Dirk Nowitzki got just eight shots against the Rockets Sunday night. That’s not enough, obviously, for the Mavericks’ best players and while he was quick to mention that he needed to be more aggressive early in the game (he had just one shot in the first quarter), the real culprit for his eight-point night and the fact that he couldn’t get good looks at the basket was the Mavericks’ terrible defense. “If we’re not scoring, we still got to get back and find a way to buckle down and keep some people out of the damn lane,” Nowitzki said. “It was a damn layup drill and wide-open threes. It was embarrassing. “We got to figure out our defense. Pick and roll coverage messed up left and right. If they score at a high clip like that, it puts tremendous pressure on our offense. And we all know our half-court offense is not really where it’s at. We need to get stops and rebound and run. If we have to take the ball out every time, we’re in trouble.” It was the second time on the road trip when Nowitzki had difficulty making plays. He had just 10 points on 11 shots at Memphis. Houston took a page out of Memphis’ defensive playbook, Nowitzki said. “I never got any good looks,” he said. “They guarded me with a smaller guy. It’s the same thing Memphis was doing. They’re not going to leave me on pick and rolls. They’ll make other guys make plays. Everything I basically get, I have to work for. They’re staying with me on pick and rolls.” Nowitzki, played face-to-face by Chandler Parsons or Donatas Motiejunas most of the night, finished with just eight shots, making only two. The inability to get shots was as bothersome as his lack of success when he did get them.