averaged 14.5 points last season and Afflalo a career-best 12.6.

“These guys are very valuable to the organization, and they are very skilled players,” general manager Masai Ujiri told the Nuggets’ official website. “Rather than go out and find players like them, I think you keep the ones you have.”

Point guard Andre Miller came over from Portland for a second stint with the team while the Nuggets also acquired perimeter players Corey Brewer and Rudy Fernandez from Dallas on Dec. 13.

“Maybe there will be some pieces that will be different and we might not be as good in certain areas, but I think we can get to the point where some of the success we had last season can be repeated,” Karl said.

Afflalo missed the first two games of the playoff series against the Thunder with a hamstring injury and struggled to average 11.3 points on 35.3 percent shooting in the next three contests. He’s healthy now, and hopes to resemble the player who averaged 14.3 points on 53.3 percent shooting in three games against Dallas last season.

“I’m excited to be more of a leader of the team,” said Afflalo, whose jumper beat the buzzer and the Mavericks 121-120 on Feb. 10.

Updated December 25, 2011

The NBA’s Christmas present to its fans: Allowing them to revel in the collapse of the Miami Heat one last time.

The marquee game of the league’s opening day — Heat vs. Mavericks — will begin with the unveiling of the Mavericks’ championship banner. You can already picture the video frames in your mind: The banner will unfurl, fans will cheer inside Dallas’ American Airlines Center, and then a camera will pan to the face of LeBron James. Boos will fill the arena and television screens across the country.

Happy Holidays, from the NBA.

Savor while it lasts, all you Heat haters. You likely won’t have much to cheer about during the game. With five players gone from their championship team, the Mavericks are a work in progress.

“I think our goal cannot be to be the best team right now,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “Our goal is to get better and also better game to game. Hopefully by April, May and June we can be back to where we were last year.”

The Mavericks, which defeated the Heat in six games in last season’s NBA Finals, will feature a retooled roster on Christmas Day. Gone are key pieces to last season’s title run, including center Tyson Chandler, veterans Caron Butler and Peja Stojakovic and point guard J.J. Barea.

“Our team is probably going to be a little different but that’s the business of basketball,” said Jason Kidd, the 39-year-old guard.

In other words, it’s probably not going to be as good — at least not in the beginning of the season.

Unable to re-sign Chandler, the defensive force who gave the Heat so many problems in The Finals, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban traded for Lamar Odom, the Lakers’ versatile forward who was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year last season.

The Mavericks went 0-2 in the preseason and the unfamiliarity showed. Dallas has only played one game — last Tuesday’s loss to Oklahoma City — featuring both Odom and Nowitzki on the court together. Combined with Shawn Marion, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said his team will have three of the best forwards in the NBA, but getting to players on the same page “will take some time,” according to Odom.

Barea wrecked havoc on the Heat’s defense in The Finals, but the Mavericks couldn’t afford to keep him around. Barea signed with Minnesota during training camp and Dallas replaced him with Delonte West, the veteran shooting guard who played with LeBron James in Cleveland.

“When you don’t have five guys back, who were all significant guys, we have to reformulate this thing,” Carlisle said. “But the guys coming in are veteran guys, guys who have played in big games. These guys have been in the wars and know what it is about.”

Vince Carter, another new piece, called the Mavericks’ run through the playoffs last season an unlikely one. With enough time to mesh, the hope in Dallas is the new-look Mavericks can tap into that same magic in time for the postseason.

“[The Mavericks] just made it happen,” Carter said. “It takes a lot of luck and opportunity, and they seized the moment. Could people honestly say they were going to win it at the beginning of the year? No, not really. Not even in the middle of the year. When you put a team like this together that’s committed and when you get a bunch of veteran guys, anything could happen.”

MIAMI HERALD WIRE SERVICES CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT

Despite a 62-win season and a determined expectation for more success, hoop pundits are ranking the Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder ahead of the Chicago Bulls in preseason power polls.

Here’s quick rundown of power polls that have been released so far.

CBS Sports: 1 – Heat; 2 – Thunder; 3 – Bulls; 4 – Mavericks; 5 – Lakers.

Fox Sports: 1 – Heat; 2 – Mavericks; 3 – Thunder; 4 – Bulls; 5 – Celtics.

