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CHICAGO -- The Mavericks set a franchise low with eight points in Saturday's first quarter against the Bulls. And when it was 25-10 barely two minutes into the second quarter, Dallas' previous claim of playing to win it didn't quite seem so sincere.

With Jason Kidd and Jason Terry sitting out on the same night that the Bulls welcomed back Derrick Rose in an important seeding game for them, it seemed it just wouldn't be the Mavs' night, and oh well. For the Mavs, the only consequence was falling behind Denver and into the seventh seed by percentage points.

"They are a tough team to get shots against. They're tough to get the ball in the basket against," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "However, that didn't deter our enthusiasm. We got it going in the second quarter. We even got a lead late in the third or fourth quarter. I like the way we battled back from that adversity. We knew with Kidd and Terry out, others would have to step up."

The Mavs got some interesting performances from several players starting with Rodrigue Beaubois coming back from a dislocated left ring finger in the second quarter to finish with 16 points, five assists and six rebounds. He scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, when the Mavs got as close as 78-76 on his nifty layup with 4:30 to go.

Seldom-used Dominique Jones was impressive handling the ball and driving to the hoop. He logged more than 25 minutes, his first serious action since Kidd sat out at Golden State on March 10. Jones finished with eight points, four assists, three boards, three steals and a block.

"I thought Dominique Jones was terrific both defensively and offensively for us," Carlisle said.

In the end, the Mavs lost for the 29th time in 65 games with one more to play. That's four more losses than the Mavs had last season in 82 games. Dallas had lost 29 or more games just twice in the last seven seasons and six times in Dirk Nowitzki's previous 13 seasons, with half of those coming in his first three seasons.

The best Dallas can finish this season is eight games above .500 (37-29) with a win at Atlanta in the season finale. If they win it and finish with a .560 winning percentage, it would be the lowest since the 1999-2000 season when Dallas finished 40-42.

Three more thoughts as the Mavs begin a four-day layoff:

1. Is Roddy B still a rookie? Apparently Brendan Haywood thinks so. Beaubois was obviously the man of the hour in the Mavs' postgame locker room after he came back from a dislocated finger and put together one of his more impressive games of the season. While Beaubois was surrounded at his locker by a handful of reporters, Haywood ducked his head in and dropped off a duffel bag by Beaubois' chair. Haywood asked him if he was going to the bus. Beaubois said yes. Haywood told the third-year guard who dislocated the ring finger on his left hand and still managed to play 38 minutes to carry his bag. Haywood should have had plenty of energy after amassing a line of three rebounds in 14 minutes. In fact, it was Haywood's third consecutive game of 15 minutes or less.

2. Board work: The Mavs held their own on the boards against the NBA's No. 1 rebounding team. The Bulls, No. 1 in offensive rebounding and second-chance points as well, outrebounded Dallas 46-43, but it was the Mavs with more offensive rebounds, 10-8. Now the Mavs just have to turn more of those offensive rebounds into second-chance points. The Bulls held a 12-7 edge in second-chance points.

3. Fewer 3s: The Mavs shot 60 3-pointers in the previous two games, but that number shrunk to a near-season-low 15 attempts from 3-point territory. That's what happens when Jason Kidd and Jason Terry both sit out. Those two average 10.4 shots from long range a game. Kidd's 223 3-point attempts this season account for more than 81 percent of his total shot attempts.

DALLAS – The Human Exclamation Point is an honest man.

Yes, Brandan Wright gets a certain extra sense of satisfaction out of lighting up his former team. And he’s given Golden State a good idea of just what they let get away in the Mavs’ two wins over the Warriors this month, putting up a season-high 16 points in last week’s victory in Oakland and bettering that by a point in Friday’s home win.

“It’s one of those situations that you want to play well against your former team,” Wright said with a smile. “That’s all I can give you on that. You want to play well; you want to beat those guys. Since I got traded, I haven’t lost a game to them.”

That’s technically true. Wright was dealing with a concussion and didn’t make the road trip when the Mavs lost to the Warriors in March.

Wright had 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and a season-high-tying nine rebounds when he finally got the chance to play the Warriors with the Mavericks. He had 17 and seven in only 17 minutes Friday night, when he made eight of nine shots from the floor.

The 24-year-old Wright has gone from a lottery pick that Golden State gave up on to a major bargain for the Mavs, who will pick up the team option to pay him the NBA minimum next season without thinking twice.

Wright won’t see the Warriors until next season, but he’ll have no problem finding motivational fodder. He’s preparing to play in the playoffs for the first time in his career.

A few more notes on Friday’s win:

1. Azubuike’s Dallas debut: It was a special night for Kelenna Azubuike, although the ex-Golden State swingman probably won’t frame the box score. He was 0-of-2 from the floor and committed two turnovers during six minutes in his NBA return after a two-plus-year layoff after a devastating knee injury.

“The knee feels great,” Azubuike said. “Now, the game will come.”

It was his first NBA appearance since for the 28-year-old Azubuike since tore his patella tendon on Nov. 14, 2009 and had post-surgery complications. The Mavs signed him in March to a one-year deal with a team option for next season with the hopes that he’d be regain his form from 2008-09, when he averaged 14.4 points and 5.0 rebounds, in time to be part of the Dallas rotation next season.

Any contributions from Azubuike this season will be considered a bonus.

"It's like (Corey) Brewer last year,” said coach Rick Carlisle, who noted that both of Azubuike’s 3-point attempts were in and out and praised his defense. “If he can help us somewhere along the line -- one play, or a few good minutes in a game at the right time, it's all worth it.”

"He's worked hard and I'm happy for him. He's had a two-year ordeal to get back."

2. Minutes managing: Delonte West was the only Maverick to play more than 30 minutes against Golden State. Not coincidentally, the 28-year-old West is by far the youngest player among the Mavs’ starters and top two reserves. “Compared to the rest of our team, he’s a youngster,” Carlisle said.

