How it happened: Offense just doesn’t come easily for the Mavs without Dirk Nowitzki.

That’s especially true with Roddy Beaubois still weeks away from his season debut and Caron Butler’s season prematurely over.

The first half Thursday night was a pleasant exception, with the Mavs lighting it up for 55 points to take a four-point lead. The second half was a painful slap of reality, even though DeShawn Stevenson’s garbage-time shooting exhibition made the numbers a little bit prettier.

Forward Shawn Marion cooled off, scoring only four of his season-high 25 points after halftime. Jason Terry heated up a bit in the fourth quarter, scoring nine of his 19 points, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

Stevenson, who dropped 39 points during the Mavs’ little two-game Dirkless win streak, didn’t heat up until garbage time. Nine of his 14 points came during the final minute, which was after most of the Mavs fans had already fled for the exits. He hit three 3-pointers in that span, matching the Mavs’ total for the rest of the game.

And Jason Kidd went scoreless for only the second time this season, misfiring on seven shots from the floor.

Even with Stevenson's too-late hot streak, the Mavs shot 34 percent from the floor in the second half.

But the Mavs know they’ve got to grind out ugly wins without Nowitzki. They weren’t able to keep up with Kevin Durant (28 points) and the Thunder on Thursday night.

What it means: The Mavs dropped to 2-4 without Nowitzki, but they’re still own the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference standings. Oklahoma City avoided being swept in the season series by its Red River rivals. It was the Dallas’ seventh loss this season at the American Airlines Center, matching the Mavs with the Jazz for the most home losses of teams in the West playoff picture.

Play of the game: The 6-foot-9 Durant used his long right arm to strip Terry just above the 3-point arc, took a handful of long strides and threw down an uncontested tomahawk dunk to stretch the Thunder’s lead to 11 with 5:41 to go. A 6-foot-1 guard simply can’t let that happen, especially considering Terry was just trying to initiate the offense.

Stat of the night: Marion scored 21 points in the first half, his highest-scoring half since arriving in Dallas at the beginning of last season. His previous season-high point total for a game was 22 in last week’s win over Cleveland.