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Brandan Wright

Brandan Wright would like to be back with the Mavericks.

The Mavs would like to keep Wright, a young, athletic center/forward who took advantage of his return to the rotation in the final month and a half, averaging 11.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.7 blocks as a 24-minute-per-night part-time starter in the final 23 games. Wright was a major reason why the Mavs went 15-8 during that stretch and probably earned millions in the process.

“The truth is Brandan is a very unique player. He fits in with us. He fits in with our personnel,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “There’s some teams that he really plays great against. That’s been consistent for both years. There’s other teams where it’s tougher for him because of the physical strength, some of the bruising type teams. But we like him. He has continued to get better.

“We met with him (the day after the season ended) and told him that we definitely wanted him back here. These decisions are going to come down to the money and the market and so on and so forth, but he’s a guy that we like.”

It could be more complicated than just the money. Timing of negotiations with Wright could be tricky, too.

Wright feels a sense of loyalty to the franchise that picked him up off the scrap heap after the lockout, but he’s facing the first major business decision of his career. He understands, however, that he won’t be the Mavs’ top priority this summer.

What if Wright gets an offer he likes while the Mavs are pursuing Dwight Howard or Chris Paul or whoever their Plan C, D, E, etc. might be? Wright might not have the luxury of waiting to see whether the Mavs would be able or willing to match.

There is strong mutual interest in Wright returning to the Mavs. Now, it’s a matter of whether the business of basketball gets in the way.

2012-13 stats: Averaged 8.5 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.2 blocks while shooting 59.7 percent from the floor in 18.0 minutes per game. His player efficiency rating (PER) of 21.03 ranked 20th in the league.

Age: 25

Comps:

Brandon Bass – Averaged 8.7 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.8 blocks while shooting 48.6 percent from the floor in 27.6 minutes per game. Signed three-year, $19.4 million deal in 2012.

JaVale McGee – Averaged 9.1 points, 4.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks while shooting 57.5 percent in 18.1 minutes per game. Signed four-year, $44 million deal in 2012.

Ed Davis – Averaged 7.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.0 blocks while shooting 53.9 percent in 20.1 minutes per game. Has one season remaining on rookie contract.

Amir Johnson – Averaged 10.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.4 blocks while shooting 55.4 percent from the floor in 28.7 minutes per game. Signed five-year, $30 million deal in 2010.

Estimated contract: Bass got $18 million over four years after his two-season stint with the Mavs. Ian Mahinmi, another two-year Mavs project, got $16 million over four years. The bidding for Wright figures to start in that range.

The Dallas Mavericks will have to find ways to improve after missing out on the playoffs for the first time since 2000. They'll look at free agents. They'll add someone in the draft.

But who, besides Dirk Nowitzki, is the most important player for the Mavs to keep?

Is it Brandan Wright, who continued to get better as the season went along? Maybe it's Vince Carter, who arguably was the Mavs' MVP this season. Perhaps it's someone else.

Vote here for who you want to keep and let us know why.

How it happened: The Dallas Mavericks got overpowered at home by one of the NBA’s most physical teams.

The Memphis Grizzlies dominated the glass in the second half, allowing Memphis to overcome a slow start and come back to beat the Mavs. The Griz had a 28-16 rebounding advantage after halftime, when they trailed by eight points.

Memphis opened the second half with a 13-4 run to take their first lead of the game. The Grizzlies took the lead for good with a 13-4 run in the fourth quarter, when they held the Mavs without a field goal for a span of 3:41.

Dallas didn’t allow Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, one of the league’s elite center-power forward duos, to do much damage. Gasol had only six points and seven rebounds; Randolph had nine points and seven rebounds.

It was Memphis backup power forward Ed Davis (11 points, 11 rebounds) who made his presence felt during the critical stretch of the game. Davis, who arrived in Memphis as part of Rudy Gay midseason deal, had seven points and eight rebounds in the fourth quarter.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 15 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter, but he didn’t get enough help from his Mavs teammates in the final frame.

It was an especially tough night for O.J. Mayo, who had four turnovers and only two points against his former team and got benched midway through the fourth quarter.

What it means: The Mavs’ 12-year run of winning records is over. The best they can do is finish 41-41. They failed to go over .500 for the first time since they were 7-6 in November. The Grizzlies (55-26) picked up a critical win in their fight for homecourt advantage in the first round.

