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DALLAS -- Whether Rick Carlisle returns to the Dallas Mavericks next season or takes his coaching chops somewhere else, no one can take away the day he raised the banner to the rafters.

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"It was great," Carlisle said during Sunday's exit interviews when he still kept talk of his contract status under wraps. "The raising of the banner is one of the most emotional moments I’ve had in 28 years in this league. Really, it’s hard for me to explain, but when I walked out there with my daughter, it was the beginning of a season no one believed was going to happen [because of the lockout], and the banner was there ready to be raised. I became very emotional and I was choked up about it, for a lot of reasons.

"Part of it is the personal journey you go through during that period of time and you think about the opportunity you were given to come into that situation and how grateful that you are, and also the great players you had to work with. And again, probably the foremost thing was just the experience that the fans got to go through when we were able to win it that year."

The lockout provided the Mavs the rare opportunity for multiple celebrations. They raised the banner before the season opener Dec. 25 and then had the ring ceremony a month later when J.J. Barea and the Minnesota Timberwolves rolled through town. Then there still several more more ring deliveries when departed members of the title team like Tyson Chandler, Caron Butler and DeShawn Stevenson came in with their new teams.

During each ceremony, Carlisle brought the player to midcourt with a heartfelt introduction.

"That was a great moment, giving the guys their rings was a great moment," Carlisle said. "It was just one of those years, every time we handed out rings, we ended up losing games. Not every time, what was it two out of four? Thank God Butler missed that shot. I never would have heard the end of that in a text message from him."

Butler nearly hit a game-winning 3-pointer in his return to the AAC with the Clippers. Hard to believe just 11 months ago, Butler, unable to play despite his frantic rehab to get back on the floor, was on the stage on Miami's home floor raising the championship trophy.

Now Butler has the best chance of any of the title-team Mavs to advance to the second round. And the Mavs have plenty of time to watch.

"Time goes by fast and it doesn’t seem like 11 months ago," Carlisle said. But look, as great as the championship run was, there always comes a time when you have to look forward and that’s where things are at now. I look at this summer for this franchise as a summer of opportunity and excitement, and I don’t think anybody should look at it any differently."

DALLAS -- If guard Jason Terry has played his final game with the Dallas Mavericks, he will leave feeling he and the remaining members of the championship team didn't get a fair shot to repeat.

Terry was the most vocal Mavs player throughout the season regarding owner Mark Cuban's decision not to re-sign key free agents from last season's championship team because of changes to the collective bargaining agreement. After being swept out of the first round by the rising Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday night, Terry, a free-agent-to-be for the first time in his career, said the personnel on this team wasn't good enough to contend.

"Every year I’ve been on the Mavericks team and we’ve had a realistic chance, it’s because of the personnel," Terry said. "Look at your personnel and what they surround you with, your core nucleus, and you can see if you have a realistic shot. For us, it was a long shot. Nobody’s going to downplay that at all. If you look at our roster to a man, it was a long shot this year. But we still made the playoffs, but we just didn’t have enough."

Terry said Cuban knows that this team didn't have a fighting chance to contend.

"Yeah, he knows it, the city knows, we all know it as players," Terry said. "But with the team we have, the nucleus we have, the core group of guys, we feel like we can beat anybody, that’s just us as competitors. But, again, you have to have the personnel. You have to have the personnel to get it done."

Cuban maintained from early in the season to as recently as right before the playoffs that this team was better than the one that bulldozed through the Trail Blazers, Lakers, Thunder and Heat to win the franchise's first title in 31 seasons. Cuban, citing changes to the CBA that focused his team-building strategy on cap space for the coming summer, did not bring back defensive-minded center and team leader Tyson Chandler, penetrating point guard J.J. Barea and gritty defender and 3-point shooter DeShawn Stevenson, among others.

Prior to Saturday's Game 4, Cuban said he had no regrets about not bringing back the title team and said he fielded the best possible team he could given the constraints of the new CBA.

