<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> MINNEAPOLIS ? Josh Howard was back in action Tuesday, sore ankle and all. Greg Buckner was available, too, although he said his left knee was nowhere near 100 percent, but "I've got to tough it out because we got guys out." The injury bug is making the rounds and testing the Mavericks' depth and versatility, not to mention a few players' pain threshold. Howard was in the starting lineup against Minnesota, even though he's twisted his right ankle twice in the last week. In both instances, the Mavericks cried foul about defenders not giving Howard enough room to come down from a jump shot. They are not suggesting the plays are intentional or dirty. Just illegal. "The whole thing is that with plays like that, it's not necessarily intentional," coach Avery Johnson said. "It's a matter of giving a player space to come down. Now maybe there's been some situations where a guy tries to run up under you intentionally. "But what's the rule? Whether a guy gives you space to come down or not, that's the question. You got to be able to come down. "But there's nobody after anybody," Johnson said. "Everybody around the league has certain things they want the league in general to keep an eye on. And guess what? They cooperate. After that, it's a matter of how things are viewed." <font size=""4"">Howard reiterated that he's not happy about the number of times he's come down on defenders' feet.</font> "I just know it's happened five times this season," he said. "I don't know [what can be done]. It's real sore, but I'll just play." </div> Source Howard is right, this is Stu Jackson's fault for not disciplining Bruce Bowen earlier in the year when players complained Bowen was intentionally sticking his foot under the jump shooter. By not taking action Stu Jackson has given a green light for other players to use the same dirty tactic. There's been an a lot of ankle injuries this season across the league.
