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The Mavericks aren’t in the playoffs for the first time since 2000, so we have to find something to fill the time this spring. Might as well keep up with the players from the Mavs’ title team who are scattered throughout the postseason. We’ll have daily updates as long as Mavs championship alums are still alive in the playoffs.

Caron Butler: On a night that Chris Paul desperately needed a scoring sidekick in the starting lineup, Butler had five points on 2-of-5 shooting in 19 minutes. He had two rebounds, no assists and a turnover. His plus-minus (minus-14) was the Clippers' worst in a home loss to the Grizzlies that gave Memphis a 3-2 series lead.

Corey Brewer: The Nuggets stayed alive with a win over the Warriors despite Brewer's off night. He was 1-of-11 from the floor (0-of-5 from 3-point range) during his four-point performance. He did come up with three steals, helping Denver force 17 turnovers.

The Mavericks aren’t in the playoffs for the first time since 2000, so we have to find something to fill the time this spring. Might as well keep up with the players from the Mavs’ title team who are scattered throughout the postseason. We’ll have daily updates as long as Mavs championship alums are still alive in the playoffs.

Jason Kidd: This was classic late-career Kidd. He didn’t post a spectacular line (eight points, five rebounds, three assists, three steals in 35 minutes), but he was a significant force during closing time in the Knicks’ win over Boston.

All three of his steals came in the final five minutes. On the first steal, the 40-year-old Kidd deflected a pass and outhustled 26-year-old Jeff Green by diving for a loose ball to spark a fast break. With 2:20 remaining and New York up five, Kidd diagnosed a play that’s a Celtics staple and helped from the weak side to strip Green under the basket. Kidd’s strip of Kevin Garnett on a mismatched post-up in the final minute essentially sealed the win.

“He beats everyone with his brain,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said at his postgame press conference. “If you think quicker than a guy can move, you’re still quicker. That’s why he’s there first, because he thought what the guy was going to do before he did it. He’s just a valuable player to have on a basketball team.”

Tyson Chandler: The fiery big man was a nonfactor in Game 1 against the Celtics after missing 16 of the Knicks’ final 20 regular-season games due to a neck injury. He had five rebounds and one steal in 20 scoreless minutes, and the Knicks opted to play Kenyon Martin at center instead of Chandler in crunch time.

"I knew I would be rusty. I knew I would be a little winded. I knew at some point my legs would get the best of me," Chandler said, according to ESPNNewYork.com. "I just wanted to be out there with my team."

Chandler said his neck didn’t bother him. He acknowledged that conditioning was a factor.

“I should obviously be much better in Game 2,” he said.

Jason Terry: For the first time in his career, Terry failed to score a point in a playoff game.

JET was 0-of-5 from the floor in 20 minutes. His only contributions to the Celtics were three rebounds and one steal. Meanwhile, Boston’s bench was outscored by a 33-4 margin.

"You don't get too high or down too low," Terry said, according to ESPNBoston.com. "It's a long series. If I bet on myself, I know how this is going to end up. I'm going to keep grinding, do the things necessary to win."

Corey Brewer: Brewer scored 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting in 21 minutes during Denver’s Game 1 win over the Warriors. He didn’t have any rebounds, assists, steals or blocks.

Caron Butler: Butler, who was sidelined by a serious knee injury during the Mavs’ title run, had a terrific Game 1 to help the Clippers blow out the Grizzlies. Butler scored 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds and had a block and a steal in 24 minutes.

DALLAS – The O.J. Mayo clutch roller coaster can be one heck of a wild ride.

The Mavs survived the crazy twists and turns and highs and lows Friday night.

Start with Mayo drilling a tie-breaking 3-pointer from the right wing with 34.1 seconds remaining in regulation. If that leads holds up, Mayo is a relative hero.

Oh, but then that iffy basketball IQ owner Mark Cuban was discussing in team-wide terms popped up with less than 10 seconds on the clock. Mayo allowed Denver’s Andre Miller to strip the ball from behind, leading to an uncontested, game-tying layup by Corey Brewer with 3.9 seconds left.

