Tuesday Links

"It was good," George said of the practice. "A couple times I landed a little awkward and it gave me a little sharp pain. But it came and went. We'll see how I feel after a real pounding and see how it is [today]. They said it's going to be a little achy."

"Lots of practice," Dirk Nowitzki said. "We know that. We're still a long way away from where we want to be in the playoffs. It'll be good to relax a little bit, but on the other hand, get some stuff done."

Avery Johnson, as one might expect, has a plan in place. Since the Mavs (50-9) won't play again until Sunday in Los Angeles against the Lakers, he wants to use the time to work on specific in-game scenarios.

"There are a number of special situations that come up during a game," Johnson said. "Maybe an end-of-game play. Maybe a 3-point play. Whatever it is, we got some special situations we need to get on film in practice and look at it."

They are on pace to win 69.46 games. A win Tuesday night against the Nets will give them an 85-percent winning rate - a pace for 69.7 victories.

Clearly, it's not a stretch to suggest 70 wins is a reachable goal.

To get there, they must go 20-3 the rest of the way, slightly better than their 50-9 record so far, but not nearly as stunning as the 36-2 that they've gone since Dec. 13.

"When a team has a streak going, everybody wants to be the team that breaks the streak to be on SportsCenter that night," Nowitzki said. "Teams are playing really well, especially those two East Coast teams. We don't see them that much during the year, and they were fired up to play us. They made shots from all over the floor and they really gave us fits, but we got the stops when we needed to get the win."

"We need close games," Nowitzki said. "In the playoffs there won't be any blowouts. We have to fight all the way to the end, and it's good that we have those close games."