Couple articles on Josh Howard this morning.  JJT writes that if  Josh Howard is at his best then the Mavs will be too.

He's the only player on the roster young enough and good enough to substantially alter the Mavs' record this season.

I don't know that I'm agreeing with that (Dirk's kind of important.  No?), but he's right that Josh Howard has to regain his All-Star level play for the Mavs to improve on the last two postseasons.

And Caplan has an article about Howard's offseason, but it's a little blurb about his preseason that interests me.

He averaged 14.3 points, four rebounds and 1.4 steals a game in 23.8 minutes. He shot 51.2 percent overall and 41.7 from 3-point range.

He’s attacking driving lanes created by Carlisle’s motion offense, and Carlisle has applauded his defensive resolve.

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Eddie Sefko says the Mavs are the real "redeem team" and have to play hungry.

"The only thing I'm going to tell you is we have to be a hungry team. If we're not, we're not going to compete at the level we need to."

Up and down the roster, the Mavericks have players who have something to prove.

Playing hungry hasn't helped Eddy Curry.

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Jim Reeves predicts the Mavs will win between 50-55 games.

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Eddie Sefko's roster analysis

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Rick Carlisle isn't making predictions.

"We're going to have 19,200 people in here who think we have a chance to win a championship. And that's a great start."

That's the plan anyway.  There are actually still tickets available for tonights game.  The Mavs have the longest standing home sell out streak in the NBA right now, but have actually lowered prices and are offering tickets for as little as 2 dollars for many games this season.   It makes sense, not only is there a bit of apathy for the Mavs right now, but FC Dallas and the Texas Rangers both saw large drops in attendance figures this year.  It could be that those teams aren't very good, but it could be a local trend as well.

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Around the NBA: Houston won last night.  San Antonio lost at home to Phoenix.

Props to Pop, this was funny.

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This Day in Mavs History

2001 Played 1st regular season game in the American Airlines Center.