Tuesday's trip to Milwaukee might not be the most triumphant homecoming for Nick Van Exel. Not after a week in which the Wisconsin native strained a rib-cage muscle putting on his shirt, then shot 1-for-12 in a two-point loss to San Antonio.

The solace for Van Exel, so far, is that he'll have to string together a few bad weeks before his new coach scraps plans to play two point guards at crunch time.

"I'm not discouraged at all," Mavericks coach Don Nelson said. "He's never been a percentage shooter, and that's OK. He has the ability to make hard shots and he can make passes nobody else can make.

"I know what Nick can do. I just hope he can do it this year. If he can't do it this, he'll do it next year."