"We don't need a double team, Shawn Marion gets the job done."

That was Jason Terry's assessment of the spectacular defensive effort Shawn Marion threw down on the game-saving block as time expired Wednesday night against The Wiz. In an isolation situation with Caron Butler in attack mode, Marion locked him up and ate his shot.

It's the type of defense Rick Carlisle has been preaching all season long. That's how this team will win games, he tells us. It's why Erick Dampier is way more important to this team's success than most folks recognize. It's why Carlisle will single out Josh Howard's effort in a game against Boston in which he scores three points in 31 minutes.

It's team defense. It's getting back in transition. (Did The Wiz really officially have zero fast-break points Wednesday night?) It's taking the right angles when you help, it's getting back in time when you recover. It's huge. Championship aspirations aren't realistic unless a team can dig in and play some serious defense.

Especially this team.

Truth be told, this team absolutely has to play defense because it just flat out doesn't have enough offense. So as good as the defensive signs were in the last two games, and they were nice, the numbers that really caught my eye were the numbers of assists the team racked up.

The Mavericks average right at 23 dimes, good for third in the Association. But in an attack-the-basket, break-the-defense-down league, the Mavericks quite simply don't have enough shot-makers/shot-creators to wow you with firepower. They have to get it done with pushing the pace after stops in an attempt to avoid too many half-court situations or just good old-fashioned crisp movement off the ball and smart passing.

Good defense will definitely feed the offense, but the execution has to be there when you have the rock. That was on display for extended stretches in the last two wins against Washington (27 team assists) and Boston (28 team assists).

Jason Kidd has been working overtime orchestrating this baby in his last five games with 63 assists. And that doesn't account for his high tally of hockey assists that my memory bank assures me were there as well.

In Dirk Nowitzki, the team has one of the toughest half-court covers in the league. After that, it's a long way down brother. Even JET is at his best catching and moving off screens or spotting up in transition as opposed to initiating the attack with a live dribble.

So the Mavs have to take advantage of smart movement and savvy passing. They've done that in the last two wins. You do that on a nightly basis and pair it with the "D" that Carlisle is demanding that this team plays – now you got a little summin' to hang your hat on.

And that's where it's at ...