(Sports Network) - The Dallas Mavericks will open a three-game road trip tonight against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre.

By JEFF CAPLAN TORONTO — Josh Howard’s vulnerable left ankle pulled through 14 minutes of game action Monday and portions of Tuesday’s practice with hopeful indications that he’ll be back in uniform tonight at Toronto. Coach Rick Carlisle plans a cautious approach to work the 6-foot-7 small forward back into his usual starting spot and typical 35-minute-a-night duty as the Dallas Mavericks …

By JEFF CAPLAN DALLAS — Flirting with disaster against lesser teams is dangerous as Charlotte and Oklahoma City showed. Against these new and improved Denver Nuggets it proved fatal.

By JAN HUBBARD DALLAS – After a stressful two weeks of home cooking, sleeping in their own beds, practicing routinely and playing in front of the home crowd, the Mavericks finally get to hit the road today. Long flights. Hostile crowds

For the fifth consecutive season Saturday, the Dallas Mavericks and American Airlines collaborated to bring approximately 150 soldiers from Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio to watch the Mavs play.

Kevin Durant leads the woeful Oklahoma City Thunder into Dallas this evening for a showdown against the Mavericks at American Airlines Center.

By JEFF CAPLAN DALLAS — For 47 minutes Thursday night it appeared Rick Carlisle’s team might get sucker-punched. The Dallas Mavericks coach had taken every opportunity to drum up the visiting Charlotte Bobcats, despite their low win total, as the hardest-working team in show business

By JEFF CAPLAN DALLAS — The first tally of All-Star voting is in and judging by the results, the Mavericks might think about hosting a few more ballot-box-stuffing parties. With four players on the ballot, only Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd cracked the top five. Nowitzki sits fourth among Western Conference forwards, more than 60,000 votes behind Denver’s Carmelo Anthony in third and about 1,500 …

The Dallas Mavericks attempt to rebound from a tough double overtime loss to division rival San Antonio as they continue a season-long seven-game homestand on Thursday against the Charlotte Bobcats.

By JEFF CAPLAN? DALLAS — Tony Parker must have been seeing double, yet it was his brilliant double-double that prevailed against Jason Kidd’s near-triple-double and J.J. Barea’s fourth straight whirling, double-figure extravaganza