Play of the game: Vince Carter/Brandan Wright pick-and-rolls tend to make pretty highlights. Wright’s slam dunk early in the fourth quarter certainly fit the bill. The finish was nice, but Carter’s fastball bounce pass made it possible. Carter had to put zip on the ball to squeeze it through a tight window to Wright in the middle of the lane.

Stat of the night: Carter passed Clyde Drexler for 27th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list with a reverse layup in the first quarter. Carter, who now has 22,214 career points after scoring 22 against the Grizzlies, has bumped four Hall of Famers down a spot this season, passing Hal Greer, Larry Bird, Gary Payton and Drexler. Elgin Baylor, Adrian Dantley and Robert Parish could be within Carter’s reach next season.

NEW ORLEANS – After arriving in the NBA, Dirk Nowitzki didn’t know whether he could survive 25 games, much less score 25,000 points.

Here he is, 15 years later, one of 17 members of the league’s exclusive 25,000-point club.

“And as he showed tonight, he’s still got a lot left in the tank,” coach Rick Carlisle said after Nowitzki scored 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting in 27 minutes while surpassing a major milestone in Sunday’s win over the New Orleans Hornets.

Enough left to reach 30,000 points, something accomplished by only five men in NBA history?

“That’s tough,” Nowitzki said. “I don’t know how much time it takes for me to get (5,000 points), but I’m going to be around.”

He certainly isn’t ruling out a run at 30K. Nowitzki has verbally committed to re-signing with the Mavs for two or three more years after his contract expires in the summer of 2014.

If Nowitzki can stay relatively healthy, 30,000 points seems well within his reach. Figure he averages 1,300 points per season for the rest of his career – around 17 per game, figuring he sits out a handful of nights each year – and he can join the 30K club if he sticks around four more seasons.

“Yeah, I mean, it would sound nice, but I don’t know that would be something that would keep me going on one leg at 41 if it’s not fun anymore,” Nowitzki said. “Just to drag it around to get to (30,000), I don’t think that’s what I’m about. If it comes in the next couple of years, that would be great. If not, that’s fine, too. I play to win.”

The way Nowitzki feels now, he’s confident he can contribute to a winning team for at least the next few years. He readily admits he was questioning that midway through the season, after he missed 27 games while recovering from a preseason scope of his right knee and struggled upon his return.

But Nowitzki believes his performance since the All-Star break (18.8 ppg, 50.9 FG%, 44.6 3%) is an indication of what’s to come over the next few years. He’ll have a precautionary MRI on his left knee next week, making sure he doesn’t need to get that one scoped, too, and is already thinking about conditioning during what will literally be the longest summer of his NBA career.

The plan: Put in the work to be in peak form at the beginning of next season.

If Nowitzki can maintain that kind of hunger, why not project him to hit 30,000 points?

“A lot of being successful like this is being true to each individual day,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “I think it’s very hard to look ahead and say, yeah, this guy can play for four or five or six more years. In this league, it’s so competitive and it’s so uncertain, you’ve got to go day to day with it. That’s what Dirk has done for 15 years.

“I think that’s the reason he was able to reach this milestone. That’s the reason he was able to become one of the best ever to play this game. I think it gives him a chance to play for an extended period of time, but he’ll never look ahead.”

A few more notes from the win that finally bumped the Mavs’ back to .500:

1. Carter climbing all-time scorers’ list: Vince Carter will most likely hit a scoring milestone of his own Monday night.

Carter has 22,192 career points after scoring 16 Sunday, putting him four behind Clyde Drexler for 27th in NBA history. Carter has already surpassed Hall of Famers Hal Greer, Larry Bird and Gary Payton this season.

2. Marion’s monster night: It was overshadowed by Nowitzki’s milestone night, but Shawn Marion led the Mavs with 21 points, seven rebounds, six assists and two steals.

In a typical Mavs season, Marion would be peaking just in time for the playoffs. The 14-year veteran has been phenomenal in the last five games, averaging 20.6 points and 8.4 rebounds.

3. Stitches for Wright: Brandan Wright paid a price for his 16-point, 8-of-13 performance. He needed three stitches to close a cut on his left cheek, courtesy of an accidental elbow by New Orleans forward Al-Farouq Aminu.

Wright also caught an elbow from Aminu during a visit to New Orleans Arena last season, suffering a concussion in that case.

“I’ve got to watch out for him next time,” Wright kidded.

Brandan Wright has proven to be a winning piece for the Mavericks this season.

The proof: The Mavs are 18-10 when Wright plays at least 20 minutes. That includes a 7-4 record in games that Dirk Nowitzki missed.