The Mavs' key acquisitions included Vince Carter in the twilight of his career and Lamar Odom, whose emotional baggage got the best of him and forced Cuban to kick him off the team.

Asked if he believed last year's title team would have had a legitimate shot to repeat if left intact, Terry initially said he didn't know before quickly changing his tune.

"I do. Why not?" Terry said. "That’s the team I wanted, so I believe we’d be just as good as anybody. But you can hope and wish and think about that all you want, but the reality of it is the season’s over and we’ve got the future to look forward to. Thank God for my health and my family."

Terry received support from longtime teammate Dirk Nowitzki after the game. Nowitzki has mostly toed the company line when it came to talking about not bringing back the team.

“Knowing as players, we were for sure disappointed in December in free agency when we didn’t get the same team back,” Nowitzki said. “That’s for sure.”

Now Terry, after eight seasons in Dallas, and the Mavs head toward a crossroads this summer. Terry, 34, will likely be seeking a new home to end his career as the Mavs face an overhaul of the roster and their most uncertain future in Cuban's dozen years as owner.

"You know we like to make changes year-in and year-out, but not a complete overhaul," Terry said. "That’s what this is going to be, an entire different ballclub I would expect. But, the formula is there, the formula’s there. We set the bar very high last year with what we did and what we accomplished. They know the formula and it’s on them to put it back together."

It's only two games and with a little late-game luck the Dallas Mavericks' 0-2 hole might have been a 2-0 cushion with the series shifting to Dallas for Thursday's Game 3.

Late-game luck isn't the only difference in a postseason rematch with the Oklahoma City Thunder that threatens to make the Mavs the first defending champs since the 2007 Miami Heat to go down in the first round. Dallas needs more of the unexpected, more of what the Thunder have received to take control of the series.

The unexpected?

Serge Ibaka's 22 points in Game 1 was a season high. The last time he scored 20 in a game? Try Jan. 27.

Derek Fisher's 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting in Game 2 -- after being invisible in Game 1 -- was his most efficient outing in 22 games with Oklahoma City and it tied his second-highest point total.

Kendrick Perkins' 4-of-5 shooting in Game 2 was the first time he had done that since Feb. 22, and he hadn't topped the 13 points he scored since March 25 with 16, his only game of the season with more than 13. Keep in mind that OKC's two wins have come by a total of four points.

The unexpected.

"They’ve gotten better, no doubt about that," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said, comparing this Thunder team to the won Dallas disposed of in five games in last year's Western Conference finals. "You've got to give them credit for the plays they made in this series and for the year that they’ve had. At the same time, we’re right there and we've got to make the plays coming back home."

The Mavs have received nothing out of the ordinary. Remember the championship run when a different Mavs player seemed to step up every night with something different? Whether it was Corey Brewer for eight minutes against the Lakers, or J.J. Barea putting up consecutive 20-point games -- one against the Thunder -- or DeShawn Stevenson twice dropping three 3-pointers in the Finals or Peja Stojakovic scoring 21, 21 and 15 points in the opening two series, it's the unexpected performances that carry teams to unexpected results.

The Mavs will need to get some punch-quiet sources on their home floor over the next two games to stay alive.

The most likely candidate for a breakout is Vince Carter. He's 7-of-23 from the floor. Delonte West had 13 points in Game 2 but is 7-of-17 from the floor and has yet to make a dent with the type of feisty defense he's known for, that the Mavs are counting on. Starting center Brendan Haywood has seven rebounds and two blocked shots in 30 minutes and was benched to start the second half of Game 2.

Fan favorite Brandan Wright has so far shown that the playoff pressure might be too big in his first postseason. In logging less than 13 total minutes, he hasn't come close to one of his patented dunks and had a case of butterfingers in five awful minutes in Game 2.

If the Mavs are going to survive, the expected performances from Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion that have enabled Dallas to have a chance late must be met by unexpected ones.

Just ask the Thunder.