3. Terrible tie: Carlisle put the Mavs’ off night from 3-point range (3-of-19) in perspective by pointing out that their perimeter shooting was prettier than the orange tie that he wore during the game. Carlisle offered a simple excuse for having an off fashion night. His wife Donna didn’t pick out the tie, allowing Carlisle to be a victim of his own questionable taste.

SALT LAKE CITY -- The Dallas Mavericks prided themselves on their depth last season and it's been their calling card this season. Their superior depth was supposed to be they key to making an older, not-so-athletic club function at an elite level.

But that depth is coming into serious question in the final weeks of the regular season.

In Monday's triple-overtime loss at Utah, coach Rick Carlisle mostly went with a three-man bench. In a game that spanned 63 minutes, Yi Jianlian got five minutes, Brandan Wright played six and Brian Cardinal subbed in for all of 19 seconds. Meanwhile, Ian Mahinmi, Vince Carter and Jason Terry all played between 36 and 54 minutes.

In Sunday's overtime loss at the Los Angeles Lakers, Carlisle shortened the bench to basically Carter and Terry with Mahinmi and Wright combining for less than 16 minutes.

"We know who the warriors are and the roles are defined," said Nowitzki, who logged a massive 96 minutes in the last two games. "Here and there it's going to be tossed up. Sometimes Haywood is going to play more at the 5, sometimes it's going to be B-Wright, tonight it was Mahinmi down the stretch getting all the minutes. Some things fluctuate from night in, night out, but everybody is going to compete. Whoever gets the minutes is going to play hard and that's the only way to go."

A healthy Rodrigue Beaubois would have helped alleviate some minutes in the backcourt, but even Beaubois' playing time can fluctuate greatly and his rotation role in the playoffs certainly isn't settled.

The bigger issue is the front court. As poorly as Lamar Odom performed, he did average 20 minutes a night with a large chunk at power forward. Shawn Marion will be called on take some of the those minutes because there are few options beyond him. Jianlian and Cardinal aren't consistent solutions in the postseason. Jianlian got into Monday's game in the first quarter because Nowitzki ran into early foul trouble.

Wright is not considered an optimum choice at power forward and Carlisle has made that rather clear.

Here's three more areas of consideration:

1. T'd off: Delonte West earned his technical foul in odd fashion by sticking his index finger in the ear of Jazz guard Gordon Hayward in the second quarter. But the Mavs also had a couple of their key veterans get technical fouls at crucial junctures of the game. Jason Terry picked one up in the fourth quarter when he argued a no-call on a drive to the basket on which he thought he was fouled and Dirk Nowitzki was hit with one at the 1:05 mark of the first overtime.

2. Rare triple OT: Monday's 3-hour, 17-minute game marked the first time the Mavs played a triple-overtime game in more than 20 years. On Dec. 29, 1989, the Portland Trail Blazers won in three overtimes in Dallas, 144-140.

3. Streak busters: Chalk up yet another streak that has come to and this season. Dallas had won the last seven meetings against the Jazz.

LOS ANGELES -- The second question asked of Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle following Sunday's 112-108 overtime loss against a Lakers team playing without Kobe Bryant went something like this:

Does it sting a little more to have lost to the Lakers with Kobe sitting on the bench in a suit?

Carlisle took a second before answering and then said: "Next question."

The Mavs know they let a great opportunity get away. Not only did they fail to pick up another needed road win, they could not match their longest win streak of four since the All-Star break. In fact, the Lakers have now been responsible for ending four Dallas hot streaks.

A mid-January visit to L.A. snapped a five-game win streak even though Bryant had just 14 points on 7-of-22 shooting. Leading up to the All-Star break, the Mavs had won seven of eight games until the Lakers and newcomer Ramon Sessions sent them into the break with a 96-91 home loss. Then it was a four-game win streak the Lakers busted up just as Dallas started to feel good about itself again following that ugly 2-7 stint out of the All-Star break.

And on Sunday in L.A., the Mavs had their modest three-game win streak snapped despite leading by 10 in the second quarter and 87-81 with 6:51 to play.

"I mean it’s disappointing because we were in control and we had a chance to put them away, but we just kept letting them back in the game," Shawn Marion said. "We were up by 10. Once you get them up by 10, you’re supposed to go ahead and stick it to them. They went on a 7-0 run right back on us. I think it was a close game here on out. It happens. The thing is right now we could sit here and harp on the game, it is what it is, but we’re trying to stack W's."

That quest continues tonight at Utah, a team desperate to win to stay on the fringe of the playoff race. With that said, here's three more things to consider:

1. Can Kidd go two?: Jason Kidd played 33 minutes at Golden State in his second game back from a strained groin and sat out Friday's game at Portland. Against the Lakers on Sunday, he played a season-high 39 hard minutes, finishing with 13 points (5-7 FGs, 3-4 3FGs), seven assists, three rebounds and one turnover. His previous high was 35 minutes, which he's hit just three times. Now, Kidd must come back in back-to-back nights in another must-have ballgame.

"We'll see how I feel," Kidd said. "Right now I feel good, so I would hope that I get to play tomorrow."

2. Road woes mount: After consecutive road wins against depleted teams, the Mavs dropped to 13-17 on the road and 0-8 on the road against teams that currently own a .600-or-better winning percentage this season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Dallas is one of seven teams in the league that do not have a road win against .600-or-better teams, joining Washington (0-4), Philadelphia (0-5), Detroit (0-6), Toronto (0-6), Charlotte (0-8) and New Orleans (0-9).

3. Jason Terry sizzling from deep: He didn't get the potential game-tying bucket to go in the final moments of overtime, but Terry was pretty good with the long ball against the Lakers, knocking down 5-of-6 from 3-point range, the first time he's reached that threshold since Jan. 4 against Phoenix. In his last six games, Terry has buried 19-of-39 (48.7 percent) from beyond the arc, and that includes off 2-of-8 Friday at Portland.