NBA.com: 1 – Heat; 2 – Mavericks; 3 – Thunder; 4 – Bulls; 5 – Spurs.

NBC Sports: 1 – Mavericks; 2 – Heat; 3 – Bulls; 4 – Thunder; 5 – Lakers.

Sports Illustrated: 1 – Heat; 2 – Thunder; 3 – Mavericks; 4 – Bulls; 5 – Nuggets.

So hoop pundits generally agree that the NBA’s top four teams this season are likely to include the Bulls, Heat, Mavs and Thunder.

That’s a pretty good list, although, much like the experts, I’m having a hard time figuring out who that fifth team might be. The Celtics and Spurs are too old to withstand the rigors of the condensed 66-game schedule, and it seems like the Lakers are in a state of flux; maybe a New York or Memphis, or some other completely unexpected team, could sneak into the top 5.

I’m also not sure the Mavs will be as good as everyone is expecting.

If I were developing my own power poll, here’s how my rankings would look: 1 – Bulls; 2 – Thunder; 3 – Heat; 4 – Mavericks; 5 – Knicks/Grizzlies/???.

Be all of that as it may, the across-the-board ranking of the Bulls at no better than #3 or #4 is difficult to understand.

The Bulls are basically the same team as last year’s 62-win team, but with one big difference: They went out and got the shooting guard they so desperately needed. While it’s too early to know what the success of that acquisition might be, the Derrick Rose-Rip Hamilton tandem sure looked good in the team’s final exhibition game.

Meanwhile, the Miami Heat added Shane Battier and, lol, Eddie Curry, while the Mavs completely revamped their lineup. Only the Thunder remains intact from last season – all 10 members from last year’s rotation return – when they were pretty darned good.

Time will tell if the preseason power polls were accurate, but one thing is for sure: The Bulls will be in the thick of things, and are likely to exceed the pundits’ preseason power poll rankings.

Notes: Memo to whoever’s in charge of ESPN’s NBA home page – get rid of the Miami Heat Index already. What pathetic pandering…..Anyone watch the Heat-Magic game last night? The Magic looked a lot better than I expected, the Heat, not so much…..Jannero Pargo, who rode the pine for the Bulls last year after an earlier three-year stint with the team, signed with the Atlanta Hawks, while the Detroit Pistons are rumored to be interested in Keith Bogans…..K.C. Johnson’s Bulls Mailbag has returned for the season!

Sources: Power Rankings: Heat start at top, but it’s a new NBA from there, CBSSports.com; NBA preseason power rankings, Fox Sports; NBA Power Rankings: Mavericks start out season on top, NBC Sports/ProBasketballTalk; After preseason, Heat are on top, NBA.com; Heat, Thunder top preseason heap, Sports Illustrated.

YCN featured sports contributor Steve Merritt is – for better or worse – a lifelong Chicago Bulls, Bears and Cubs fan. Follow the Bulls’ 2011-12 season from a die-hard fan’s perspective on his blog, A Fan’s Take: The 2011-12 Chicago Bulls.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

When looking back at all of my favorite sports memories of 2011, I think of many sports moments. As a die-hard Boston sports fan, I obviously think about the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup but I also think about the Boston Red Sox’s epic end-of-the-season collapse. But my favorite sports memory of 2011 has nothing to do with a Boston sports team.

My favorite sports moment over the span of this year has to do with my favorite basketball team: the Dallas Mavericks. Though the Mavericks have experienced many great seasons, throughout the history of the organization, the 2011 season for the Mavericks was their best. In fact, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd helped the team win the team’s first NBA championship.

When the Mavericks beat Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, I earnestly believed that the Mavericks would not do well against the Miami Heat. The Mavericks obviously had a solid team last year but the Heat appeared to be much better and had a dynamic trio of all-stars – Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade.

In the end, the Mavericks prevailed against the Heat in the NBA Finals, winning the championship in six games. As you might have guessed by now, I am a passionate Mavericks fan and their championship win was one of my favorite sports moments of all time. Being able to watch James and Wade walk off the court in disgrace also made that night highly enjoyable. However, in the end, one of my favorite highlights of the Mavericks’ championship night was finally being able to see Mark Cuban experience triumphant joy for his Dallas basketball team. Watching many of the Mavericks players, especially Dirk Nowitzki, finally enjoy knowing that they helped their team win the championship was one of my favorite sports moments in 2011. The team deserved to win and I hope that they will repeat their success in 2012.