J.J. Barea played a massive role as a young point guard in bringing the Dallas Mavericks their first championship in 31 years. As one of the senior-most veterans on a spiraling Minnesota Timberwolves team, Barea on Sunday night had all he could handle of losing.

After a 93-88 home loss to the rookie-laden Golden State Warriors, the Wolves' 12th loss in 13 games in this once promising season, the 5-foot-10 Barea, who played his tail off for the full 48 minutes, went off.

"We've got problems here," Barea told reporters. "We just got a lot of guys that don't care. When a basketball team got a bunch of players that don't care, it's tough to win games. It's going to happen until we get players in that care: care about winning, care about the team, care about the fans."

Barea, the only healthy point guard left on the team that was also without Kevin Love (concussion), had 14 points and 12 assists. He didn't shoot great, just 5-of-18 from the floor and 2-of-9 from 3-point range, but effort is never an issue with the hard-driving Barea, now in his sixth NBA season. According to reports, Barea's tongue-lashing went down in front of his locker and within earshot of teammates.

"They just come in here after the game like nothing happened," Barea said. "That's what happens to a losing team. ... There's a bunch of us, too, that care and play hard. "But there's a bunch that don't care, and we just got to change that. I've been noticing it. But today you can really notice it. It was a brutal second half. Nobody fighting, nobody getting mad at nobody. After a game like that you got to have problems. You got to argue with your teammates. But nobody cares so we've got to change that."

The Wolves have one game left and it will help decide Barea's former team's first-round playoff opponent. Minnesota plays host to the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night as the Mavs will be wrapping up their season at the Atlanta Hawks. The Mavs and Nuggets are battling for the No. 6 and No. 7 seeds.

The results of those two games will decide the playoff pairings.

For the fifth and final time, the Dallas Mavericks will have a ring ceremony. This time it will involve one of the biggest pieces from their 2010-11 NBA championship -- Tyson Chandler. Chandler, the starting center on last year's team, will be presented with his ring prior to the Knicks-Mavericks game Tuesday night at American Airlines Center.

The Mavericks held ring ceremonies for the returning players from that title team and individual ones for Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson and Corey Brewer. Peja Stojakovic and J.J. Barea attended the team ceremony.

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle will say a few words prior to tip-off and present Chandler is ring.

"It's been a moment I've been waiting for really since we won," Chandler said. "[Been] doing a lot of celebrating and looking forward for the hardware."

Monday was the first time Chandler had been in the AAC since the end of the ticker tape parade through downtown Dallas. The Knicks practiced on the Mavericks' practice court and it brought back some great memories for Chandler.

"Coming back in this gym was an amazing feeling, just remembering the practices we went thought to get to the championship," Chandler said. "It brought back a lot of memories and a lot of motivation again; it couldn’t have happened at a perfect time. It's given me motivation for the second half of the season to definitely get my team over the hump."

After that championship season, Chandler expressed a desire to re-sign with the Mavericks, but owner Mark Cuban elected not to bring him back. So Chandler signed a four-year deal with the Knicks to add to a front line that already had Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire.

Chandler said he's not upset to not be playing for the Mavericks and still stays in contact with several former teammates, including Jason Kidd, Dirk Nowitzki and Shawn Marion.

"It was confusing at the time," Chandler said of how he left the Mavs for the Knicks. "Once I became a Knick, I let it all go. I never harbor any feelings. I understand this is a business at the end of the day. So you can't get frustrated or angry with somebody for making a business decision that they think ultimately is what’s best for their franchise, whether or not I think it's right or wrong."

Chandler, who is averaging 11.6 points and a team-leading 9.8 rebounds, is playing through a left wrist injury that requires him using a pad to minimize the force to his hand and also has his wrist taped. He's having difficulty grabbing the ball and fumbled a pass tossed to him by point guard Jeremy Lin during Sunday's overtime loss to the Boston Celtics.

He hasn't been a major force this season like he was in Dallas, but he's not second-guessing his decision to sign with the Knicks.

