Lamar Odom has been placed on an industrial-strength remedial course for improved physical conditioning.

"There's an action plan in place, and he's working [hard]," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "He came in this [Friday] morning and worked for an hour and a half. He's got a ways to go, but he's a willing worker. He was behind when he got here condition-wise. But we'll get him caught up."

Carlisle has no doubt that Odom's slow start -- he was 4-for-27 from the field in the first three games -- will improve.

"We've all got a job to do," Carlisle said. "I can tell you his attitude has been good and he really wants to do well, but he knows he's got work to do.

The Dallas Mavericks are back in the mix to land free-agent center Kyrylo Fesenko after the Golden State Warriors passed on the Ukranian big man, according to sources close to the situation.

Fesenko had committed to signing with the Warriors earlier this week, but sources told ESPN.com that Golden State and Fesenko "mutually" canceled their plans to finalize a one-year deal worth just under $1.1 million, in part because Fesenko needs an additional week or two to get into game shape after September knee surgery.

Sources said Fesenko is now leaning toward accepting the Mavs' one-year minimum offer and is likely to make a decision by early next week.

Defense is what the Mavericks sorely need if they want to crack the win column.

"It'll be the major theme every day going forward," coach Rick Carlisle said. "When you defend well, your offense is always going to be better, and when you run offense well, your defense will be better."

Carlisle told his players they must go all-out on defense.

"Right now we've got to start the game with five guys in a stance and get after it defensively," Carlisle said. "And look, what I told the guys is, 'Hey, you've got to play to exhaustion and then we'll get somebody else in there.' We've got to establish a tone defensively. Any other stuff about rotation and who's playing is insignificant to the major theme, which is hard play and tough defense."

The Mavericks defense, which after two games ranks 24th in points allowed per 100 possessions, is most to blame for the team's 0-2 start, Dirk Nowitzki said Wednesday.

"It really starts defensively where we’re having problems just getting stops and then our offense looks bad, too, because we can’t play off of flow; we’ve got to take the ball out, we’ve got to play a slow-down game, and we weren’t good at that even last year," Nowitzki said. "We were at our best when we got stops, when we pushed the ball up, when we play in flow, when we move the ball and that’s hard to do if you take the ball out every time.

"So, we’ve got to work on our defense, got to get sharper, got to trust each other, work on our rotations and work on our coverages, so we’ve got a lot of work to do."

According to sources close to the situation, the Magic will not hold out for youth and draft picks in a potential deal for Dwight Howard.

The Magic would instead prefer to acquire several established players who can keep the team competitive.

Owner Rick De Vos, 85, is believed to have little interest in rebuilding in the wake of Howard's departure.

Dan Fegan, Howard's agent, has formal permission to discuss trade possibilities with the Nets, Lakers, and Mavericks.

The Mavericks showed signs of life Monday, then grew anemic after the first quarter, and the defense was uneven throughout the 115-93 loss to the Denver Nuggets.

It was the second blowout loss in a row at home for the Mavericks, who fell 105-94 to the Miami Heat on Sunday. In that game, Dallas trailed by as many as 35 points.

"We look old, slow and out of shape," Dirk Nowitzki said. "I still think this team has a lot of potential. We just need to work. … We probably needed extra weeks of training camp. But we don't have it so the young teams, the athletic teams, look better right now than we do."

The Knicks have the highest average ticket price of the five Christmas Day games.

Here are the averages, according to information provided by TiqIQ.com:

Celtics @ Knicks: $516.09
Bulls @ Lakers: $466.02
Heat @ Mavs: $395.97
Magic @ Thunder: $295.71
Clippers @ Warriors: $104.95

The Mavericks still have one roster spot open and are exploring the feasibility of filling it with Kyrylo Fesenko.

Sources close to the situation told ESPN.com on Saturday that the Mavericks, even after signing local high school product Sean Williams as a third center earlier this week, have extended a one-year offer to Fesenko.

Toronto, Golden State and Miami are also pursuing Fesenko.

Sources say that the Raptors, with a full 15 players on their roster, are exploring avenues to create an open spot for Fesenko, who turned 25 on Saturday.

Andy Rautins has signed with Lucentum Alicante of Spain.

Rautins was traded to the Mavericks from the Knicks in the Tyson Chandler deal and was subsequently waived.

Kevin Durant is adding Dirk Nowitzki’s step-back jumper while jumping off the wrong foot to his repertoire.
Durant unveiled the move in a preseason win over the Mavericks on Sunday night.

“Yeah, he’s the originator,” Durant said laughing. “I stole that from him a little bit. I’m not as good as he is at it. But I’ve been working on it, and it was the perfect time for me to do that with the defender playing the way he was playing. I’m glad I made it. I thought it was going to be an air-ball.”

Durant glanced over at the Dallas bench as he trotted back on defense. He shot a sly smile at Nowitzki, who did not play but was dressed in warm-ups on the Mavs bench.

“I kind of gave a wink to Dirk because, like I said, I stole that from him, man,” Durant said. “He’s such a great basket-maker at that shot and he does it on every type of play, going to the middle, baseline. I’m just trying to perfect it a little bit like he has. It’s going to take me a long time but I’m working on it.”