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Even though many experts around the league expected the Dallas Mavericks to continue to struggle defensively, things turned out differently for the team around Dirk Nowitzki. Leading the Western Conference with 10 wins in 13 games, the Mavs will take on the Houston Rockets at American Airlines Center on Thursday at 1:30 a.m. GMT.

Albeit not as spectacular as Dallas’ start into this year’s NBA campaign, the Houston Rockets did a fairly decent job of staying in the playoff race despite missing franchise cornerstones Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Especially Carl Landry and Trevor Ariza were able to give the Rockets an unexpected lift as both have been putting up career numbers three weeks into the season. In 13 games for Houston, Ariza averaged 18.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 2.1 steals per contest. That said, Rick Adelman’s squad still lacks a dominant low-post player as they had a lot of trouble matching up with tall centers in the lane.

Much like the Rockets, the Mavs have been playing a lot of small ball featuring Drew Gooden, Kris Humphries or Dirk Nowitzki at the center position. However, coach Rick Carlisle was able to give extended minutes to Erick Dampier whenever their undersized frontcourt ran into problems defensively. Unlike in recent years, the Mavericks improved significantly at the defensive end of the floor and held their opponents to just 95 points per game thus far. Even though the team is currently without Josh Howard, Shawn Marion and Erick Dampier, they had very few problems compensating for said losses due to the Mavericks’ deep bench. Similarly, rookie Rodrigue Beaubois showed a lot of potential and is on his way to become a regular part of Dallas’ rotation. So far, Beaubois put up 7.2 points and 1.1 assists in just 12 minutes per game.

Taking everything into consideration, the audience can expect a hard-nosed battle between the two Texan rivals. Although Dallas might have a slightly better team, Dirk Nowitzki and company should not underestimate the shorthanded Rockets. Another factor could be whether Erick Dampier will be back in uniform as he created a lot of problems for Houston’s interior defense in the first encounter between Dallas and Houston.

You can watch all games of the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets right here on www.watchlivenba.com, the home of NBA live streaming.

Posted: 20th Nov 2008

Watch the NBA League 2008-09 live online with the aid of the best online basketball feeds here on www.watchlivenba.com. With a one-time membership fee to access our NBA streams, you can follow up on the best NBA games live online from the comforts of your laptops or desktops. No matter where you are on the planet if only you have a laptop or a pc and an internet connection you get to watch your favorite basketball players and teams play at www.watchlivenba.com and there is no way in which you can miss any exciting game live and online. The Dallas Mavericks v Houston Rockets game is going to be held on the 20^th of November, Thursday and it streams live from 01:00 GMT.

The Houston Rockets are right now the 3^rd team of the Western Conference and among the 6 games that they have played so far they won 4 and lost the other two. They had won against the Memphis Grizzlies 82-71 on the 29^th of October, the Dallas Mavericks 112-102 on the 30^th of October, the Oklahoma City Thunder 89-77 on the 1^st of November and the Los Angeles Clippers 92-83 on the 7^th of November. They lost the other two games against the Boston Celtics 103-99 and the Portland Trail Blazers 101-99.

The Dallas Mavericks is the 9^th team of the Western Conference and they have won 2 and lost 3 games so far. They won against the Minnesota Timberwolves 95-85 and the San Antonio Spurs 98-81 and they lost the three games against the Houston Rockets 102-112, the Cleveland Cavaliers 81-100 and the Denver Nuggets 105-108. They would try their best to put up a really strong fight against the Los Angeles Lakers on coming Wednesday and this will make the match more exciting than ever.

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