"No, I just understand [the business]," he said. "I know what it takes to win a championship. At this point, I'm not going back to the early days in my career where I sit around and I don’t voice my opinion. I'm going to push my teammates and myself and hopefully at the end of the day it makes us a contender."

After stringing together a few wins after the Dallas Mavericks stumbled to a 1-4 start following an embarrassing 15-love skunking to end their New Year's Day loss at Minnesota, Jason Terry had this to say:

"The loss to Minnesota was our wake-up call. Any time you lose to that ballclub it's not a good thing, not when you're a championship team."

And who could really blame him? That Minnesota win halted a nine-game losing streak to the Mavs, who had won 18 of the previous 19 meetings.

And then three weeks later those Wolves did it again, only in Dallas, thumping the Mavs by 15 points to spoil their championship ring celebration. A three-game win streak followed for the Mavs, but there were no proclamations about how losing to a perennial doormat served as another wake-up call.

Well, here we go again with a third and final meeting of the regular season between these two clubs, and Dallas is fully aware that these Wolves are young and hungry and pretty darn good. In fact, this one in Minnesota -- 13-10 since an 0-3 start -- is a pretty important one for both squads.

Dallas just snapped a three-game skid at Denver and must play Portland on Saturday and the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday and Denver again on Wednesday. Minnesota is at .500 for a second time and would close to within one game of Dallas in the standings as it fights to remain a legitimate playoff contender heading to the halfway point of the season.

It should be fun.

Records: Mavs (15-11); Timberwolves (13-13)

When: 7 p.m.

Where: Target Center

TV: FSSW

Radio: ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM; 1270 AM (Spanish)

What to watch: J.J. Barea wasn't healthy with a bum hamstring the first time the Mavs played up north on New Year's Day, but he have it a go and scored eight points in 17 minutes. The hamstring (and ankle issues) kept Barea out of the Jan. 25 game at Dallas when he picked up his championship ring and then took a seat on the bench in a suit. Now, the diminutive guard is raring to go against his old mates in an important game for both teams. He's been back for five games and is coming off his best game of the season Wednesday night at Memphis with 17 points -- 6-of-8 from the free throw line -- and six assists in 23 minutes. Barea will be looking to remind his former team how to break down a defense.

Key matchup: Nikola Pekovic vs. Brendan Haywood/Ian Mahinmi/Brandan Wright
Surprised? Yeah, well Pekovic has been just that of late. Consider that in the first matchup on Jan. 1, he didn't get off the bench. In the second meeting, he had 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line, plus six rebounds. In his last five games, the 6-foot-11, 290-pounder from Montenegro has scored in double figures in each, has two 20-plus scoring games and three double-doubles while averaging 16.8 points and 10.2 rebounds. In a nutshell, the three-headed monster Rick Carlisle talked about at the center position has to enforce the middle and can't let Pekovic join the double-double lineup with All-Star Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio.

Injuries: Mavs -- G Jason Kidd (right calf strain) is questionable. Timberwolves -- C Darko Milicic (sprained right ankle) is questionable.

Up next: Portland Trail Blazers at Mavs, 7:30 p.m., Saturday

DALLAS -- It is true that a handful of Jason Kidd's 3-point attempts of late, as coach Rick Carlisle pointed out, have come on late shot clock heaves.

It hasn't gone unnoticed by Kidd either.

"They’re just trying to test my temper right now, my patience," Kidd said the other day. "It comes with the territory."

It might be true, but it certainly doesn't wipe away the fact that Kidd has been awful from beyond the 3-point arc. Entering tonight's game against the Utah Jazz, Kidd is 17-of-66 from long range for a career-low 25.8 percent. Now, one might think he could make up for such a low percentage by making most of his shots inside the arc. Unfortunately for Kidd, only 12 of his 78 shots on the season are 2s and only five of those have gone down.

Kidd, the Mavs hope, might have had a bit of a breakthrough Wednesday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves when he made 2-of-5 from 3-point range. It was the first time he had made more than one since Dec. 30.

