DALLAS _ Upon sharing the news of Andrew Bogut's return from an 11-game absence, Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle added a smile and a quip.
"Are you excited for the possibility of our original starting lineup together, going at these guys tonight?" he asked.
Excited? Not exactly. Curious? Certainly.
Tuesday's game against Houston, a predictable 123-107 Rockets victory at American Airlines Center, was just the fourth time this season, and the first time since Nov. 25.
The Rockets resoundingly completed a 4-0 season sweep of their Texas rivals. This is Houston's first season sweep of the Mavericks since the 1997-98 season. That one also was a 4-0 sweep.
Why was Tuesday's result so predictable? This is what usually happens when a 23-9 team faces a 9-22 squad, especially when two of the latter team's starters, Bogut and Dirk Nowitzki, only play in the first half due to injury-rehab minutes restrictions.
Results like this one also are prone to happen when the winning team enters the game with 476 3-pointers (an NBA record through 32 games), and the losing team allows the highest percentage of made 3-pointers in the league.
Houston made 8 of its first 10 3-point attempts while racing to a 66-47 lead. The game turned chippy in the second half, with the Mavericks getting whistled for two flagrant fouls and a Carlisle technical foul.
Putting up a fight, however, isn't always the same as putting up a resistance. That certainly wasn't the case on this night. Houston led 98-74 after three quarters.
Bogut did indeed start and play for the first time since he injured his right knee on Dec. 5. This was Nowitzki's third game back since missing 22 games due to a strained Achilles.
So for the first two minutes of Tuesday's game, the Mavericks had the starting lineup Carlisle had projected at the start of the season: Nowitzki and Harrison Barnes at forward; Bogut at center; Deron Williams and Wesley Matthews at guard.
Bogut exited the game after two minutes, but did return long enough to play 10 first-half minutes in which he took no shots, pulled down six rebounds and set a bone-jarring pick on Rockets star James Harden that earned him a flagrant foul-1 call.
Nowitzki finished with 7 points and 3 rebounds in 15 minutes but, like Bogut, didn't play in the second half.
"They're coming on," Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni said of the Mavericks before the game. "Rick does a great job. You knew they were going to get it together at some point; they've had so many injuries that it's tough. He's trying to hold the ship together, and he will, and they'll eventually get well and they'll have nice streaks."
Perhaps the streaks will come later, but on this night the Mavericks weren't much competition for their Texas rivals.
And that starting lineup Carlisle has been waiting to see? It fell to 0-4, though certainly the sample size isn't nearly enough from which to draw conclusions.