Wright, who was a fringe rotation player for much of the season because of Rick Carlisle’s concerns about his rebounding, averaged 11.8 points on 61.4 percent shooting, 5.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 25 minutes during those 28 games.

Wright’s production and the Mavs’ success with him playing significant minutes raise two questions: 1) Should Carlisle have given him consistent minutes all season? 2) What kind of offer should the Mavs make him as a free agent this summer?

“To me, this is not a time to be analyzing the entire year or the future,” Carlisle told reporters Tuesday. “We need to stay in the now. We need Brandan to do what he does, which is give us activity, give us a slippery body, play above the rim, give us some length defensively with shot blocking and position defense. He’s one important puzzle piece to our collective group.”

We should note our hesitance to criticize Carlisle’s rotation decisions. Call it the Roddy B. effect. Remember when Carlisle was ripped for not playing rookie sensation Rodrigue Beaubois enough? We discovered later that a big part of the reason Beaubois was so successful in a limited role was because Carlisle did a masterful job of picking and choosing the best matchups for him to play.

That very well could be the case as well with the slender Wright, who has struggled recently against the big front lines of the Pacers, Lakers and Jazz. However, there are also examples of Wright playing well against big centers, such as the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan, the Rockets’ Omer Asik and Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins.

Carlisle has at least reached the point of playing Wright every night and determining his minutes based on his performance. That’s a significant step for a player who routinely was a DNP-CD or garbage-time guy during the middle of the season. And it's been a major benefit to the Mavs, who are 12-6 since Wright rejoined the rotation on a permanent basis, with him averaging 12.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 24.3 minutes per game in that span.

Regarding Wright’s worth in free agency, he’s certainly made himself some money in the last month, seizing the opportunity of getting regular minutes again. He’s displayed the athleticism and touch around the basket that made him the eighth overall pick of the 2007 draft. Teams will be concerned about the durability of Wright, whose 59 games played this season are by far a game high, but there tends to be a market for athletic frontcourt players.

Case in point: Ex-Mavs backup center Ian Mahinmi, who signed a four-year, $16 million deal with the Pacers last summer. Considering that Wright is a much better scorer and shot blocker and a comparable rebounder, it’s not too difficult to envision him getting that kind of deal.

Would it be worth it to the Mavs to pay Wright that kind of money? It’s not too steep of a price to pay for a winning piece.

The Dallas Mavericks completed their season sweep with another spectacular offensive outing against the Sacramento Kings.

Shawn Marion (25 points, 12 rebounds) led five Mavs who scored in double figures against the Kings, who allowed four of Dallas’ top five scoring totals this season. Brandan Wright added 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting off the bench.

The Mavs shot 51.1 percent from the floor and had 30 assists with only nine turnovers. Dallas seized the lead for good while putting up 41 points in the second quarter, the Mavs’ second highest-scoring quarter of the season.

The Kings, who got big nights from guards Tyreke Evans (26 points, nine rebounds, six assists) and Isaiah Thomas (29 points), trimmed Dallas’ lead to four with a run early in the fourth quarter. The Mavs responded with a 9-0 run in which guards Darren Collison (18 points, eight assists) and O.J. Mayo (13 points, six assists) accounted for every point.

Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins, a talented but troubled young center whom the Mavs have interest in acquiring, played only nine minutes due to a recent dispute with Kings coach Keith Smart.

What it means: The Mavs made sure this wouldn’t be a winless road trip, snapping a two-game losing streak. Dallas improved to 37-39, keeping them three games behind the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers, pending the outcome of L.A.’s late game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Play of the game: Collison penetrated, drew three defenders and kicked the ball out to Dirk Nowitzki near the top of the 3-point arc with the clocking ticking down at the end of the first half. Nowitzki drilled the buzzer-beating 3 to stretch the Mavs’ lead to six at the break.

Stat of the game: His second assist of the game gave Vince Carter 4,000 for his career. That made him the 15th player in NBA history with at least 22,000 points, 5,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. The other members of that exclusive club: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, Alex English, Kevin Garnett, Jerry West, Paul Pierce, Charles Barkley, Ray Allen and Clyde Drexler.

DENVER -- The miserable feeling the Dallas Mavericks had in the mile-high altitude is far too familiar.

Add this to the long list of games the Mavs figured out how to lose.

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Rick Carlisle joins Galloway & Company to discuss changing up his starting lineup, Brittney Griner possibly playing for the Mavericks and much more. Listen

In this instance, the Mavs put themselves into position to pull off a huge upset only to fail to finish the job. The Denver Nuggets led for a grand total of 2.8 seconds in the second half Thursday night and walked out of the Pepsi Center with their 19th consecutive home win.