The Mavs’ futility in the fourth quarter reminded Rick Carlisle of one of his favorite sayings from a former boss.

“It’s making work out of sex,” Carlisle said, attributing the line to longtime NBA coach Bill Fitch.

Yes, the Mavs should have been able to kick back and enjoy themselves after taking a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter Friday night at Portland’s Rose Garden. But they got sloppy, committing eight turnovers in the final frame, and had to sweat down the stretch of a 97-94 win.

“I liked our intensity and our effort the majority of the night, but we made so many judgment errors that we can’t make going forward,” Carlisle said. “That’s an adjustment that we have to make.”

It looked a lot like the Mavs’ performance in the previous night’s win over the Warriors. The Mavs led Golden State by as many as 24 points in that game, but the Warriors got within three at one point in the fourth quarter.

So you can’t simply shrug off the sloppiness by pointing out that steady-handed floor general Jason Kidd was wearing a suit on the Mavs’ bench. Kidd played against Golden State, although the preference would have been to let him sit out the fourth quarter. To Carlisle’s credit, he didn’t make any excuses. But he also didn’t offer any apologies for winning ugly.

“We survived it,” Carlisle said. “That’s good news.”

Added Shawn Marion: “Right now, you just have to pile up Ws. I don’t care how you get them.”

A few more items from the Mavs’ closer-than-it-shoulda-been win over the Trail Blazers:

1. Changing of the center?: Brendan Haywood remains the Mavs’ starting big man, but his role has been greatly reduced recently. Brandan Wright has gotten most of the minutes at center the last four games.

It was an especially stark contrast against the Blazers, when Wright played 27 minutes and Haywood played only eight. Haywood’s only other single-digit-minute outing this season occurred when he sprained his knee in the opening minute of a loss to Oklahoma City.

Wright is earning his minutes, averaging 13.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in the last four games. However, it isn’t as if Haywood is playing poorly, especially Friday night against Portland. He had four rebounds and two blocks in those eight minutes, and the Mavs had a 10-point advantage with him on the floor.

It’s a safe bet that Haywood will get a much bigger share of the minutes Sunday when the Mavs have to match up against Lakers low-post monster Andrew Bynum.

2. Workhorse West: The Mavs had to rely on Delonte West even more than they expected with Jason Kidd’s scheduled night of rest. Rodrigue Beaubois strained right calf in the second half. As a result, West played 44 minutes, producing a 21-points, seven-assist, six-rebound, three-steal line. OK, so West also had six turnovers, but there’s no doubt the dude came through when the Mavs needed him.

“Delonte is a money player,” Carlisle said.

3. ET (No J): Jason Terry has averaged one of two absolutely awful shooting performances per month this season. The Mavs can hope that this was it for April. Terry, who had been shooting well since his 1-of-10 stinker March 29 in Miami, was 3-of-16 from the floor Friday.

There was never any doubt that the Mavericks' offense flows smoother with Jason Kidd at the helm. In his absence, it only became more obvious.

In his two games back, the Mavs have scored 110 and 112 points and secured consecutive wins for the first time since March 24 and 27 in two wins over the Houston Rockets. Now, wins against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday and on the road at the Golden State Warriors on Thursday aren't exactly like going up against the Bad Boy Pistons or the Bruce Bowen-led, bear-hug Spurs.

Only four teams give up at least 100 points on average and the Kings and Warriors are two with Sacramento ranking last in the NBA in points allowed per game.

Still, perhaps the post-Lamar Odom Mavs are experiencing an offensive breakthrough. Kidd got off to a bit of a slow start but came on to lead the charge, falling one point shy of his 108th career triple-double. He finished the 112-103 victory with nine points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.

Interestingly, his best quarter was the last when coach Rick Carlisle had probably figured he'd be able sit Kidd the entire 12 minutes, just as he did against the Kings, and limit the 39-year-old to 23 minutes. After all, it was only Kidd's second game back, and the first night of a back-to-back and first of four games in five nights.

That wasn't to be as Golden State chopped a 19-point deficit down to three. With 10:10 left, Carlisle turned to the bench and called for Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki to check in.

Kidd dished six assists, grabbed four rebounds and dropped a 3-pointer during his 10 fourth-quarter minutes. He ended the game at 33 minutes, not what Carlisle would call "inching" up his minutes following Kidd's recent groin injury, but there's no room for missteps with a playoff spot yet to be secured.

"Never underestimate greatness," Carlisle said when asked about Kidd's game. "I don't care if that guy's 29, 39 or 49. He's going to do something to help you win."

Greatness is not how the Mavs' offense would be described this season. It ranks 20th in scoring average and 21st in field-goal percentage. Yet in the last two games against the Kings and Warriors, the Dallas offense has twice hit for at least 110, something it had done just three times the rest of the season.

But in the last two games at least, at least five players have reached double figures and everyone's getting involved. The Mavs averaged 106.5 points during a four-game win streak in mid-March. That run was ended abruptly by the Los Angeles Lakers, Sunday's opponent in L.A.

Starting with that loss to the Lakers, Dallas would average 91.2 points over the next 10 games leading into the Sacramento game.

"Right now guys are getting better when we take the floor," Kidd said. "You can see the ball movement and when we score 100 points we have a pretty good record."

Try 18-1.

Here are three more keys to consider as the Mavs get ready for Portland tonight:

1. Dirk hot when needed: With Golden State having crept back to within three points early in the fourth quarter, Dirk Nowitzki, just 6-of-16 from the floor at the time, drained a fallway jumper and then curled around his man for a pretty finger roll to ignite a run that would give the Mavs enough cushion to put away the Warriors. Nowitzki finished the game with 27 points on 10-of-23 shooting. In the last three games, Dirk is 19-of-53 from the floor (35.8 percent).