Sources:

Jaime Aron, “New Mavs Odom, Carter eager to help defend title,” Yahoo! Sports.

Jaime Aron, “Nowitzki curious who’ll help Mavs defend crown,” Yahoo! Sports.

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

DALLAS — Dirk Nowitzki is back for the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks. The supporting cast has a new look.

Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea and Caron Butler are gone. But the front office has added Lamar Odom and Vince Carter to plug some of the holes, along with backup guard Delonte West. In a 66-game season, there is no telling how the older Mavericks will fare but the veterans know that making the playoffs will give them a shot at defending the franchise’s first title.

Dallas opens the season at home against Miami on Sunday in a rematch of the NBA finals.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

OKLAHOMA CITY — If Tuesday’s 87-83 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder is any indication, the Dallas Mavericks have some work to do before they can even think about successfully defending their NBA title.

Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd played in their first and only preseason game, but the results were still the same for the Mavs. The Thunder torched the Mavs with suffocating defense and a series of fast-break dunks en route to winning their second preseason game over Dallas in three nights.

“Overall, we’re going to have to be a lot better. We know that,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “I like our first quarter, I like the latter stages of the fourth quarter — we battled.

“The part in between has been rough, and so we’ve got to work through it.”

Oklahoma City led by as many as 23 points — 74-51 late in the third quarter — before a 30-13 surge by the Mavericks in the fourth made the final score respectable.

It was as if the Thunder was trying to send a message after it was ousted by the Mavericks in five games last season in the Western Conference Finals. But the Mavericks were coy about a loss in the second of two meaningless preseason games.

“Our goal can’t be to be the best team right now,” said Nowitzki, who was 2 of 10 from the floor with six points in 23 minutes. “Our goal is to get better from game to game and get used to each other more, and hopefully be the best team again when it comes to April, May and June.”

What’s really foremost on the Mavericks’ minds is Sunday’s regular-season opener at home against the Miami Heat — the team Dallas thumped to win last year’s NBA championship.

“We’re five days away right now,” forward Shawn Marion said. “We’re keeping our bodies ready and our minds right.

“We’re going to make another run at this. I think we have the talent in this locker room and the mental approach it’s going to take to go out there and get it again.”

Jerome Randle led the Mavericks with 17 points in 18 minutes, Brandan Wright had 12 and Marion added 10. And there were moments when Lamar Odom, Nowitzki and Marion were on the floor at the same time.

“It was cool. I’ve just got to get used to it as time goes on,” said Odom, who collected eight points and three rebounds. “You play the game, you play it to win it.”

Granted, the Mavericks were not at full strength Tuesday night, with guards Jason Terry and Delonte West sitting out because of illness. And Vince Carter, who is expected to be the starting shooting guard against the Heat, also did not play.

Still, the second loss to the Thunder in three days — OKC won 106-92 on Sunday in Dallas — has to be cause for concern.

“Look, we were down two guys tonight, which makes it more challenging,” Carlisle said. “But there’s some good spots to the game and then there’s some areas that we’re looking at and saying, ’Hey, we’re going to be struggling if it goes on like this.’.”

———

The Oklahoma City Thunder have to take some comfort in the fact that they just swept the Dallas Mavericks in the home and away preseason games. The second win was a Tuesday night game on Dec. 20 which the Thunder won, 87-83. Now, they wait for Christmas Day to see how things go when the real season gets underway.

What has to also make the Thunder happy is that they got to test themselves against the actual Mavericks this time, with Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd both playing. The two players both sat out the first game of the series in Dallas. Nowitzki played for 22:47 while Kidd was in the game for 17:48. Nowitzki finished the game with six points while Kidd ended up with three.

Of the new Dallas additions, Lamar Odom scored eight points while Vince Carter sat out the contest. The leading scorer for Dallas was Jerome Randle with 17 points.

Thabo Sefolosha once again started the game for the Thunder, telling me that the decision of who will start the games between him and James Harden has been made. Despite not starting, Harden notched 26:27 of playing time and led the Thunder in scoring with 13 points. While a lot has been made of Harden being named the starter, it is clear he is a perfect fit as the sixth man who gets a lot of minutes.