Mayo had his chance to win it at the buzzer, driving down the lane for a finger roll … that rolled right off the rim.

“You’ve just got to understand that there’s still more game left,” Mayo said. “You can’t sit there and dwell on turning the ball over. Obviously, I didn’t mean to do it, but it happened, they got a layup and took the game into overtime.”

O.J. made it all good in OT.

Mayo scored the Mavs’ first two buckets of the extra frame, including a 3-pointer that gave them the lead for good with 2:40 to go. That put the finishing touches on his first 20-point performance in more than a month, prompting Dirk Nowitzki to declare that he was “proud” of Mayo.

“That’s what you look for with guys,” coach Rick Carlisle said. “Mistakes are going to happen, but who can make a mistake and then bounce right back and hit two or three shots in overtime, get a key deflection and just stay in it?

“That’s one of the things he’s learned; he’s learned about how to stick with it and how to keep going. I was really happy for him because it was a rough 10 seconds there at the end.”

A few more notes from the feisty Mavs’ win:

1. Dirk’s 25K delayed: Nowitzki scored 22 points, giving him 24,990 for his career. That left him thinking about Sunday’s win in Portland, when he scored only six points and didn’t play in the fourth quarter due to a minor ankle injury.

“Tonight would have been the night,” Nowitzki said. “Obviously, it would have been nicer to do it at home, but it is what it is. I think it’s a great milestone and eventually I’m going to get it.

“It’ll be a fun milestone to get, but more important to me is to finish the season strong, get a couple of wins and hopefully finish the season above .500.”

2. Collison’s closing touch: How confident were the Mavs when Darren Collison stepped to the line with 1.9 seconds left in overtime? Probably 100 percent.

That’s Collison’s free throw percentage in the final 30 seconds of games when the margin is within three points. He’s 15-of-15 in those situations, including 13-of-13 in the final 10 seconds under similar circumstances.

3. Brand back: Off-the-bench big man Elton Brand returned after missing the previous four games with a sore right calf. He had two points, four rebounds and two blocks in 14 minutes.

DALLAS -- All due respect to Dirk Nowitzki, but he’s not the Mavericks veteran owner Mark Cuban is most sympathetic toward after the team failed to qualify for the playoffs.

Cuban feels worse for Vince Carter, who signed a three-year deal worth a little more than $9 million with the then-defending champions because he desperately wanted a chance to compete for a championship near the end of his potential Hall of Fame career. The 36-year-old Carter has been a tremendous bargain for the Mavs, although he’ll enter the last season of his contract with a grand total of zero playoff wins in Dallas.

“Vince is a warrior,” Cuban said before Friday’s game. “All these things I’ve heard in the past about him being soft and not playing hard, f--- that. That dude comes out to deliver every f---ing night.”

Case in point: Carter’s spectacular outing in Dallas’ 108-105 overtime win over the Denver Nuggets. In the Mavs’ first game after being eliminated from playoff contention, Carter put up 22 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, two blocked shots and a steal in 34 max-effort minutes.

It was a performance that epitomized the pride and professionalism that Carter, an eight-time All-Star who had a bad rap for being a bit of a prima donna before signing with the Mavs, has consistently displayed during his time in Dallas.

It’s the kind of performance that has Cuban convinced that Carter, whose .500 beard has several gray strands, is a keeper even after his contract expires next summer.

“He’s just a first-class guy who busts his ass every f---ing game," Cuban said. "You never look at Vince and say he’s taking a play off. He’s taking charges. ... You guys talk about doing it for Dirk; doing it for Vince is just as important.

“He just wants to compete and win, period, end of story. All the s--- I heard from the past, I don’t know where that came from. I’m proud that he’s on the Mavericks. The guy lays it out every time. I can’t put it any other way. He’s one of those guys I want to retire here.”

Carter, who is averaging 13.3 points per game and playing outstanding defense in his first season as a sixth man, broke into a big smile after being informed of Cuban’s comments, particularly the part about signing him to another contract.

“That’s why he’s my guy,” Carter said, laughing. “That’s why he’s my guy. I worked my butt off this summer for a lot of reasons, just to prove that I’m still capable at this tender age, and I think he appreciates that. He’s a fiery guy, very passionate about the game, as we all know. That’s what he looks for.