2. Wright keeps soaring: The former Warriors lottery pick burned his old team for 16 points and nine rebounds. He had 12 points in the first quarter and made his first four shots. The 6-foot-10 forward-turned-center played 32 minutes, once again dominating the playing time among the Mavs' three centers.

"Wright was terrific all night," Carlisle said. "It was the kind of game where if a team is playing small, he’s a valuable guy because he can be a presence at the rim and he can guard perimeter guys when needed."

Wright figured to play a lot against the smaller Warriors. But, he's not just earning minutes against smalls. Against Memphis and Marc Gasol last Saturday, Wright played 36 minutes.

3. Delonte West's aggression: Slamming his still-healing right ring finger on the rim Tuesday with a vicious two-handed slam didn't stop West from going up strong for a dunk attempt Thursday against Warriors midway through the first quarter. He missed this one and thought he was pushed while in mid-air, but he didn't get he call. That set West off and earned him a technical foul. He came out after that and didn't return until the start of the third quarter. He was 1-of-5 from the floor in the first half, but that didn't top him from aggressively looking for his shot in the third quarter when he hit 3-of-4 shots for six points in nine minutes. However, he didn't play at all in the fourth as Vince Carter got the full 12 minutes, 10 of which were spent playing alongside Kidd.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- The Mavericks' locker room was as solemn Saturday night as at any point since the Game 6 loss at San Antonio to end the 2010-11 season.

Reality set in after the 94-89 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, a game Dallas fell behind 26-6 after 11 minutes, that time truly is running out.

"Two games now, the opportunity was there and it’s gone now," Jason Terry said of consecutive losses to Portland and Memphis. "So like I said, Sacramento [on Tuesday] is a must-win. You can’t drop three in a row and remain in this playoff race. Everybody should have a sense of urgency. If they don’t, they don’t care."

The Mavs finished Saturday in seventh place in the Western Conference standings with just one fewer loss than ninth and 10th-place Phoenix and Utah, both of which have played one fewer game than Dallas.

"Looking at the standings should get us even more motivated," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "I'm not a big watcher of standings, but for anybody that is, it brings to the forefront the urgency of the situation."

The good news is the Mavs hold the tiebreaker over the sixth-seeded Rockets and the three teams beneath them.

Dallas dropped to 11-16 on the road and has fewer road wins than only Houston among the top nine teams in the West. The Mavs return home on Tuesday against Sacramento. Think that's an automatic win? Not so fast. Dallas is 20-10 at home, the most home losses other than Denver among the top 10 West teams. The Mavs are fresh off a 1-2 homestand, losing to lottery-bound Portland.

The Mavs play just three of their final nine games at home, and these games come quickly with five in seven days, including a four-game road swing with two back-to-backs at Portland and Golden State and then the Los Angeles Lakers and Utah.

Terry brought another perspective to the final nine.

"We have to get a win; go home, play Sacramento, a team that just beat us," Terry said. "Look at the schedule that’s ahead of us, and every team that we face down the stretch has beaten us or we haven’t played yet, and that’s Chicago and Atlanta. Everybody else has had some success against us one way or another, and we’ve got to figure it out."

Actually, that's not altogether true. The Jazz and the Rockets have yet to beat Dallas. But bet they'll be looking to add their names to the growing list.

Three more thoughts heading into two days off:

1. 50-win seasons kaput? In this 66-game season, obviously the Mavs' run of 11 consecutive seasons with at least 50 wins was in serious jeopardy. The equivalent of winning 50 games in an 82-game season (a .610 winning percentage) is about 40 games (.606). Dallas will have to go 9-0 to end the regular season to reach that mark. There will be no asterisk: The streak will end.

2. Brandan Wright on the rise: The lanky 6-foot-10 center played two minutes in Wednesday's game against the Grizzlies. In games with burly centers that are, on paper, harder matchups physically for Wright, he has tended to play few minutes. He was going to have to play Saturday with Ian Mahinmi out. Wright came through with 16 points and six rebounds in 36 minutes. He was so effective that he replaced Brendan Haywood in the starting lineup in the third quarter. It also raises questions about Haywood's performance in a big game against Grizzlies center Marc Gasol. Haywood played less than 12 minutes and finished with one point and five rebounds.

3. Vince Carter revs up: One of Carter's best moves these days is getting a step on the defender, driving to the bucket and, instead of one of his past-life massive jams, going finesse with a sweet underhand scoop or reverse layup. He had a couple Saturday night as he scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting, matching his most field goals in a game since March 13 and his most efficient shooting night since Jan. 14 when he also went 6-of-8. In his previous four games, Carter was just 10-of-36.

DALLAS -- Dirk Nowitzki started the game in one of those German grooves. Then he was just a guy for most of the night.

The face of the Mavs’ franchise was in Hall of Fame form for the first five minutes Friday night. He hit his first four shots from the floor -- a driving layup, a one-legged leanaway off a post-up, an and-1 midrange jumper and a 3-pointer -- before the botox folks filled up the AAC’s lower bowl.

Then Dirk got a grand total of five shots the next two and a half quarters. Huh?

That definitely isn’t the only reason the Trail Blazers turned a 15-point deficit into an eight-point lead entering the fourth quarter, but it definitely didn’t help matters for the Mavs.

“It’s always like I start out hot, get out at the same [time], like six minutes in the first quarter and didn’t get a shot,” Nowitzki said after the 99-97 overtime loss to the Trail Blazers. “Basically one shot in the second, one shot in the third. Then we’re down eight and it’s like, ‘Hey, here you go. You’ve got the ball now. Now make something happen.’

“It’s tough. I’ve got to be able to keep myself in rhythm and keep getting touches throughout the game.”