Carlisle brought up an interesting comparison to J.J. Barea's massive 3-point turnaround last season. We'll just have to wait and see if Kidd, averaging just 4.3 points a game to this point, follows suit.

"The guy was 5-for-50 in December," Carlisle said of Barea, who at the time ranked dead last in the league in shooting the 3-ball. "We said, hey, stay aggressive, take good shots and just keep going. Well, Dec. 17 he hit a shot, there was a bit of a celebration amongst the team, then he went on to be the best 3-point shooter in the league for two months.

"So you've got to have the right kind of amnesia to play in this league, and particularly this kind of season because there's different things going on. You've got to know what to ignore."

Barea finished last season making 34.9 percent of this 3-pointers.

If scoring was tough for the Dallas Mavericks with Dirk Nowitzki -- and it was, the team ranked 21st in the NBA at 92.4 points a game -- it certainly isn't going to get easier with the 7-footer taking four games off.

That was evident Saturday night as the Mavs managed to pull out a squeaker against the New Orleans Hornets, the worst team in the Western Conference.

Dallas won it 83-81, and struggled through a 14-point second quarter and a 19-point fourth quarter when they nearly coughed up a lead as large as 13 points to lead by just one with 6.7 seconds to play.

The Mavs' coaching staff has a day to look at ways to get guys in position to score (and remember, Vince Carter's return from a sprained left foot remains uncertain). Dallas opens a four-game homestand Monday against Phoenix and then faces a tough slate with the improved Timberwolves in town Wednesday (when J.J. Barea will receive his championship ring along with his former teammates in a pregame ceremony) and the Utah Jazz come through Friday with payback on their mind.

The club was granted Sunday as a day of rest after the long road trip. Until Monday's game, here's three key areas to ponder:

1. Lamar Odom steps up: With Nowitzki out of the lineup, Odom got his first start of the season and delivered 16 points, showing an array of moves in a possible sign that he's turning a corner. He played 26 minutes, tying for his second-longest stint of the season and longest since Jan. 5. However, in crunch time Odom was not part of the team's finishing five. With 3:34 to play and Dallas clinging to a 75-73 lead, coach Rick Carlisle replaced Odom with Ian Mahinmi and went with a three-guard lineup. Still, it was another confidence-builder for Odom, who needs as many as he can get. Perhaps Dirk's surprise absence will be a blessing for Odom.

2. What about that three-guard lineup?: This was a staple back in the day for Carlisle when Barea was on the club. Carlisle often turned to it for a jolt when the team looked dead. The three-guard lineup made an appearance Thursday at Utah and then again on Saturday at New Orleans. Jason Kidd, Jason Terry and Delonte West was one incarnation, with Rodrigue Beaubois part of another combo. With Nowitzki out, three guards might make a few more appearances.

3. What is going on beyond the arc? Dallas is a horrible 3-point shooting team. Entering Saturday's game, the Mavs ranked 22nd in the league in 3-point shooting, averaging 31.4 percent. That's down to 30.2 percent after they went 4-of-26 against the Hornets. Jason Kidd, a good 3-point shooter in his time with Dallas, can't buy one. He was 0-of-5 Saturday night, 0-of-7 in the last two games and 1-of-20 on the four-game road trip. Jason Terry was 0-of-7 on Saturday and 5-of-26 on the road trip. Terry had been shooting it in the mid-40s, but after the road trip he's down to 38.1 percent.

Our weekly look at the Mavs whose stocks are rising and falling.


STOCK UP
Delonte West – Never mind whether West is welcome in the White House or his unfortunate Twitter rant. West has established himself as key piece for the Mavs, which makes his NBA minimum salary a major bargain. The Mavs have managed to go 3-0 without Jason Kidd in large part because of West’s performance. He’s certainly not in Kidd’s class as a facilitator, but West had 10 assists in the win over the Pistons. He had 12 points in each of the other two wins over the last weeks and continues to be a tone-setting defender. He’s replaced J.J. Barea’s offense and DeShawn Stevenson’s defense.