After leading by as many as eight points early in the fourth quarter, the Mavs were clinging to a one-point lead in the final minute. At that point, the Mavs had a well-rounded meltdown.

Poor offensive execution? Check. Poor spacing helped cause a Dirk Nowitzki turnover with 19.9 seconds remaining, and rarely used reserve Anthony Morrow, of all people, ended up jacking up a wanna-be game-winning shot at the buzzer, only to have the 25-footer swatted by Corey Brewer.

Awful rebounding? Check. The Nuggets extended their last possession with two offensive rebounds, giving Denver 18 offensive boards for the game. Allowing Brewer to come from above the top of the key to grab a missed free throw was especially costly -- and inexcusable -- for the Mavs.

Terrible defense? Check. Andre Iguodala cruised to the rim after crossing over Vince Carter en route to the game-winning layup.

“We’ve got to win that game,” said Mavs center Brandan Wright, who had a team-high 16 points but went scoreless in the second half. “This is a bad situation. It’s been the story of our season. This is terrible, the worst loss we’ve had all year. We had it and we just fumbled it away.”

The worst loss all year? That’s debatable for the 36-39 Mavs.

The Mavs have been on the wrong end of too many blowouts, but it’s games such as this that will bother them while they’re watching the playoffs from the couch. As Carter said, he doesn’t have enough fingers to count how many times the Mavs have found ways to lose games they should have won.

“There’s gotta be 20 of those games we lost,” said Nowitzki, who was held to 13 points and went scoreless in the fourth quarter. “It stings just as much as all the rest of them. The amount of games we feel like we gave away is tough. This is another one we’ve got to have -- multiple chances to win, basically one rebound to seal it, one big basket. It’s tough.

“It’s tough, but we haven’t shown all season that on the road consistently we can win those games.”

Shawn Marion described the Mavs’ offense as “going from sugar to s---” in the fourth quarter, during which the Mavs scored only 17 points on 7-of-19 shooting. But it’s Denver’s last, long offensive possession that will make the flight to Sacramento so miserable.

After Brewer’s steal, the Nuggets botched a transition opportunity, resulting in Wilson Chandler missing a 4-footer in traffic. Denver forward Kenneth Faried fought for his 19th rebound of the night and got fouled. The Mavs still led by one after Faried missed both of his free throws, but Brewer outhustled everybody to the loose ball to give the Nuggets one last chance.

“We didn’t execute well offensively, and I’ll take responsibility for that,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “But we’ve just got to get a rebound.”

After a timeout, Iguodala made the Mavs pay for failing to get that one rebound. Iguodala got the ball on the right wing, started to drive toward the baseline, left Carter flat-footed with a crossover, cruised through the middle of the defense and laid in the game winner with his left hand.

“We’ve got to make Iguodala earn that,” Carter said. “We can’t just let him go down the middle of our defense and get a layup. We’ve got to put him on the floor, foul him, something.”

Added Nowitzki, who noted that he could have hacked Iguodala: “To give up a game-winning layup is too easy.”

If the Mavs get that one rebound, nobody cares that the Dallas offense was dreadful down the stretch. The Mavs would have been celebrating their most surprising win of the season en route to Sacramento.

“One freakin’ stop,” Carter said, “and we’re having a different conversation.”

Instead, it was the same conversation the Mavs have had so many times during this disappointing season.

DENVER – Coach Rick Carlisle made a reference to the Mavericks’ youth after Tuesday’s lopsided loss in a must-win game against the Lakers.

“We have some inexperienced guys who haven’t been here before, so this is a valuable learning experience for them,” Carlisle said. “But it has a price.”

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Rick Carlisle joins Galloway & Company to discuss changing up his starting lineup, Brittney Griner possibly playing for the Mavericks and much more. Listen

There are two problems with that statement.

The first is that the vast majority of the Mavs are playoff tested. Yes, a pair of 25-year-old guards play major minutes. But Darren Collison has 16 games of playoff experience, having helped the Pacers advance to the second round and put up a fight against the Miami Heat last season. And O.J. Mayo has 20 games of playoff experience, serving as the sixth man on a Memphis team that pushed the Oklahoma City Thunder to seven games in the West semifinals two years ago.

The only Mavs in the rotation who don’t have a healthy dose of playoff experience are rookie Jae Crowder and Brandan Wright, who watched all but 27 minutes in last season’s first-round sweep by OKC.