Dirk wasn’t bad the rest of the game, but he didn’t dominate after sitting down midway through the first quarter. He finished with 23 points on 9-of-16 shooting, meaning he was 5-of-12 from the floor after his spectacular start.

“He’s not going to make every shot,” coach Rick Carlisle said.

And Carlisle isn’t going to budge much from his regular rotation when it comes to his superstar, especially on the first night of a back-to-back with a big game against the Grizzlies coming next. Carlisle actually stayed with Nowitzki a little longer than usual in the first quarter.

“I think we stuck with him an extra minute or so,” Carlisle said. “It’s very rare. In the second half, it happens more frequently [that] we depart from that. We have defined roles.

“It’s something I wrestle with at times, but on the whole, because of it we were a championship team last year and there are dynamics to our rotation that require it.”

Nowitzki doesn’t necessarily disagree.

“It is what it is,” said Nowitzki, who did have one of his best rebounding nights of the season with 14 boards. “We all know what Rick does. He substitutes at certain times. That seemed to work last year, so we’re sticking with it.”

Carlisle’s routine of resting Nowitzki midway through the first quarter isn’t going to change. Nor should the Mavs habit of getting him touches on virtually every trip down the floor, especially when he has yet to miss that night.

A few more notes from the Mavs’ maddening loss:

1. Tough day for Delonte: Give Delonte West credit for being a tough guy. His performance after halftime, however, didn’t earn any props.

West battled on a bad wheel after twisting his left ankle when he landed on a ball at the morning shootaround and again when he landed awkwardly after a layup near the end of the first half. That obviously affected him in the second half, when he was 2-of-6 from the floor and was often assigned to defend Raymond Felton, who scored 16 of his season-high 30 points in the third quarter.

“I give him a lot of credit for being out there,” Carlisle said. “A lot of guys -- the majority of guys in this league -- wouldn’t have. He’s a great kid. He stands for all the right things on the basketball court, and he gave us what he had.”

When pressed, West admitted that his heavily-taped ankle stiffened up during the second half.

“But once you’re out there, you’re out there,” said West, who finished with 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting and five assists. “There’s no excuses.”

According to West, there’s also no question he’ll play Saturday night against the Grizzlies.

2. Wright’s flights: If the Mavs managed to win this game, the buzz would have been all about Brandan Wright.

The slender center had 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting, and most of those buckets came in spectacular fashion. He had four dunks, two of which were worthy of any highlight reel. Wright put Portland’s Luke Babbitt on a poster by soaring over him for a tomahawk jam, and the Human Exclamation Point threw down a right-to-left windmill off an errant lob pass from Jason Terry.

“I was just making a play,” Wright said with a shrug. “That’s not something you practice during the season, but during the summer, you do practice stuff like that.”

3. Little from Lam Lam: You didn’t get your hopes up when Lamar Odom had a couple of pretty good performances last week, did you?

He’s back to being the guy Mavs fans have grown to loathe. Odom missed Monday’s loss to the Clippers with a stomach bug, but he had a grand total of eight points and six rebounds in the last two games of this homestand.

The most notable thing Odom did during his five-point, five-rebound outing in Wednesday’s win was accidentally fire up his teammates with his poor effort that prompted Carlisle to summon him to the pine with 10 minutes to play.

Odom followed that up with a three-point, one-rebound, one-assist, two-turnover line in 11 minutes against the Trail Blazers. There were scattered boos after his sloppy turnover in the third quarter, and he was benched for good less than a minute later.

DALLAS -- It might be the biggest mystery in the NBA this season. Why can’t the defending NBA champions win without their ridiculously underachieving newcomer?

As bad as Lamar Odom has been this season, it’s hard to ignore the numbers. The Mavs are 30-17 when Odom plays and 0-7 when he doesn’t.

“I told everybody about how important the presence of Lamar Odom was,” Jason Terry said after Odom missed the Mavs’ 94-75 loss to the Clippers because of a stomach illness. “You guys are looking at the statistics. I’m looking at the player and obviously what that gives us and what that does for our depth. We truly missed it.”

In this case, it clearly didn’t help that the Mavs were also missing Jason Kidd, who will miss at least the rest of the week with a strained right groin. But the Mavs are 7-5 when Kidd doesn’t play this season.

Coach Rick Carlisle has used the Mavs’ winless record without Odom in the past to emphasize the struggling forward’s importance despite his poor statistics. However, Carlisle was in no mood for that after this miserable outing, saying he wasn’t going to make any excuses.

“I just don’t think we were very good tonight,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “That’s the bottom line. I don’t care who was out there.”

A few more notes from one of the Mavs’ ugliest games of the season:

1. West’s woes: Delonte West didn’t exactly follow up his phenomenal fourth quarter against the Magic in impressive fashion. West keyed the Mavs’ comeback Friday night with seven points and two assists in the final frame, running the point for all 12 minutes while Jason Kidd watched from the bench. With Kidd out Monday, West had only six points and four assists in 36 minutes.

2. Wretched rebounding: The Clippers had a 49-38 advantage on the glass, which Nowitzki attributed in large part to the big differences in shooting percentages. “If one team shoots in the thirty percents and the other team shoots near 50, there’s going to be a lot more rebounds to go around on the other end,” said Nowitzki, who had only four rebounds. “I think that’s not rocket science.” But this isn’t a one-game issue. Dallas has been outrebounded by double digits in six of its last seven games.

3. Jet’s solution: The Mavs’ offense was painfully out of sync without Kidd running the show, registering only 14 assists and shooting 39 percent from the floor. How do they solve those issues before Wednesday’s game against the Grizzlies?

“I have no idea, but we’re going to have to figure it out,” Terry said. “If I have to take more responsibility and try to shoot more, shoot 30 times, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Jeez, can Lamar Odom get a little bit of help?!