“Just coming in and seeing what he’s all about, he’s a great owner to work for, just for the simple fact that he just wants to win. That’s kind of how I approach the game. I just want to win. For the people who don’t know me or didn’t know me before, I think now they’re starting to understand.

“Yeah, I can put the ball in the basket or whatever, but I just want to win and see my team succeed. It’s just great that it’s appreciated by the top dog.”

When he came to Dallas, fresh off playing for three teams in three seasons, Carter had a lot to prove. He wanted to show he still had a lot of game at his advanced age, and he wanted to eliminate any doubt that winning was his top priority.

Carter promised to do whatever the Mavs needed him to do to help them win, regardless of position or role. He’s done that, accepting the sixth-man job and playing the majority of his minutes at small forward.

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He promised to play as hard as possible every minute he was on the floor. He’s done that, as evidenced by his leading the team in charges drawn by a wide margin.

“I’ve prided myself on being one of the older guys that wanted to play every game possible and go harder than everybody out there,” Carter said. “They do go hard, but for me, I just want to compete at the same level as the younger guys and set the example. We want that to be the way of life around here.”

Carter has more than held up his end of the bargain for the past two seasons, disappointing as they’ve been from a team standpoint.

As far as Cuban is concerned, Carter has a bright future around here.

How it happened: Playing for nothing but pride, the Mavericks pulled out a down-to-the-wire win over the playoff-bound Nuggets.

a href="http://espn.go.com/nba/player/_/id/3450/oj-mayo">O.J. Mayo hit a tie-breaking 3 with 34.1 seconds remaining in regulation, but he played a major role in the Nuggets' getting a shot at overtime.

Andre Miller stripped Mayo near midcourt and dished to Corey Brewer for the layup to even the score with 3.9 seconds to go. On the ensuing possession, Mayo drove down the lane but missed an open finger roll at the buzzer.

Mayo redeemed himself with five points in overtime, including a 3 that gave the Mavs the lead for good with 2:40 remaining. He finished with 20 points, the first time he's scored that many since March 8.

Darren Collison hit a couple of clutch free throws with 1.9 ticks on the clock. Andre Iguodala, who hit the game-winning layup against Dallas last week in Denver, missed a contested 30-footer at the buzzer to seal the win for the Mavs.

The Mavs got magnificent performances from the veteran trio that is the core of this team currently and for the immediate future. Vince Carter (22 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists) and Dirk Nowitzki (22 points, 10 rebounds) had double-doubles, and Shawn Marion added 15 points and eight rebounds.

What it means: The Mavs (39-40) are back to within a win of getting rid of those .500 beards. Their post-playoff-elimination goal of finishing the season with a winning record is still alive. The Nuggets (54-25) are tied with the Memphis Grizzlies in the fight for the West’s third seed, with the loser destined to drop to No. 5 behind the Pacific Division champion Los Angeles Clippers.

Play of the game: Carter drew two Denver defenders on a fast break and lobbed the ball up to Brandan Wright, who soared high above the rim to finish with two hands. That North Carolina connection gave the Mavs a 69-63 with a little less than four minutes remaining in the third quarter.

Stat of the night: Nowitzki is 10 points shy of 25,000 for his career. He’ll be the 17th player in NBA history to hit that milestone.

A fistful of statistical dribbles to set up the Mavericks home date with Denver on Friday night:

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As badly as he was hoping to shave late Wednesday night -- only to be foiled by what he described as a “terrible, terrible” loss to Phoenix -- Dirk Nowitzki is playing for something else Friday night: He’s 32 points shy of 25,000 for his career. When he gets there, Dirk will be the 17th member of the 25,000-point club.

Denver has officially supplanted the Mavs as the team with the league's second-longest active playoff streak. This season marks the Nuggets’ 10th straight in the postseason, behind only San Antonio’s 16 in a row.

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The Nuggets, however, have only advanced past the first round once in those previous nine trips to the playoffs. In 2009, Denver made it to the Western Conference finals, beating Dallas in five games in the second round along with way.