Crowder played a productive 16 minutes against the Lakers, scoring seven points on 3-of-3 shooting and grabbing three rebounds. Wright (plus-2 in 18 minutes) was the only Mav with a positive plus-minus in that game. In other words, they weren’t the reason the Mavs got blown out in such a big game.

The other issue with the statement is that the Mavs might not benefit from any learning experience for most of their young players. Collison, Mayo and Wright can all be free agents, making them part of the majority on the Mavs’ roster.

It’s highly unlikely that Collison returns to Dallas. He’s made it clear that he considers himself a starting point guard. Carlisle has made it clear that he sees Collison as a backup.

Mayo has a player option for $4.2 million next season, but it’s all but a certainty that he’ll test the market again this summer. What are the Mavs willing to pay to keep Mayo?

The same question applies to Wright, whose recent performances might have put him in position to get an offer similar to the one former Mavs backup center Ian Mahinmi signed with the Pacers (four years, $16 million).

Any growing pains aren’t much of a consolation prize for the Mavs.

LOS ANGELES -- Chris Kaman will be the Mavericks' third center in three games.

Kaman will match up with the Lakers' Dwight Howard, making this the 23rd starting lineup the Mavs have used this season.

It's the 7-foot veteran's first start since March 20, when Brooklyn big man Brook Lopez scored a season-high 38 points in a Mavs loss.

Brandan Wright has been the Mavs' starting center most games recently, but the slight 6-foot-10 Wright has trouble dealing with powerful big men such as Howard. Elton Brand started Saturday's win against the Bulls, a game in which Wright had 17 points and 13 rebounds off the bench and Kaman did not play due to a coach's decision.

DALLAS – Dirk Nowitzki declared recently that the playoffs have essentially already begun for the Dallas Mavericks.

The big German certainly has looked like postseason Dirk recently.

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There were a couple of performances last week that were reminiscent of the 2011 title run, when Nowitzki was an efficient scoring machine and clutch executioner. First, he lit the Los Angeles Clippers up for 33 points, outscoring the West contender in overtime. He followed that up a few days later by dropping 35 on the Chicago Bulls, capping the Mavs’ miraculous comeback with eight points in the final 54 seconds, including the game-winner.

Clearly, this is a case of fuel being poured on the competitive fire of a legend who is a member of the exclusive, four-man 25-point, 10-rebound career postseason club, right?

Actually, Dirk offers a much simpler explanation for his recent return to Hall of Fame form: He’s fully healthy and finally feels like himself again.

“Honestly, it’s just me starting to feel better again,” Nowitzki said. “I was struggling early. Honestly, in a normal season, I’d just be hitting my midseason form, but unfortunately this season I missed (29) games. So this season is already over.

“Instead of me playing good ball in January, February, March right now, the season is unfortunately over. I’m just feeling good again.”

This is one of the instances where the German-to-English translation isn’t entirely accurate. Nowitzki didn’t mean to suggest that Dallas is done fighting when he said the season is already over. He just meant that the regular season is nearly finished.

As Nowitzki said after the Mavs were humiliated in Houston in early March – and most of us considered the thought of Dallas extending its dozen-year postseason streak to be pure fantasy – he’s never given up on anything in his career. He’s darn sure not about to throw in the towel when the Mavs are a win away from shaving and a game and a half back of the West’s final playoff spot with a huge road game against the Los Angeles Lakers next on the schedule.

It’s far from ideal that the Mavs are in position to have to fight for a playoff berth. However, it’s a heck of a lot better than the way things looked for the Mavs after Nowitzki’s extended absence while recovering from preseason knee surgery and his miserable performance after his return.

“It’s obviously fun to always play for something,” Nowitzki said. “If we played for the 12th seed right now, it’d probably be a little different, but this way there’s still something to play for. We’re working every day for it. That’s obviously more fun."

O.J. Mayo’s perspective from the neighboring locker: “You see him really champing at the bit to get to that eighth spot, doing everything in his will to keep us in striking distance. We’ve got to do whatever we’ve got to do to give him some help.”

It’s not as if Nowitzki’s offensive explosions last week came out of nowhere. He’s one of the primary reasons the Mavs have a puncher’s chance of making the playoffs.

There were flashes of the old Dirk in February, such as his 30-point, 13-rebound showing in a losing effort against the Lakers.