OK, that’s a slight exaggeration of Odom’s effectiveness in Thursday’s lopsided loss to the Miami Heat. However, the fact that Odom has had two consecutive solid performances is a pretty significant developing story for the Mavericks.

Odom has struggled all season and had been especially awful in the last few weeks, leading coach Rick Carlisle to bench him for last week’s loss against the San Antonio Spurs. Odom played 13 scoreless minutes the next night, but he suddenly resembled an offensive threat after slapping on a headband in Tuesday’s rematch against the Houston Rockets.

Odom had nine points on 4-of-5 shooting in Tuesday’s win over the Rockets. He followed that up with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting against the Heat.

Odom, who also had four rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes, gave the Mavs a fighting chance entering the fourth quarter by scoring Dallas’ final nine points of the third. That’s quite a scoring spree for a dude averaging 6.9 points on 35 percent shooting this season.

"My legs are finally getting underneath me," said Odom, who admittedly reported to training camp in awful shape. "I feel like I can come out of a move and make a shot. It’s a big difference. Sports are about confidence."

A few more notes from the Mavs’ loss to their Finals foe:

1. Welcome back, West: Guard Delonte West returned after missing 21 games due to a gruesomely fractured right ring finger. The left-handed West scored seven points on 3-of-3 shooting in eight minutes against the Heat, but there was evidence of rust. West, who will deal with significant pain in his surgically repaired finger the rest of the season, was stripped twice. Ballhandling could be an issue for West, who is playing with his middle finger and ring finger taped together.

"Everything considered, Delonte West played great," coach Rick Carlisle said. "I have never seen a guy come back from being out five and a half weeks and hit his first three shots. It was phenomenal."

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2. Carter starts fast and fades: Vince Carter knocked down three 3-pointers while scoring a team-high nine points in the first quarter, which ended with the Mavs up 29-24. He scored only two points, attempted only two shots and played only eight minutes the rest of the night, dealing with neck soreness after being elbowed early in the second half. Carter didn’t play at all in the fourth quarter, when the Heat held the Mavs to 13 points on 3-of-19 shooting.

3. Dirk’s disappearing act: The Finals MVP was dominant in the first half, but Dirk Nowitzki didn’t exactly finish strong. Nowitzki finished with 25 points on 9-of-19 shooting, but he missed his final eight shots from the floor.

Our weekly look at how coach Rick Carlisle is managing the minutes of Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd during this 66-game schedule:

Entering game No. 51 of this 66-game schedule, there is no doubt now that Jason Kidd will finish his 18th season having logged the fewest minutes of any season in his career and, at best, tied for the second-fewest games.

Tonight's return to Miami, where Kidd's guiding hand helped the franchise that drafted him in 1994 win its first championship, will be Kidd's 41st game of the season. If he plays in all 15 remaining games he will play 55, the number he played in 1996-97 when the Mavs traded him to to the Phoenix Suns after 22 games.

He played a career-low 50 games in 1998-99 for the Suns when slowed by a knee injury. Consider that Kidd has played just 1,128 minutes this season and is on pace to finish with 1,551. He played 2,060 minutes in those 50 games 13 seasons ago.

Incredibly durable since then, Kidd missed 10 games earlier this season with separate injuries.

But whatever, this shortened regular season never meant much to Kidd, who turned 39 a week ago. This season is all about the 28 possible games that in what Kidd is calling the real season and that one starts April 28. This one is only the dress rehearsal.

They key all along has been to keep Kidd as healthy and rested as possible. The health has come. The rest has been as consistent as possibly could have been imagined.

A couple weeks ago, owner Mark Cuban suggested that the starters' minutes would rise, including Kidd's, as Carlisle turned to a more playoff-mode rotation. That has not been the case with Kidd. That's partly because Rodrigue Beaubois has played well enough to handle a chunk of fourth-quarter duty that could well be crucial in his own development down the stretch and into the "real" season, a season in which Beaubois has virtually no experience.

In 14 games this month, Kidd has played fewer than 30 minutes nine times. He finished at 30 once and played a high of 35 minutes once.

After playing just 24 minutes against Houston on Tuesday while sitting out the entire fourth quarter, Kidd said his low minute totals were fine by him.

"With three minutes left (against Houston)," Kidd said, "I asked for the ice."

J-Kidd
Season averages: 28.2 mpg, 6.0 ppg, 5.3 apg, 4.0 rpg
The breakdown: With 15 games in 30 days, Kidd is in good position to finish the regular season with a head of steam. Only four back-to-backs remain starting tonight at Miami. After the first two back-to-backs, the team is granted two days of rest. A bit of a surge from beyond the arc has lifted his scoring average to 6.0 and his 3-point percentage to 34.4 percent, a mark that had been below 30 for a large chunk of the season. He's hit multiple 3-pointers in four consecutive games for only the third time this season.

Dirk
Season averages: 32.6 mpg, 21.0 ppg, 6.7 apg, 2.3 rpg
The breakdown: Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said he never figured he'd be able to keep Dirk down this low all season. His season average remains under 33 minutes, but that is slowly on the rise and with the competition level of the next month and the team fighting it out with plenty of others just to maintain a playoff spot, those minutes might continue to rise as they did this past week. In the last three games going back to Friday's loss at San Antonio, Dirk averaged 37 minutes a game with a high of 39 on Saturday at Houston. He still has just one 40-minute game this season, coming in the double-overtime win against Portland.

DALLAS -- This had all the makings of a defensive disaster after a dozen minutes.

The Rockets racked up 30 points on 60 percent shooting in the first quarter. Power forward Luis Scola was scoring at will, putting up 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

The Dallas D was much better in the second quarter. And it was spectacular in the second half, when the Mavs held Houston to 32 points on 32.4 percent shooting.

