Rick Carlisle let Samuel Dalembert know in front of the entire Dallas Mavericks' team that the veteran center's conditioning was unacceptable. Then, the coach lamented Dalembert's basketball shape to the media, unasked.

"The first thing is that Dalembert has got to continue to work to get in shape,'' Carlisle said. "He's just not in the condition that he needs to be in, and we need him.

"Tonight he struggled out there and I think a lot of it is conditioning. And so in the next 21-22 days he's got to get to a higher level.''

Dalembert says he is battling a sore back, which occurred when one of his teammates fell on him on the first day of practice.

"The main thing that happened to me is that I got hurt,'' Dalembert said. "I got hurt in the first practice of camp.

"Stupid me, my pride takes over and I wanted to practice. I didn’t want to take off, so that kind of slowed me down a little bit.”