March was by far Nowitzki’s best month of the season, as he averaged 20.0 points while making 53.3 percent of his shots from the floor, including 48.3 percent from 3-point range. Not coincidentally, the Mavs went 11-5 to climb back into the bottom of the West playoff picture.

It’s a far cry from Dirk’s dreadful December, when he rushed back despite his rehab not going well and scored a total of 30 points on 32.4 percent shooting in his first four games, all losses.

“It’s just I feel night and day difference since I came back,” Nowitzki said. “I was dragging. Every step, it wasn’t fun running up and down, and that’s obviously a problem. But I like running again, I like moving, I like getting into the shot, bending my knees. It’s a matter of feeling good again and trying to help the team win.

“It’s sad when you’re out there and your mind wants to make moves in December and January and your body just doesn’t respond right. When you can’t do those moves, that’s just sad. I’m just happy that when my mind sees something now in a split second … and my body’s able to respond and do that move.”

Nowitzki has been an efficient scorer since the All-Star break. However, he’s only recently gotten back to being the no-doubt closer who demands the ball during crunch time and delivers.

That’s proof that he’s broken free of the physical and mental burdens that slowed him for much of this season.

“He’s been battling injuries and people have been saying he’s not the same or whatever,” Brandan Wright said. “But he’s definitely back.”

Too late or just in time?

DALLAS – Coach Rick Carlisle couldn’t stop raving about one of his starters after Saturday’s stunning comeback win over the Chicago Bulls.

No, it wasn’t Dirk Nowitzki, the dude who scored eight of his season-high-tying 35 points in the final 54 seconds, including the game-winning bucket.

Carlisle kept gushing about how proud he was of O.J. Mayo, the guy who finished the game with four points on 1-of-13 shooting.

“Here’s a guy who is banged up, and I just thought he was totally engaged in the game and did a lot of things even though he didn’t shoot the ball well,” Carlisle said. “If we’re going to get where we want to get in the next nine games, the example that he set out there today is really important.

“That’s just grit and guts – being totally in and totally committed.”

Mayo is playing through the pain of a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder, an injury suffered on a hustle play late in Tuesday’s win over the Clippers and diagnosed by an MRI on Friday. He’s the only Maverick who has played in every game this season.

Mayo played with a harness protecting the shoulder during Thursday’s loss to the Pacers but ditched the restrictive device after the first quarter Saturday afternoon.

“I just said, to heck with it, and just tried to play without it,” said Mayo, whose only bucket was a big one, a driving layup to trim the deficit to six with 1:44 remaining. “If your shot is broke, you at least want to shoot it comfortably. You want to be comfortable shooting a broke shot. You don’t want to be uncomfortable shooting a broke shot.

“But, hey, it was a great win, a win we needed. I’ll get in the gym tomorrow and try to fix that break in my shot and keep playing hard.”

Easter Sunday is officially a day off for the Mavs, but Mayo has work to do.

There’s not much Mayo or the Mavs’ medical staff can do to ease the pain in his shoulder before Tuesday’s critical game against the Lakers.

“It is what it is,” Mayo said. “You’ve got to deal with it. I can still walk, run and communicate out there, so whatever it takes to help us win.”

Mayo managed to help the Mavs win despite an awful shooting outing Saturday, which is why his coach kept praising him.

A few more notes from the Mavs’ thrilling comeback win:

1. Wright big off bench: Brandan Wright’s streak of starting ended after four games, with Elton Brand replacing him in the lineup. Wright responded with his first double-double in a Dallas uniform.

Wright scored 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting and grabbed a career-high-tying 13 rebounds in 23 minutes against the Bulls.

“No matter who starts, when you get an opportunity to play your minutes, just play them to the best of your ability,” Wright said. “That’s what it’s been about the whole year. I know it’s been a revolving door at the center position. We know what to do when we get in the game.”

Wright’s last double-double came on April 1, 2011, when his New Jersey Nets lost to the Philadelphia 76ers. Wright noted that the lottery-bound Nets were simply playing out the string at that point.

“This one means much more,” Wright said. “We’re playing for something.”

Wright’s emergence is part of the reason the Mavs are playing for something. After being in and out of the rotation all season, Wright averaged 11.6 points and 6.1 rebounds in 24.4 minutes per game in March, when the Mavs went 11-5.

2. ‘Like a video game’: It appeared early in the fourth quarter that Nate Robinson was going to hog the headlines after this game.

Chicago’s backup point guard caught fire, going on a personal 11-2 run after the Mavs and Bulls entered the fourth quarter tied. Then Robinson drilled a 32-footer, pulling up from near the midcourt logo after tracking down a loose ball with the shot clock ticking down, giving him 14 of his 25 points in span of six minutes.