“We came out real lethargic and slow-footed,” said Shawn Marion, the Mavs’ defensive stopper. “They came out getting everything -- loose balls, diving on the floor. They had more energy in that first quarter. Towards the end of that first quarter, we were able to pick up the rhythm. When the second quarter opened, we were able to really get it going and get after them and get more hustle plays.

“That third quarter, we just opened up the doors on ‘em. We were able to take them out of anything and everything they wanted to do.”

The Mavs made one significant adjustment at halftime. They decided to double Scola every time he touched the ball on the block.

The result: Scola had twice as many turnovers (four) as buckets (two) in the second half. And the Rockets had no answer for the Mavs shutting down Scola, particularly from the perimeter, missing seven of eight 3-point attempts in the second half the night after playing an overtime game.

“I just thought that the double-teaming got us scrambling,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “That’s when we’re at our best defensively, when we help each other, we scramble and we’re active and not on our heels all night. I thought double-teaming him got our juices flowing more. It just got us in the scramble game and we’re pretty good after that.”

Added coach Rick Carlisle: “Our second half was tremendous. It was playoff caliber. Our first half, we played like a lottery-type team.”

A few more notes from the Mavs’ win, which clinched the season series against Houston and gave Dallas a two-game cushion over the Rockets:

1. Dirk’s dud: Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavs with 21 points, but his performance was far from a thing of beauty. Nowitzki did most of his damage from the line (11-of-12), but he was just 5-of-17 from the floor. “I was cold in the first half and I was cold in the second half,” Nowitzki cracked. “So that was great.”

2. Better on the boards: The Mavs won the rebounding battle by a 43-39 margin. That’s a big deal considering they were outrebounded by double digits in the previous three games. Marion had his second consecutive big rebounding night, following up his season-high 15-rebound outing in Saturday’s overtime win by grabbing 11 rebounds Tuesday.

3. Kidd climbs into top 10: Jason Kidd, who celebrated his 39th birthday, moved into the top 10 in on the all-time games played list. This was the 1,307th game of Kidd’s 18-year career, which ties him with Buck Williams.

HOUSTON -- Dirk Nowitzki has bumped four legends down the NBA’s all-time scoring list this season, but he was especially pleased to pass Charles Barkley.

Father Time had nothing to do with it, bro.

Yes, Barkley is the big mouth who declared earlier this season that Dirk’s days as an elite go-to guy were done. Nowitzki has acknowledged being motivated by that opinion –- he’s averaged 24.4 points per game since Barkley’s infamous appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3’s Galloway and Company –- but he’s definitely not bitter about it.

That’s because he has too much longtime love for Sir Charles, who dropped to the 20th leading scorer in NBA history.

“Charles was always kind of my hero,” Nowitzki said after his 31-point performance in Saturday’s win over the Rockets gave him 23,758 career points, one more than Barkley. “I always wore No. 11 in Germany, then I saw him wearing No. 14 in the Olympics in Barcelona, so then I changed my number to 14. Then when I came over, it became No. 41.”

There is a little irony in Nowitzki moving past Barkley in Houston, where Father Time caught up to the Round Mound of Rebound during a stint with the Rockets at the end of his career.

Nowitzki is probably done climbing the all-time scoring list this season. Boston’s Kevin Garnett is next on the list with 23,997 points and counting.

With a typical Dirk year, Nowitzki could move all the way up to 13th by the end of next season, passing Garnett, Allen Iverson, Patrick Ewing, Jerry West, Reggie Miller and Alex English.

A few more notes from the Mavs’ win over the Rockets:

1. Brandan Wright’s block party: This might have been the best performance of backup big man Brandan Wright’s career. It certainly was the 2007 lottery pick’s best performance in a Mavericks uniform.

Wright scored 14 points (one shy of his season high) on 7-of-9 shooting and grabbed six rebounds in 34 minutes off the bench. The stat that sticks out, however, is The Human Exclamation Point’s career-high seven blocked shots.

“He’s quick on his feet. He’s quick off his feet,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “Sometimes you think he’s got no shot to get to that ball, but one quick step and he’s basically elbow above the rim. He had some great blocks tonight.”

2. Matrix reloaded: No need to worry about whether the left knee that sidelined Shawn Marion for three games is still sore. Not after he put up 12 points and 15 rebounds on the butt end of a back-to-back.

It was the 400th double-double of Marion’s career.

“Marion’s back in a big way,” Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. “He was terrific again. He’s guarding the key guy on their team, who was a point guard. He’s just really one of the unique guys that I’ve ever seen. The way he’s guarded every position on the floor this year, he’s Defensive Player of the Year material.”

3. Calvary coming?: There is a chance that Brendan Haywood (sprained right knee) and Delonte West (fractured right ring finger) could play Tuesday night against the Rockets.

"I'd like to think so," Carlisle said. "But I don't know that. I know the progress has been good. But we don't have a set timetable. I don't think it's impossible. The hope is sooner than later."

SAN ANTONIO – The spotlight after Friday night’s loss to the Spurs was on the Mavericks power forward who didn’t play.

Good thing for the guy who logged 37 minutes at the position for the Mavs.

“I had a brutal night,” Dirk Nowitzki said.

That description was accurate, unlike the vast majority of Nowitzki’s jumpers at the AT&T Center. The perennial All-Star had perhaps his worst performance since his early-season struggles, scoring 16 points on 5-of-21 shooting and grabbing a grand total of two rebounds.

Nowitzki missed his last 13 shots from the floor. He scored only four points in the second half, all on free throws.

“I actually felt good at the beginning of the game,” Nowitzki said. “Just during the game, I couldn’t get the ball up in there. They were short. Wide-open 3s were even short. I just didn’t have enough to get the ball up today.”

Added coach Rick Carlisle: “We have to work on getting him some cleaner looks. But he had some that he normally makes that he didn’t make tonight.”