STOCK DOWN
Rodrigue Beaubois – Roddy B. scored 11 points in 16 minutes (on 4-of-10 shooting) in Saturday’s win over the Hornets. Coach Rick Carlisle responded by grumbling about the young guard’s lack of defensive intensity, and Dirk Nowitzki added that Beaubois’ decision making must improve. Beaubois has been a nonfactor in the two games since then, scoring a total of five points on 2-of-8 shooting in wins over the Pistons and Celtics. If he can’t make much of an impact when Jason Kidd doesn’t suit up, the odds of Beaubois cracking the playoff rotation seem pretty slim. He’s buried on the depth chart at shooting guard and hasn’t proven that he can play point guard.

Whatever baggage Delonte West dragged with him to the Dallas Mavericks, no matter the Twitter rants he may unleash and regardless of the strange twists that pop up such as Monday's banned/not-banned White House situation, nothing has stopped the intriguing, tattooed guard from delivering steadying performances.

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West stepped up big Tuesday night in place of injured point guard Jason Kidd, setting the aggressive tone for the 100-86 victory in which Dallas broke it open by 28 points in the third quarter. West delivered a Kidd-like 10 assists, a high for the Mavs this season, with five steals, giving him 18 on the season, fifth-most in the league.

"He’s incredible," guard Jason Terry said. "His energy, we’ve been feeding off of it; obviously without Jason Kidd. I think that people forget about Delonte’s ability to run the team and play point guard. That’s what he was drafted as and he’s a good one."

It's also what he was brought into Dallas to do -- replace J.J. Barea and run the point behind Kidd . But, that changed in the second half of the season opener when coach Rick Carlisle moved Vince Carter to the bench and slid West over to start at shooting guard.

West is playing about 21 minutes a game and while his shooting percentages remain low (43.5 percent overall and 18.2 from 3-point range) his energy and effort -- particularly on defense -- have remained high, and pleasing to Carlisle.

"It’s not often you have a guy on the floor that goes 9-for-10, but there’s a guy on the floor that’s actually the best player on the court," Carlisle said, first noting Dirk Nowitzki's impressive shooting night. "Delonte was the best player on the court because of his competitiveness. That’s what we need right now. We need consistency as a team competitively and he set a great tone for us the last two games."

West will again start at point guard tonight against his former club, the Boston Celtics. And there's no guarantee that Kidd will be ready for Friday's home game against the Milwaukee Bucks. Kidd was hobbling around the White House on Monday and then returned to Dallas to continue treatment for back spasms in his lower back.

The Mavs pulled to .500 after starting 0-3 by winning five of their last seven. The Celtics also started o-3, but since have Paul Pierce back in the lineup and have won four of five. They'll be well-rested and hungry after suffering a first home loss in their last game back on Friday night.

"For us," West said after Tuesday night's game, "we’re going in there against a team that’s going to try and jump on us, so it’s already forward thinking."

It's tough to find much teamwork in Washington D.C. these days, so President Barack Obama knows it when he sees it.

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President Barack Obama congratulates the Dallas Mavericks on the franchise's first NBA Championship. Listen

During Monday's championship ceremony at the White House, Obama credited the Dallas Mavericks' team-oriented style of play last season as the key to their run to the franchise's first championship, and dumping that little team down in Miami.

"Nobody gave them much of a chance," Obama said. "People said that Jason Kidd was too old -- and I will say that this is the first time I’ve been with some world champions that are my contemporaries -- they said J.J. Barea was too small, that Dirk Nowitzki was too slow -- they said you had a great jump shot, but… -- they said DeShawn Stevenson was too crazy. They said the Jet was terrific, but they weren’t sure whether that tattoo was such a good idea.

"But, these players got it done because they know how good teams win, not just by jumping higher or running faster, but by finding the open man, working together, staying mentally tough, being supportive of each other, playing smarter. That’s how the Mavericks took down some of the league’s best teams, including the Miami Heat, who got a little bit of attention last year."