Of the stars, Kevin Durant finished with 10 points in 20:55 while Russell Westbrook scored 12, with three assists.

Newcomer Lazar Hayward did not play in the game while rookie Reggie Jackson was in the game for 9:41 and finished with two points and one assist. He also turned the ball over once.

With this final preseason win in the books, it is time for the Thunder to start looking to the start of the regular season. The season opens with Orlando on Christmas Day and Minnesota the next evening. However, their next two games are against teams they met in the playoffs last season, Memphis and Dallas.

That meeting with Dallas will look nothing like the last two games because the Mavericks will be firing on all cylinders in that game. However, the Thunder played without Durant and Westbrook for stretches as well. Preseason was fun but now it’s time for the real games to get started.

Author Shawn S. Lealos has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma (2000) and is an avid sports fan that has lived in Oklahoma for over 40 years. He used to religiously follow the Dallas Mavericks until Oklahoma City found a team to call their own.

Source: Yahoo! Sports

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

DALLAS (AP)—While competitors like the defending champion Dallas Mavericks
have altered their rotations, the Oklahoma City Thunder is standing pat.

Kevin Durant scored 21 points and reserve James Harden added 16 to lead the
Thunder to a 106-92 victory over the Mavericks on Sunday night in the preseason
opener for both teams.

The Thunder reached the Western Conference finals last season before falling
in five games to the Mavericks.

Oklahoma City has kept its young rotation intact, and the Thunder expects a
smooth transition into the regular season.

“It should help a lot as far as chemistry is concerned,” said Durant, the
NBA scoring leader last season at 27.7 points per game, whose aggressive play
led to a 13-for-14 night from the free throw line. “We’ve been together for a
while. We know each other’s games. Hopefully, our young legs push us through
it.”

Oklahoma City went 31 for 55 from the field and 10 for 21 from beyond the
3-point line to help negate 25 turnovers that led to 33 Dallas points.

“Offensively, we were sloppy with the ball,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks
said. “Too many turnovers. But that’s something we have to work on and we will
correct.”

Lamar Odom, acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers in a trade on Dec. 11, had
14 points and seven rebounds in his Mavericks debut.

Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd, leaders of the Mavericks’ title run, were in
uniform and are healthy but were rested. Delonte West and Odom started in their
place.

Dominique Jones and Roddy Beaubois took advantage of additional minutes to
score 17 points apiece, pacing Dallas.

“(Nowitzki and Kidd) being out, we’re not going to be the same team, but
that’s all right,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “We need to see other guys.
Our philosophy is that when we’re without any of our guys, the guys that are
available need to get the job done. We weren’t able to do it tonight.”

The Mavs are working newcomers Odom, Vince Carter and West into their
rotation, looking to make up for the losses of key rotation members Tyson
Chandler, J.J. Barea and Caron Butler to trades or free agency.

The teams complete their two-game home-and-home exhibition set Tuesday night
at Oklahoma City, and Nowitzki and Kidd are expected to play.

The Thunder took control with an 11-0 second-quarter run that included two
3-pointers from Daequan Cook, expanding a 25-24 lead after one quarter to 58-51
by halftime.

Oklahoma City went 7 for 11 from 3-point range in the first half, with Cook
hitting 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.

Durant’s nine points in the third quarter, all on foul shots, pushed the
Thunder to a 90-70 advantage entering the fourth.

Dallas was 7 for 21 from the floor in the third quarter as the Thunder
turned up the defensive pressure.

“Our defense was pretty good,” Durant said. “We were making our
rotations, helping each other out, and we got to the free throw line.”

Dallas opened the fourth quarter with a 14-0 run and pulled as close as
93-88 on Ian Mahinmi’s dunk with 5:04 remaining.

But the Thunder scored the next five points, including a pair of jumpers
from Eric Maynor, for a 98-88 edge with 3:21 left, closing out the Mavs.

NOTES: Carlisle said his primary goal in a short preseason is getting his
veteran team into game shape. “Our guys would benefit from a longer camp, but
that’s not in the cards,” Carlisle said. … The Mavericks open the regular
season on Christmas Day, hosting Miami, their opponent in the finals. The
Thunder host Orlando on the same day.