Dirk didn’t have a rebound until the fourth quarter. While he attributed the off shooting night to heavy legs, Nowitzki made no excuses for such a poor performance on the glass.

“That’s my bad,” Nowitzki said. “I don’t care, you can always box out and rebound.”

A few more notes from the Mavs’ second straight lopsided loss to a Western Conference contender:

1. Matrix’s return: Want some good news? Shawn Marion's left knee didn’t bother him in his return from a three-game absence.

“I felt good,” Marion said. “Once I got out there, I was able to stay warm and keep my body going. That’s pretty much it. I got a little winded there a couple of times, but for the most part, my wind was pretty good.”

Marion was one of the more productive Mavs, scoring 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting in 31 minutes. He did a more than respectable job defending Manu Ginobili, who had 11 points on 4-of-11 shooting and seven assists.

2. Custodian’s dirty work: Brian Cardinal made his mark on the game – or on Tim Duncan’s face, at least.

“The Custodian” was called for a flagrant foul when he inadvertently raked Duncan in the face, sending the Spurs legend sprawling to the floor. That was the only statistic recorded by Cardinal in 4:20 on the floor, during which the Spurs outscored the Mavs by 10 points.

As you might imagine, Cardinal wasn’t exactly a popular guy at the AT&T Center, drawing the wrath of the Spurs faithful. Duncan shrugged it off after the game – “That’s just basketball,” he said – but San Antonio’s Stephen Jackson had some choice words for Cardinal.

“To me, it was a dirty play,” Jackson told the San Antonio Express-News. “When you can’t play no more, I guess all you can do is go out and try to hurt people.”

3. Kidd’s birthday bummer: The Spurs spoiled Jason Kidd's 39th birthday.

For a few minutes, it appeared it might be a storybook birthday celebration for Kidd, who got the hot hand from 3-point range to briefly give the Mavs the lead in the third quarter. Kidd ended up with an unusual line in the box score for him: 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting, seven rebounds and only one assist. It’s only the second time in Kidd’s career he had only one assist while playing more than 30 minutes.

Nevertheless, Kidd did have one good reason to celebrate.

“I’m still in the thirties,” Kidd cracked.

DALLAS -- Shawn Marion tried to talk his way onto the court against the Lakers. He failed.

Jason Kidd tried to defend Kobe Bryant. He failed.

Bryant scored 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting in the Lakers’ 109-93 win Wednesday night. The Lakers also won the previous two meetings with the Mavs this season, but not because of Bryant’s brilliance. The NBA’s scoring leader totaled only 29 points on 11-of-37 shooting in the two games when Marion guarded him.

"In terms of our individual matchup, I mean he’s obviously a long defender, he’s quick,” said Bryant, who mentioned that the Suns started to go down the day they traded Marion. “It’s a lot harder scoring on him than it is on [Rodrigue] Beaubois or something like that. Still, in all, I’ve given Marion fits in Phoenix, but he does a great job here with the system they have defensively. They’re a much, much better team when he’s on the floor.”

Beaubois took his turns trying to defend Kobe, who was primarily Kidd’s assignment a couple of days before the point guard’s 39th birthday.

The Mavs had success with Kidd defending Bryant down the stretch of games during last season’s West semifinals sweep. However, it isn’t a strategy they’d ever plan to use on a regular basis in ideal circumstances.

“We get away with playing spot minutes on him, like we did last year in the playoffs, but not for 30 minutes,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “That’s when Kobe gets to his spots and he can just elevate over Kidd. Once Kidd doesn’t get the swipe-down and [Bryant] gets to his areas, I don’t think there’s anything that J can do. So we definitely missed Trix on him.”

Added Kidd: “No matter how long you’re on him, he’s going to make shots. I’ve been on him close enough where he still makes them. I mean, that’s what he does, so that’s what makes him a great player. You just try to make it tough on him.”

Marion has lobbied to play before each of the last three games, but coach Rick Carlisle and athletic trainer Casey Smith have opted to exercise caution while the Mavs’ best defender deals with soreness in his left knee.

Marion has had as much success as anyone in the NBA as a Kobe stopper this season. However, Carlisle said it wasn’t a difficult decision to sit him with the Lakers in town even though it was expected that the Mavs would miss Marion.

“He had not been on the court for five or six days,” Carlisle said. “So in looking at his situation, how fair is it to just throw him out there against Kobe Bryant?”

It wasn’t fair to throw Kidd out there against Kobe either, but the Mavs didn’t have much choice.

A few more notes after the Mavs’ four-game win streak was snapped:

1. Roddy ready for big time?: Rodrigue Beaubois had a nice little run over the last four games, but that came to an end Wednesday against the Lakers. The third-year guard scored six points on 3-of-12 shooting and he missed all four his 3-point attempts. Against a stingy L.A. defense, Beaubois didn't seem to play with the same confidence he had in previous games against the Spurs and Nuggets.

2. Tough cover for Dirk Nowitzki: Dirk badly outplayed Pau Gasol in last season’s playoff sweep, but Gasol has proven to a difficult matchup in three games this season. While Nowitzki scored 26 points on 10-of-24 shooting in Wednesday's loss, Gasol put up 27 points on 13-of-16 shooting against his 7-foot counterpart. In the three games, Gasol is averaging 20.0 points on 60 percent shooting and 8.0 rebounds.

3. Where's the D?: The Lakers' 109 points marked just the ninth time this season that the Mavs have allowed triple digits in 48 games. However, it is the third time in the last seven games and in those seven games Dallas has given up an average of 102.6 points a game, including scores of 110 and 111 to Sacramento and Golden State. Entering Wednesday's game against L.A., the Mavs still ranked sixth in the league in scoring defense at 92.7 points a game, but they have not allowed fewer than 95 points during the seven-game stretch, one reason that Dallas is just 4-3 in those games and 6-8 since the All-Star break.