Obama, an avid basketball fan, ended the ceremony by telling the Mavs that it's too bad it will be his hometown Chicago Bulls visiting the White House next year. Then he said the Mavs told him not to count them out just yet. Obama added: "This team really does have a heart that is the size of Texas."

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Much of the attention prior to Thursday's game focused on the relationship between the Oklahoma City Thunder's two All-Stars, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.

The two got into a heated "debate" as coach Scott Brooks put it, during Wednesday's win against the Memphis Grizzlies. Westbrook was initially peeved at shooting guard Thabo Sefolosha for passing up an open 3-point look off a drive-and-dish from Westbrook. The 23-year-old point guard didn't let it die and during a timout a minute later, he and Durant were exchanging words, and by the end of the night it was national news.

Both players blew it off and said the incident should not be used to scrutinize their relationship, but rather taken for what it really was: emotions on high during a frustrating portion of the game when the Thunder allowed an 11-point lead to slip three in a three-minute span.

"It’s a part of the game. It never was meant to spill over so it wasn’t like I did it on purpose to spill over," Westbrook said. "I was just telling my guy to shoot the ball when he was open. It wasn’t like I was telling him something wrong to do, I’m telling my guy to shoot the ball and then the rest of what was happening had nothing to do with that play. But you never get the full story unless you were there to see exactly what happened."

Just three games into the season, the spotlight is definitely turned up on the young Thunder, a team many predict to win the West.

The Mavs had an overheated bench incident last April when Jason Terry and J.J. Barea started jawing on the court after a turnover and bucket the other way. The barking spilled over on the bench during a timeout and coach Rick Carlisle ejected Terry to the end of the bench and then right out of the game. Terry did not return for the second half.

Carlisle wasn't willing to get into the dynamics of another team or how such incidents can affect a squad. But he did offer this:

"Whatever it was last year worked because we won the championship," he said.

So take heart, Oklahoma City.

DALLAS -- Jason Terry didn't have much desire to contemplate former teammate Tyson Chandler's comments Tuesday regarding his non-surprise at the Dallas Mavericks' ugly, 0-2 start.

"Don’t care what Tyson’s saying or what he’s doing right now," Terry said following Tuesday's defense-intensive practice. "He’s not a Maverick, so it is what it is."

Here's what Chandler had to say Monday as chronicled by ESPNNY.com:

"Honestly, I'd kind of seen it coming because when you put a team in a situation and you say, ‘You're the defending champions and we're not necessarily trying to repeat.’ "When I say that, I'm not saying that they don't have the pieces there. I obviously think very highly of those guys. But I say that because they offered everybody one-year deals so they knew nobody was going to necessarily accept that. So you’re basically telling all the players in the locker room we're playing for free agency next year after a championship.

"You've got veteran guys in the locker room. The type of guys that they've got at this time in their career, it's tough to face that so I think they're just going through a little lull right now. But I'm hoping for those guys that it turns around because there's truly good guys in the locker room."

Because of the NBA lockout, the free agency period was a whirlwind. In a matter of days, the Mavs' roster changed dramatically. Players began to understand that owner Mark Cuban's business philosophy had changed under the parameters of the new collective bargaining agreement.

Cuban decided to offer one-year contracts to his free agents (with the understanding it would not be good enough to retain those players) with the goal of going into next summer with plenty of cap space to chase free agents for the first time in Cuban's ownership.

Terry said once it became clear that Chandler, J.J. Barea, DeShawn Stevenson and Caron Butler would not be back, it didn't take long to adjust the mindset.

Of course, after two blowout losses to start the season, if the psychological adjustment wasn't difficult, than it appears that the physical adjustment on the floor will be a process, and perhaps even a bumpy one.

"After you knew he wasn’t coming back, it was over," Terry said. "Again, we have a totally different team this year. We’re searching right now for an identity for this particular ballclub and we know that’s going to take some time. But, again, winning cures all, and watching on film definitely helps, because each person can be accountable and see where they can make an impact on the game."

