Josh Howard (Photo. Monte Isom)

A few minutes before Mavs/Knicks tipped off on Monday night, I got a few minutes with Dallas stars Jason Terry and Josh Howard to talk about the season, road trips, and playing with a target on their backs…

Dime: What do you have to take with you on every road trip?
Jason Terry: Gotta take my iPod, gotta take my Playstation, and I gotta take my Bible.
Josh Howard: My iPod, my telephones and clean underwear.

Dime: What’s on the iPod?
Terry: I got T.I. and Young Jeezy. You know, I love my South guys, but I always keep West Coast in the deck, E-40 and Snoop.
Howard: Rich Boy, that’s the last thing I listened to today.

Dime: What video games did you take with you for this trip?
Terry: Right now I’m on the boxing game, Fight Night. I play the Hitman series and Scarface.

Dime: Jason, the last time you were in the magazine you talked about your clothing line and your record label. How have your outside business interests been doing lately?
Terry: They’re doing good. I stepped away from the music a little bit this year because I want to focus in on this goal of winning a championship. It takes immense energy to focus on your outside interests if you’re really hands-on, so this year I’m leaving it all behind to have one of the best years of my career.

Dime: On the court, the Mavs haven’t been killing everyone like you guys were last year and you’ve lost some games people would say you should have won. What do you have to do to reach that level again?
Howard: Staying aggressive throughout the whole game and communicating a little bit more. We’ve had the same team for the last three, four years, so everybody knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
Terry: I think offensively it’s about spreading the ball around and playing more aggressive. Defensively, we’re still not where we wanna be; it’s not at a championship level, but we know that’s going to come once we get rolling. It’s a long season, a long journey. That’s what we’ve learned being together three years now — you can’t get worked up too early in the season. You have to bide your time through those stretches where you’re not playing as well.

Dime: Josh, you’re coming off a 47-point game against the Jazz. Talk about what that night was like.
Howard: To be honest, I just thought we needed the win. I wanted to stay aggressive that whole game. My teammates were finding me, so for me to be able to knock down those shots was big. Hopefully it can carry over.

Dime: Did you know how many points you had during the game?
Howard: With the announcer out there you can’t help but realize it. But I was just thinking about getting the win, because we’d lost two games before that.

Dime: Do you think the Mavs have been playing up or down to its level of competition?
Terry: People tend to think that. I believe everybody is gunning for the Mavericks. It’s been like that ever since I got here four years ago and nothing’s changed.
Howard: Teams in the League have gotten more athletic and a lot younger, but as long as we play our style of ball we’ll be fine. Take it one game at a time.

Dime: So the other teams are playing up against you guys?
Terry: Oh, all day long. They’re making shots against us that they’re not making when we’re watching that film. But it’s us, so they’re hitting those. It comes along with the territory. If you’re gonna be the best, everybody’s gonna came at you. But we like that role.