“He was so on fire that it was almost like a video game,” said Nowitzki, who went into video-game mode down the stretch.

Robinson was 9-of-16 from the floor and 7-of-7 from 3-point range, but his last bucket was that 32-footer. He missed his last two shots, including a jumper at the buzzer that could have sent the game into overtime.

Give Mike James a lot of the credit for cooling off Robinson.

“My teammates looked at me and said, ‘Look, stop asking for help on that screen. Turn that water hose off,’” James said.

3. Rally cry: The Mavs get a day off before leaving for a huge four-game road trip. That trip begins with a must-win game Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Lakers before a Thursday date in Denver against the Nuggets and their West-best 33-3 home record.

“Regardless of who the opponents are coming up, it’s just important that we continue to fight and battle and stick together,” Carlisle said. “That’s the rally cry.”

DALLAS -- The Mavericks' best banger is in the starting lineup against the Bulls.

Elton Brand will start at center instead of Brandan Wright.

That's clearly an attempt by Rick Carlisle to prevent the Mavs from being overpowered by Eastern Conference bullies for the second consecutive game. The Pacers had a 55-34 rebounding edge in Thursday night's rout at the AAC, and the Bulls play a similarly physical style.

The slender, 6-foot-10 Wright started the last four games and has been a major factor in the Mavs' March success (10-5 record). However, he was a nonfactor against Indiana, finishing with four points and three rebounds in 22 minutes. Brand had five points and a team-high eight rebounds in 21 minutes against the Pacers.

This is the Mavs' 22nd starting lineup of the season.

A dominant stretch of seven-plus minutes made the difference in what had been a back-and-forth game.

The Dallas Mavericks roared off on a tiebreaking 20-2 run that began midway through the third quarter.

Point guard Mike James had seven of his season-high 19 points during the spurt, highlighting his highest scoring game in four years. Vince Carter, another one of the seven Mavs who scored in double figures, added six of his 15 points during the game-changing stretch.

But Dallas’ defense was the most remarkable thing about the run. The Jazz were 1-of-11 from the floor with five turnovers, while the Mavs seized control of the game.

That run could pay dividends the rest of the homestand, which wraps up with three games against playoff teams next week. It allowed coach Rick Carlisle to rest Dirk Nowitzki for the entire fourth quarter. Nowitzki finished with 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting in 27 minutes.

The Utah Jazz dominated garbage time -- going on a 21-7 run to pull within three points with 7.6 seconds remaining -- to make the game look much closer than it was.

It appeared early on that Utah center Al Jefferson might be too much for the Mavs. He had 11 points in the first quarter, but he scored only two buckets the rest of the game, finishing with 15 points. The physical defense of Elton Brand (10 points, five rebounds in 17 minutes) was a major factor in cooling off Jefferson.

What it means: The Mavs pulled even with the Jazz at 34-36. They’re tied for ninth place in the Western Conference standings, but Utah holds the tiebreaker due to the Jazz’s two home wins over Dallas earlier this season. The Mavs have won eight of their past 11 games and are only two games behind the eighth-place Los Angeles Lakers.

Play of the game: Brandan Wright had only a few buckets, but one of them was a beauty. After Carter missed a wild fadeaway in the lane, Wright soared over Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors for a one-hand putback slam in the first quarter.

Stat of the night: The Mavs are 17-3 when they shoot at least 50 percent from the floor this season. They made 54.3 percent of their field goal attempts Sunday.

DALLAS – The Mavericks figured out a way to get many more touches for one of the NBA’s most efficient scoring big guys, and benefited greatly from it.

Oh, and Dirk Nowitzki got a lot more looks, too.

With all due respect to Dirk -– and apologies to Jason Terry, whose American Airlines Center return was ruined -– this was Brandan Wright’s night.

Wright got a spot start Friday night and responded by making a major impact in the Mavs’ 104-94 win over the Boston Celtics, leading all scorers with a season-high 23 points and grabbing a season-high-matching eight rebounds.

Meanwhile, Nowitzki got his most shots in a week, scoring 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting.

It’s a mutually beneficial frontcourt pairing on the offensive end. There’s no question that Wright, who attempted a career-high 16 shots from the floor and made all but two of his 10 buckets from within five feet of the hoop, gets great looks because of the attention defenses must pay Nowitzki on the perimeter. And Wright’s success around and above the rim creates more space for Dirk to work in the midrange.

