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Rockets look to continue fast start

Nov 5, 2007 - 2:39 PM Houston (3-0) at Dallas (2-1) 8:30 pm EST

DALLAS (Ticker) -- If the Houston Rockets hope to continue their best start in 11 seasons, they will need to stop a team coming off its best shooting performance in more than two decades.

The Rockets will look to make it four wins in as many games when they meet their interstate rival, the Dallas Mavericks, for the first time this season on Monday.

Houston has won three games to open the season for the first time since 1996-97 when it was victorious in its first six en route to a 57-25 finish.

The Rockets can attribute some of that success to the fact that they are getting it done on the defensive end. So far, they have allowed 89.3 points per game - the fifth-lowest average in the NBA - a season after limiting opponents to 92.1, good for the third-best mark in the league.

Houston needed that defense in an 89-80 win over Portland on Saturday, overcoming a season-low point total by limiting the Trail Blazers to 2-of-10 shooting on 3-pointers and causing 18 turnovers.

The Rockets will need that defense to remain strong against its Southwest Division rival because Dallas is among the league's best shooting teams. With 51.8 percent shooting from the field through three games, the Mavericks trail only the New Orleans Hornets in that category.

Dallas is coming off a 123-102 win over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday, a contest in which it shot 65.2 percent (45-of-69) to fall just shy of the team mark of 67.7 set on March 24, 1983.