Josh Howard made his season debut on Saturday night as the Mavericks defeated the Raptors 129-101.

Howard scored 16 points. He missed all of the preseason and the season's first five games while recovering from surgery on his left ankle and left wrist.

"I was nervous as heck out there," he said after the game. "But after I made my first couple free throws, I was fine."

Howard admitted that he'll have to play through some soreness for a while.

"It's something I have to keep working through," he said. "Of course I'm fatigued and I have to work through the process of getting back to 100 percent, which I'm not. But I felt pretty good, getting back in the swing of things. I had a good time out there."