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Eddie Sefko anwers the first mailbag questions of the season.
What the Mavericks' terrible season opener did was give us hints about what this team is going to have to overcome. Mostly, they cannot rely on their shooting. And they cannot get by without a supreme effort every night. Such teams as Boston, the Lakers, Orlando and San Antonio know that you can't mail it in more than a handful of times each season, because those are going to be losses.

Dallas Mavericks face tough LA-LA weekend | Eddie Sefko
The Mavericks will rotate players on Bryant tonight, and Carlisle said it's a good bet that Quinton Ross will see a lot of time on the Lakers' star. "We're going to have to play good individual defense on him and have help ready to come," Carlisle said. "You want to take away the good, clean, wide-open looks. You got to try to put him under some duress. You don't want him to beat you single-handedly. He's as good as any player we have in the game."

Lakers' Pau Gasol to miss Friday's game | The Fabulous Forum | Los Angeles Times
Lakers forward Pau Gasol missed practice again today because of his strained right hamstring and the team said that Gasol also will not play in Friday night's game against the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center.

DB.com's Morning Donuts
Again, if the Mavs start 0-2 this year, that'll be five straight seasons in which they�ve stumbled out of the gate. That no doubt bears examination. But not over-examination. Some of us sound like teenage girls in 1964 fainting over The Beatles. Starting 0-2 isn't the equivalent of seeing The Beatles. It's more like seeing The Monkees. So quit fainting over seeing The Monkees, OK?

Fisher has a must read story from yesterday's practice. See what I mean...
Assistant coach Darrell Armstrong was rooting on Dirk, and while the 7-footer was in the middle of setting up shots, he’d yell back, "You tell ‘em, ‘Black College!’