The 2011-12 season has lifted off and the high-speed ride has only just begun. Following Sunday's Christmas Day opener that included a rousing championship banner-raising ceremony, there is no time to even exhale.

About 27 hours after the players left the American Airlines Center after the 105-94 loss that was actually much worse than the final score against the Miami Heat, they'll be tipping off against the Denver Nuggets in the first back-to-back of 20 on the season.

Every Monday we'll break down the week ahead. This should be a fun one with a stop at the Okahoma City Thunder on Thursday, a visit by former Mavs assistant Dwane Casey and his new team the Toronto Raptors and a visit up north to say hello to old friend J.J. Barea and his new pal Ricky Rubio with the Minnesota Timberwolves on New Year's Day.

Here's a look:

Today: vs. Nuggets, 7:30 p.m.
TV/Radio: FSSW/103.3 FM ESPN; 1270 AM (Spanish)
What to watch: Who are these guys? Nene returned to anchor coach George Karl's latest incarnation, one that does not include Chauncey Billups, Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith or Kenyon Martin. Still,this is an intriguing club with Nene, Aaron Afflalo, Danilo Gallinari, Ty Lawson and Mavs castoff Corey Brewer. Expect an up-tempo game that play into the hands of the Nuggets because while it is their season opener, the Mavs will be coming off the big Christmas Day game against the hated Heat.

Thursday: at Thunder, 7 p.m.
TV/Radio: TNT/103.3 FM ESPN; 1270 AM (Spanish)
What to watch: The Thunder beat up Dallas pretty good in two preseason games, building 23-point leads in both contests. But, while OKC played its regular rotation, the Mavs didn't show much. Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd sat out the first game and illness forced out Jason Terry and Delonte West in the second game. The Thunder will have to scour tape of the Mavs' games against the Heat and Nuggets to get an idea of Dallas' rotation. The Mavs should have fresh legs and they'll need them because OKC will be primed to run and gun its West finals ouster out of the building.

Friday: vs. Raptors, 7:30 p.m.
TV/Radio: FSSW/103.3 FM ESPN; 1270 AM (Spanish)
What to watch: Former Mavs assistant and defensive architect Dwane Casey has his own club again north of the border. He doesn't have a lot to work with and his first season will certainly be challenging. He'll have his new club up to play the defending champs and might even show off a new defensive wrinkle or two.

Sunday: at Timberwolves, 6 p.m.
TV/Radio: FSSW/103.3 FM ESPN; 1270 AM (Spanish)
What to watch: No longer is it safe to assume that a trip to Minneapolis will be a walk in a snowy park. This is an interesting team under the guidance of Rick Adelman. Barea joins the rookie Rubio in the backcourt and Kevin Love and Michael Beasley up front with a few other exciting young players. Another second night of a back-to-back could turn into a track meet, and that's never easy for the older team, even this early into the season.

DALLAS -- Unless the Dallas Mavericks add a player to the roster in the next two days, they'll start the season with 14 players, five of which were not on the title team.

Since winning the championship in June, the Mavs have seen Tyson Chandler, J.J. Barea, DeShawn Stevenson and Caron Butler leave via free agency. Peja Stojakovic retired and Dallas traded Corey Brewer (along with the Rudy Fernandez, who never showed up in Big D after being acquired in a draft-night trade in June).

New players include Lamar Odom, Vince Carter, Delonte West, Brandan Wright and Sean Williams.

Could there be one more coming?

"I have no idea," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "At this point there’s nothing imminent."

The one area of need remains at center where starter Brendan Haywood was not impressive in the two preseason games and none of his backups have extensive experience. Ian Mahinmi has never fulfilled a backup role and Wright and Williams have underachieved after being first-round draft picks.

The name that remains available is veteran center Joel Przybilla, who was injured last season and has at least entertained retirement. He has said that wants to get through the holidays before making a decision.