HOUSTON -- Somehow, you knew Dirk Nowitzki wasn't himself when J.J. Barea was giving him an earful of razzing in a shooting game Sunday morning.
And Nowitzki had no comeback.
When he's on his game, Nowitzki is always on the offensive when it comes to giving his teammates grief about their shot or, in Barea's case, simply being short.
But Nowitzki looked like his energy was sapped and that clearly was the case when he was a late scratch for Sunday's game at Houston, which the Mavericks would go on to lose, 93-92, dropping them to 0-3.