With the referees rejecting the NBA's latest proposal on their labor contract dispute Sunday afternoon, players and coaches for the Dallas Mavericks are mentally preparing for the lockout to extend into the regular season.

"It's really tough," said Mavs star Dirk Nowitzki after practice on Tuesday. "Hopefully they can still reach an agreement. I think our refs are the best in the world and the best in the business so we would love to have them, but if it doesn't work out we will have to adjust."

With NBA preseason games officially starting yesterday, the league has turned to replacement refs to get them by. A crew consisting of Tre Maddox, Deldre Carr and C.J. Washington were officials for the Utah Jazz vs the Denver Nuggets last night. While it was just a preseason contest, the three managed to not get noticed when it came to the officiating. Only one time did Utah Coach Jerry Sloan jump out of his seat to show his displeasure with a call.

"We are all going to have to adapt. Those guys will be trying their best out there. We are all hopeful that a deal can get done in due time, but sometimes these things have to go through a process," said Mavs coach Rick Carlisle. "We'll adjust, we have a veteran team. Some of the guys maybe played with replacement refs before, I don't know. But, we will have to help them as much as we can."

Jason Kidd is the only player on the current Mavericks roster that was around when the NBA referees locked out in 1995.

"We just have to focus on playing the game. There will always be some questionable calls no matter who is the reffing the game, so you just have keep your cool, play through it, and try to win the game," said Nowitzki.

The Dallas Mavericks start the preseason on Monday against the Orlando Magic at home.

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