Denver arrives in town having become just the second team in history to sweep all three teams from Texas on the same homestand. Phoenix did it in November 2000, and the Nuggets beat Dallas, Houston and San Antonio -- in that order -- earlier this month.

Denver’s JaVale McGee shoots 50.5 percent from the field at home and a whopping 62.6 percent on the road. That’s the league’s biggest such discrepancy, with Mavs alumnus Jason Terry suffering from the opposite sort of gap at 48.7 percent from the field at home in Boston and 37.7 percent on the road.

Some Mavs numbers of note this week entering the final five games of the regular season:

12: If the Mavericks can’t buck the overwhelming odds against them to sneak into the playoffs and extend their run of 12 consecutive trips to the postseason, Denver will supplant Dallas as the No. 2 team on that list with a streak of 10 consecutive playoff seasons. The Nuggets, of course, visit American Airlines Center on Friday night. (Southwest Division champion San Antonio will make its 16th straight postseason appearance this spring.)

3: With his old friends from Phoenix in town, Shawn Marion will be trying Wednesday night to reach the 20-point plateau for the third consecutive game, something he hasn’t managed since February 2007. Marion has also posted two 25-and-10 games in his last 19 appearances for the Mavs, after the 34-year-old crafted just two such games in his first 260 regular-season games in Dallas.

0: One of the many areas that cost the Mavericks this season has been their total inability to beat elite teams on the road. They’re 0-12 this season in road games against teams with records of .600 or better.

6: Dirk Nowitzki's six single-digit scoring games in 2012-13 are his most in any one season, not counting his rookie season. Nowitzki has averaged just 11.5 points on 40.9-percent shooting in Dallas’ past four games.

10: The Mavericks’ highest position in ESPN.com’s weekly NBA Power Rankings was No. 10 … but that was way back in the preseason edition of the rankings on Sept. 28. They haven’t been higher than No. 15 since Week 3 of the regular season began Nov. 19.

DENVER – What happened to one of the great closers in NBA history during the fourth quarter of Thursday’s down-to-the-wire loss?

Dirk Nowitzki essentially disappeared on the offensive end in the final dozen minutes.

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Nowitzki didn’t score a single point in the final frame of the 95-94 loss to the Nuggets. He attempted only two shots in the quarter. His biggest impact play was a turnover with 19.9 seconds left.

What did the Nuggets do to shut down Dirk?

“Just front me in the post,” said Nowitzki, who finished the game with 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting. “I did have one catch down there and shot a fadeaway. I should have made a stronger move than that. Other than that, just front me, backside help. That was really about it.”

Not coincidentally, the Mavs’ offense was miserable in the fourth quarter, scoring only 17 points on 7-of-19 shooting.

Nowitzki got one really good look … and somehow airballed a straightway 3 with 10:33 remaining. He didn’t get another shot until his failed fadeaway with 46.8 seconds to go.

Coach Rick Carlisle tried to give Dirk a chance to deliver the dagger, but that turned into disaster. With the Mavs clinging to a one-point lead, Dallas ran an isolation play for Nowitzki near the top of the key, but ex-Mav Corey Brewer swiped the ball when Nowitzki made a spin move.

“I thought actually I could quick dribble it and spin before Brewer gets the ball,” Nowitzki said. “I saw him right there, but as soon as I put it down, he’s so quick. That’s what he does. He dove in there and got his hands on it. At that point, probably the wrong move. It was so clogged, the only thing I had was just the spot-up shot. I probably should have just shot over him.”

It was clogged because the Mavs had poor spacing on the play. Instead of overloading one side to give Dirk room to work, the Mavs had two players on each side of the court.

“That’s on me,” Carlisle said. “It’s a case of, yeah, we always want to get him the ball when we can. When we can’t, he affects the game in a way that helps other guys get shots. That’s when we need other guys to step up.”

Nowitzki was not involved in the play when the Mavs had a chance to win the game on the final possession, standing on the opposite side of the court while Anthony Morrow’s desperation 3-pointer got blocked.

