I'll be home for Christmas.
   
Classic song. Bad scheduling.
   
The Jazz for many years have made a habit of pulling a Yuletime upset on the road -- often two or three in the most un-Christmasy arenas -- but Friday's 93-81 shocker in the American Airlines Center may be their most improbable yet.
   
The Mavericks were the league's only unbeaten home team, and the Jazz have been blown out in each of their past two excursions outside of Utah. Dallas was 22-3, one of the best starts in franchise history, and the Jazz had lost four in a row, three of them at home. The Mavs are so content, they practically sing Christmas carols in the huddle; the Jazz have been growling at each other like Christmas shoppers after a day at the mall.
   
"Everybody knew what people were saying," said Jazz center Greg Ostertag. "We can't come down and beat them."

Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News reports on last nights Nuggets 80-75 loss to the Dallas Mavericks.

Aaron Lopez of the Rocky Mountain News writes about the "resilient" and young Nuggets.

Jaime Aron of the Associated Press reports on the Mav's and their mindset so far this season.

The Nuggets take on the Mavericks tonight at the Pepsi Center.  Game time is 7:10 and the game will be on Fox Sports.

Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News reports that Steve Nash is hurting. He has dealt with hip pain for the last several games. It was obvious in  Saturday?s game at Golden State. "Steve could barely walk out there sometimes," assistant coach Donnie Nelson said. "He was hurting quite a bit."

After playing 41 hard minutes against the Lakers on Friday, the playing time started taking it?s toll on Saturday night. "My hip was hurting a little," Nash said. "But I'll be fine by Tuesday [against the Clippers]. It's nothing that will keep me out."

Nash shot only 5-12 and finished with 14 points and 4 assists in 36 minutes against the Warriors. He grimaced in pain on a few occasions, but was able to make both 3-point attempts.

Dallas head coach Don Nelson has said repeatedly that he wanted to limit Nash?s minutes, but that proved impossible while Nick Van Exel sat out the early part of the season with a knee injury.

The Dallas Mavericks are set to be without blue-collar worker Eduardo Najera for the next six to eight weeks after the 6-8 forward opted for surgery on his left knee Friday.  Known for his desire to do the dirty work, Eddie Sefkos of the Dallas Morning News writes that Najera is the third Maverick to undergo knee surgery in the last month, joining Nick Van Exel and Evan Eschmeyer.

"He had a different variation of a cartilage injury than Nick," Souryal said of Najera. "I expect him to recover in a time frame similar to Evan, somewhere between six and eight weeks."

As the old saying goes "Never under estimate the heart of a champion".

But if you have watched the three-time defending Champion Los Angeles Lakers play this season it would be very easy to write them off, especially against a team so powerful and so deep as the Dallas Mavericks.

The Mavericks came eager, the momentum of being the NBA's hottest team, trying to break a streak of 23 straight losses to the Lakers on their home floor.  As the game started Dallas simply embarrassed the Lakers, extending their lead quickly to 30 points.  As Howard Beck of the L.A. Daily News puts it 'the low murmur of doubters who said the dynasty was done, that the Lakers needed to be gutted, had grown into a roar.'  Ring it up, the Lakers were done.

Down by 27 points heading into the final period L.A. needed a miracle.  With unity as rare as a Bulls win as of late the Lakers chances looked glim, but some how the Lakers sparked as the Mavericks stalled, L.A. closing out the game with an amazing 41-13 run which gave them the unlikeliest 105-103 victory, unsuprisingly greatest fourth-quarter comeback in franchise history.

"It shows," Kobe Bryant said, "that the heart of a champion still beats inside of us. Same thing we did to Sacramento in the playoffs. We're fighters."

Beck reports that the Lakers entered the game as a last placed team, winning only seven times in 20 games.  Many doubt that this team will miss the playoffs - a scenario unheard off in the preseason - with their talent and experience, and the comeback road had to being somewhere, but in this fashion?

"Undoubtedly, it's an emotional lift," coach Phil Jackson said. "And a team that's been playing under duress, and as I told them, ridicule actually, from sportscasters and from fans alike, for our ineptitude to start the season. It's a good win. It's a notable win."

The relationship between Del Harris and Shaquille O'Neal has never been great, and in light of the Lakers recent struggles it turn another turn for the worst.

The L.A. Daily News is reporting that in the wake of yet another loss last week, this time to Orlando, O'Neal said the Lakers played "like when Del Harris used to be our coach, with no fire and no enthusiasm."

Harris, now an assistant coach with the Mavericks, was not one to let a dig ride without retaliation, did so Tuesday via the Dallas Morning News.

"It seems that Shaq apparently is speaking for himself, because guys like Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel and Rick Fox and Derek Fisher and Kobe Bryant, those guys only play one way," Harris said. "They play with passion all the time. If he was holding out on us, then it's amazing we won that many games."

"(I) never did anything but support Shaq. He's got his rings, and I don't know why he would say this. It's unfair."

"Shaq missed 30 percent of the games when I had the pleasure of coaching him," Harris added. "And we won 62 percent of those games he missed. At that time, Kobe was 18 or 19 years old and wasn't able to get us 40 (points) a night. If we played without passion, it must have been good coaching, right?"