“We play well off each other,” Nowitzki said. “We complement each other pretty well.”

Added Wright, whose 62.2 field goal percentage would rank third in the league if he had enough attempts to qualify: “[Our games] fit perfect together. He’s working the 15-20-foot range and I can work inside of that. When his man is hugging up on him and they’re cheating over with my guy, I can get around the rim and make plays.”

It’s a combination that has had tremendous success in a small sample size this season. The Nowitzki-Wright duo is tied for the second-best plus-minus (plus-87) among Dallas duos, behind only Nowitzki and Vince Carter.

However, coach Rick Carlisle has played Wright with Nowitzki for only 213 minutes this season, according to the NBA’s stats. By comparison, Nowitzki has been paired with Elton Brand for 508 minutes (minus-3), Chris Kaman for 347 minutes (minus-63) and even rookie Bernard James for 128 minutes (minus-7).

This was only the second time this season Wright and Nowitzki started together. The other occurrence was a win over the Houston Rockets earlier this month.

Why not play Wright and Nowitzki together more often? Carlisle is concerned about the slight, 6-foot-10, 210-pound Wright, whose rebounding problems made him a fringe rotation player for much of the season, being overpowered by traditional centers while playing next to Nowitzki.

That wasn’t a concern against the Celtics, who start Kevin Garnett at center and play a lot of smallball.

“It’s his kind of game because there was a lot of small guys out there,” Carlisle said of Wright, who is averaging 12.3 points and 5.9 rebounds in 24.3 minutes per game in March. “That was the reason we started him. He navigates well in an athletic game without a lot of bruisers in it. He played huge for us.”

Added Nowitzki: “When he uses his athleticism, he’s a force for us. This was a game that was right up his alley.”

Those aren’t exactly votes of confidence that Wright can have similar success Sunday against the Utah Jazz’s four-man big rotation, headlined by 6-foot-10, 265-pound Al Jefferson. It’s extremely unlikely that Brand, the Mavs’ best banger, will get a DNP-CD for the second straight game and second time this season.

Wright, however, makes a case that he can be effective against the bruising bigs.

“We’ve got to run,” Wright said. “That’s what we’ve got to do. We don’t want to slow it down with those guys and get into a half-court type of game.

“We can expose those guys. We feel like we can attack them. When we get in those type of grinding games, that’s just not our strength as a team, period. If we can get up and down, we’ll be in good shape.”

With the way Wright’s been rolling, maybe he ought to get a chance to prove himself right.

 

How it happened: The Dallas Mavericks played drastically better defense than in their previous two games and got the ball in the hands of their hot frontcourt duo.

After allowing 113 points in each of the past two games, the Mavs held the Celtics to 41.6 percent shooting. With the way that Dirk Nowitzki and Brandan Wright were working on the offensive end, the Mavs managed to beat a playoff-caliber Boston team.

Nowitzki, whose low shot totals in recent games had been an alarming trend, scored 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting. Wright, a surprise starter at center, scored a season-high 23 points on 11-of-16 shooting.

The different styles of Nowitzki and Wright complemented each other well. Nowitzki, as has been the case for years, did most of his damage with midrange jumpers. The majority of Wright’s buckets came around -– and over -– the rim.

Shawn Marion made his presence felt in his return after missing eight games due to a strained left calf. He posted a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

O.J. Mayo added 10 points and nine assists, hitting a dagger 3 with 1:21 remaining.

Jason Terry, Nowitzki’s scoring sidekick for eight seasons before signing with the Celtics last summer, was a nonfactor in his return to the American Airlines Center. Terry, who received a standing ovation when he checked into the game in the first quarter, scored only eight points on 3-of-9 shooting.

What it means: The Mavs avoided losing consecutive games for the first time this month. Dallas (33-36) is 8-4 in March, keeping its slim playoff hopes alive. The Mavs are 2½ games out of eighth place in the West standings after the Los Angeles Lakers’ late loss to the Washington Wizards. The Celtics (36-32) fell to seventh in the East, a half-game behind the Chicago Bulls.

Play of the game: Vince Carter threw down an electrifying tomahawk dunk off a backdoor cut in the third quarter. After Carter cut and caught a bounce pass from Chris Kaman, he vaulted off two feet, cocked the ball back and threw it down to give the Mavs a 10-point lead.

Stat of the night: The Mavs never trailed in a game for just the second time this season. The other was a Jan. 14 home win against the Minnesota Timberwolves.