The Dallas Mavericks take on the Houston Rockets tonight in Houston, with Houston clinging to the final playoff seed in the Western Conference, and Dallas clinging to the delusion they can replace them in that spot.

• Eddie Sefko has some reasons for optimism for Dallas against the Rockets. Dallas has a winning streak going against their east-Texas foes, which of course includes the O.J. Mayo-James Harden classic 80's style shootout from earlier this year.
• Mike James says he thinks the Mavs "can do something special". He must not know Dallas already did their Harlem Shake cover.
• Speaking of Harden, the Mavs are hoping they don't catch up with him in the beard category.
• Coming off the Mavs win in Brooklyn against Deron Williams and the Nets, the barrage of "are the Mavs better off?" articles are here, again. Yay.
• Dirk was apparently very impressed by the bus elevator in Brooklyn.
• The Mavericks are one of 15 teams who have purchased the special SportVU system from STAT, which positions cameras around the basketball court, allowing them to capture and analyze enormous amounts of data for statistical analysis(even stuff like how fast passes are thrown; check it out). This is like the Sloan Sports Conference nerd equivalent of having the newest Maserati in your garage.
• Delonte West may finally be making his Texas Legends debut, almost a month after he was supposed to.
• Tim Cowlishaw looks at his crystal ball for the top athletes of 2016, which includes Jabari Parker as a Mav, and Johnny Manziel as a Cowboy(#trollin).
• becca_99's Taylor Swift themed fanpost did not go unnoticed by mainstream bloggers. Clearly the power of the breakup song is immense.
• The Dennis Rodman to North Korea story is maybe my favorite sports-related story of all time. I truly didn't think anything could top Manti Te'o.