Mavericks GameDay: Dallas faces Rockets with playoffs on line

Rockets at Mavericks

8:30 p.m. Wednesday, American Airlines Center, Dallas

TV: FSSW; ESPN

Radio: ESPN/103.3 FM, ESPN/1540 AM (Spanish)

Records: Rockets 38-39, Mavs 39-38

About the Rockets: Houston’s success revolves around James Harden, who is second in the NBA in scoring at 28.7 points, and also averages 6.3 rebounds and 7.5 assists. “He’s one of the best players in the game,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “You just try to make it as difficult as possible, have a lot of guys ready, have some different defensive schemes ready, because great players adjust to seeing the same thing every time, and we just got to try to make it tough on him.” ... Although he only attempts 8.4 shots per game on average, Dwight Howard averages 13.8 points and 11.8 rebounds. ... Newcomer Michael Beasley is averaging 14.1 points in just 19.8 minutes since arriving as a free agent 15 games ago. ... The Rockets lost to the Mavs 110-98 in Houston on Nov. 14, but defeated the Mavs 100-96 in Dallas on Dec. 4 and beat them 115-104 in Houston on Jan. 24.

About the Mavs: Dallas controls its own playoff destiny. If the Mavs win their remaining five games, they will make the playoffs for the third straight season. ... The Mavs have held their last four opponents under 90 points. The last time they did that was in Jan. 2012, when they held six straight foes under 90 points. ... Guard J. J. Barea was just named the Western Conference Player of the Week. Dallas went 4-0 last week, and Barea averaged 23.5 points and 6.8 assists, and shot 52.1 percent from the field and 48 percent from 3-point range. Barea said: “It was awesome. It was an amazing week for me on the family side and then the team side to win, and I was able to help us as much as I could. I was in a good rhythm.”　

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 10:00 PM with the headline "Mavericks GameDay: Dallas faces Rockets with playoffs on line."