A few more notes from yet another frustrating Mavs loss:

1. Final failure: With 2.8 seconds remaining and the Mavs trailing by one, Carlisle didn’t want rarely used reserve Anthony Morrow shooting a contested 3-pointer off the dribble. That’s what happened, with Brewer blocking Morrow’s shot.

What did Carlisle want in that situation?

“Not what happened,” Carlisle said. “Again, I’m responsible for that. That’s as far as I’m going to go with it.”

Nowitzki, who had a nice view from the opposite side of the court, shed some light on what was supposed to happen.

“The play was for Vince (Carter) coming off and curling to the corner, but Andre Miller was right there and took that away,” Nowitzki said. “(Morrow) ran a circle and came back up, wasn’t really free but tried to make the best out of it and got a shot up and got it blocked.”

2. Brewer’s big game: Brewer, whom the Mavs traded to Denver along with Rudy Fernandez for a 2016 second-round pick in a salary-dump deal before last season, torched his former team.

Brewer scored 23 points in 35 minutes off the bench, stepping up after small forward Danilo Gallinari suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury in the second quarter.

Brewer also made three critical plays in the final 19.9 seconds: stealing the ball from Nowitzki, grabbing the offensive rebound to make Andre Iguodala’s game-winning drive possible and blocking Morrow’s shot.

“He’s a good player,” Nowitzki said. “You’ve got to give him credit. He played well.”

3. Foul night for Mayo: It’s never good to finish with more fouls than points. That was the case for O.J. Mayo, who matched a season low with four points and fouled out for only the fifth time in his career.

Mayo picked up his fourth foul 58 seconds after halftime and sat out the rest of the third quarter. He was whistled for his fifth foul 54 seconds into the fourth quarter and fouled out on an and-1 pull-up jumper by Andre Miller with 1:48 remaining.

“You’re going to have nights like that,” Mayo said. “You try to play hard even though you have some fouls, try to stay aggressive, but the whistles didn’t go my way tonight.”

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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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.

How it happened: The Dallas Mavericks’ bid to snap the Denver Nuggets’ long home winning streak flopped in the final seconds.

Denver’s Andre Iguodala drove for the game-winning layup with 2.8 seconds remaining. Dallas’ Anthony Morrow, a rarely used reserve, had his 3-pointer at the buzzer blocked by Corey Brewer.

Brewer, whom the Mavs dealt to Denver along with Rudy Fernandez in a salary-dump deal before last season, came up big against his former team. Brewer scored 23 points off the bench, stepping up his offensive game after small forward Danilo Gallinari suffered a potentially serious knee injury in the second quarter, and made three clutch plays in the final minute.

First, Brewer came up with a steal on a Dirk Nowitzki spin move when the Mavs had a one-point lead. Brewer’s offensive rebound on the ensuing possession made Iguodala’s game winner possible. And Brewer sealed the Nuggets’ 19th straight home win with the block.

The Nuggets held Nowitzki to 13 points, none of which came in the fourth quarter. Center Brandan Wright led the Mavs with 16 points, but he was shut out in the second half.

The Nuggets played without point guard Ty Lawson, their leading scorer, but Andre Miller filled the void with 22 points and seven assists. Denver power forward Kenneth Faried added 12 points and 19 rebounds.

Iguodala had only eight points on 3-of-13 shooting, but he hit a big 3 with 4:40 remaining and the game-winning bucket.

The Mavs failed to score after Vince Carter’s jumper with 2:05 remaining.

What it means: The Mavs’ slim playoff hopes took another hit. Dallas dropped to 36-39 after its second consecutive loss to begin this four-game road trip, falling three games behind the eighth-place Los Angeles Lakers, who own the tie-breaker. The Nuggets (52-24) held on to third place in the West standings.

Play of the game: Iguodala slashed through the middle of the Dallas defense, beating Vince Carter with a crossover move and finishing with a left-handed layup with 2.8 seconds remaining for the game-winning bucket.

Stat of the night: The Mavs are 2-14 on the road against the teams above them in the West standings.

DENVER – Elton Brand will be sidelined by a sore right calf for at least one game.

The calf has been bothering Brand since the first quarter of last week’s loss to the Indiana Pacers.

