Dallas has hit a bump in the road

On Friday, the Mavericks, who have lost two straight and four of their last six games overall, closeout a four-game road trip against the Orlando Magic at TD Waterhouse Centre. Dallas leads the season series with the Magic 1-0 and have won two straight and five of the last six meetings in the series.

The Mavericks have dropped six of their last seven trips to Orlando.

Dallas suffered its second straight setback during Wednesday’s 107-94 loss to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. James smoked the Mavs with 46 points on a sizzling 16-of-23 shooting.

All-Star Dirk Nowitzki had 29 points in the loss to Cleveland for the Mavericks, who are seeded fourth in the West. Dallas owns a 24-12 mark as the visitor this season.

Dallas will split its final 10 games of the season evenly between home and the road.

Besides Orlando, the Mavericks will also visit San Antonio, the Clippers, Golden State and Phoenix. Their final five home games are against Denver, Sacramento, New Orleans/Oklahoma City, Utah and the Clippers.

The Mavericks have allowed 100 or more points in four of their last 17 contests. Dallas was on the losing end of all four of the games when its opponent reached the century mark.

Nowitzki has played in all 72 of Dallas’ games this season and leads the team in scoring (26.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.8 rpg). Jason Terry has dished out a team-best 3.8 assists per contest.