“It’s not progressing like we expected it to,” Brand said. “It’s not getting better. I’m in no way trying to shut it down. I’m definitely trying to get back out there as soon as we can, so we’ll see. It’s like a game-to-game situation.”

Playing in pain, Brand performed poorly the last two games, recording totals of two points and four rebounds against the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, with the Mavs being outscored by 36 points in his 29 minutes. As coach Rick Carlisle said, it has been “obvious” that Brand wasn’t himself.

“You just want to be out there for the guys,” said Brand, who is averaging 7.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 21.6 minutes. “It’s definitely painful, but a lot of guys are trying to play through ailments. Dirk (Nowitzki) has, I’m sure, 50 of them. O.J. (Mayo) is playing with his shoulder.

“We’re trying to get to .500, get to the playoffs. Against Dwight Howard and guys like that, I had to go. I had to try to go.”

The decision to sit Brand against the Nuggets was made after the calf started bothering him while he was trying to sleep.

DENVER – Corey Brewer will forever be remembered by Mavericks fans for his phenomenal eight-minute stint in Game 1 of the 2011 West semifinals, when he came off the bench to spark a comeback at the Staples Center, setting the tone for a stunning sweep of the two-time defending champions.

“Corey won that game against the Lakers for us,” Mark Cuban said recently, “and we’ll be forever in his debt.”

That outing, however, didn’t earn Brewer a spot in the Mavs’ rotation. In fact, he was deemed so expendable that Dallas dealt him and Rudy Fernandez for a 2016 second-round pick in a post-lockout, salary-dump deal with Denver.

Brewer, the slender, springy, 27-year-old small forward, has blossomed into a significant piece of arguably the NBA’s deepest bench in Denver. He’s averaging 11.8 points and 1.4 steals in 24 minutes per game this season, making him a bargain with a $3.24 million salary in the last year of the deal he signed with Dallas midway through the 2010-11 season.

“He has found the perfect situation for him,” said coach Rick Carlisle, who spent many hours working individually with Brewer during the former No. 7 overall pick’s brief stint in Dallas. “They’ve found a player that fits their style.

“Last year when we were formulating our roster and we signed Vince (Carter), there just weren’t going to be a lot of minutes for Fernandez and Brew. And there were financial considerations, so that deal was made. I’m happy for Brew. The guy helped us win a championship."

Cuban called Brewer a “good fit for that system,” referring to the Nuggets’ frenetic pace, but said he had no regret about dealing Brewer to Denver.

“None. Either we were doing what we were going to do or we weren’t, you know?” Cuban said, referring to the Mavs creating salary cap space. “The worst place we could be is caught in between and indecisive. Nope. I mean, he’s a great fit for their team and it’s working out well for him.”

DENVER – This is the Dallas Mavericks’ last chance.

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No, not their last chance to make a playoff push. That ship has probably already sailed. It’s certainly far out of the Mavs’ control after Tuesday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers dropped the Mavs 2 ½ games behind the two teams they’re chasing for the West’s final playoff seed with only eight games to go.

This is the Mavs’ last chance to record a road win against a team above them in the West standings since Dirk Nowitzki’s return.

If that happens it’d be a mile-high miracle, considering that the Denver Nuggets have the NBA’s best home record at 33-3.

After Thursday night’s game in the Pepsi Center, the Mavs will have only three road games remaining on the schedule, all against sub-.500 teams.

The Mavs have a 14-23 road record, including a 2-13 mark when visiting the plus-.500 teams in the conference. Those two wins came against the Lakers and Houston Rockets early in the season, when Nowitzki was still rehabbing from his right knee scope.

Since Nowitzki’s return, the Mavs are 0-10 on the road against the West’s top nine teams, beginning with a 38-point blowout in San Antonio the night of his surprise debut.

There were also a few coulda, woulda, shoulda L’s in that mix: a three-point loss at Golden State when the Mavs cried foul, firmly believing that Brandan Wright should have gone to the line for the potential go-ahead free throws with seconds remaining; a one-point loss in San Antonio when Vince Carter missed a buzzer-beater; and an overtime loss in Oklahoma City.

But it’s a 100-94 loss in Utah on Jan. 7 and Tuesday night’s rout by the Lakers that stick out in Nowitzki’s mind.

“I actually think that playing Utah only three times this year, playing twice there, hurt us,” Nowitzki said, referring to the unbalanced schedule. “If we would have had two home games against them, we might have won those two, but they’re very good at home so we don’t have the tiebreaker. We needed this one to tie (the season series with the Lakers). We should have beaten them at home. We came up empty twice.

“Saying all that, it doesn’t look good, but we’re going to keep on fighting. This team has a lot of pride left.”

A lot of pride, but precious few chances. This is these Mavs’ last opportunity to pull off a road upset over a West team with Nowitzki on the floor.

If the Mavs manage to pull off the mile-high miracle, their slim playoff hopes will still be alive. If they lose this one, they might as well start booking their late April vacations.

DALLAS – Mike James has every reason to believe that the Dallas Mavericks are a playoff-caliber team.

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After all, they are 22-14 since the 37-year-old journeyman guard joined the Mavs on a 10-day deal in January. They are 9-3 in games that James has started.

“Maybe I’m the rabbit’s foot,” James joked after Thursday’s shootaround.

James is completely serious when he discusses Dallas’ opportunity to earn the right to play in the postseason and the potential to do some damage if they get there.

“We know we’re a playoff team,” James said. “But because of our record and how slow we started, especially before I got here, we’ve had to dig ourselves out of a hole. Let’s just say if the season started in January and you take away the first half of the season and just talk about what we’ve done from January to now, we’re one of the better teams in the NBA.”

That’s not an exaggeration.

James’ first game with the Mavs was Jan. 9, when he played five seconds in a loss to the Los Angeles Clippers that dropped the Mavs to 10 games under .500 for the first time in a dozen years. The Miami Heat, San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies and Indiana Pacers are the only teams that have a better record since then.

“Were we a playoff team early? No,” James said. “But are we a team that could really make a lot of noise in the playoffs? Yes. I believe that if we get in, we’re going to be dangerous for any team to play against because we’re going to be playing our best basketball.”

DALLAS – There’s no nice way to put it: The Mavericks have been miserable against the West’s best.

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Dallas has lost 13 of 14 games against the conference’s top five teams, including 0-11 against the top four seeds. Six of those losses came by double figures, five by 20-plus points.

That’s a trend the Mavs have an opportunity to end with the 48-22 Los Angeles Clippers in town tonight.

“It’s time,” Shawn Marion said. “We’ve been right there scratching at the door of a lot of these best teams in the Western Conference. It’s time. We’re starting to get our continuity a little better and our defensive principles down. Gotta make it happen.”

Marion makes a legitimate point. The Mavs’ two meetings with elite West teams this month could have gone either way. Vince Carter’s 3-pointer at the buzzer rimmed out in a 92-91 loss to the San Antonio Spurs. The score was tied with a minute remaining in a 107-101 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

But close doesn’t count for a team fighting to get into the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season. For the Mavs to beat the odds and punch their postseason ticket, they must have some success against the West’s best, considering the 12 games left on the schedule include tonight’s meeting with the Clippers, home and road games against the Denver Nuggets and a home game against the Memphis Grizzlies.

“We can be playing a college team – we need the win,” Carter said. “I think records really at this point go out the window because whether they’re the best team or the worst team, we have to win. We have to find a way.

“We have, what, 12 games? It’s a small window. The games are so important. It can’t matter what it says on the opponent’s jersey.”

The Mavs have kept their playoff hopes alive by going 21-13 since being a dozen-year-low of 10 games under .500. That’s the fifth-best record in the West during that span. After eight wins in 11 games, the Mavs find themselves only a game and a half behind the eighth-place Los Angeles Lakers, losers of three in a row.

Coach Rick Carlisle acknowledges the Mavs’ lack of success against the West’s best, but it doesn’t do him any good to think about what’s already happened. He’d rather discuss the two days of meticulous preparation for the Clippers, focusing on details such as ball security and boxing out against their freakishly athletic foe.

“Right now, we need to win one game,” Carlisle said, “and that’s tonight. “