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If Dirk Nowitzki can't play in it, he's darn sure going to watch the Western Conference finals between the Dallas Mavericks' oldest rival and their newest.

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The San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder tip off on Sunday night. Who's Dirk got?

"I think San Antonio's going to do it, just because they've got one more home game," he said during Tuesday's appearance on ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM's "Galloway & Company." "They really came on strong late in the season and they snatched home-court advantage away from OKC. So, I got to think just by that there is a little slight advantage. But honestly, both teams are good enough to win on the opponent's floor, so I would give a slight advantage to San Antonio, but, man, OKC is looking really good."

He should know. The Thunder rode the Mavs out of the first round in four games, handing Nowitzki the wrong side of the broom for the first time in his career.

Nowitzki's had his classic battles with the Spurs, including the amazing Game 7 in the 2006 semifinals that propelled Dallas to its first NBA Finals. It was a Spurs team that still included the Big Three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, yet, as Nowitzki pointed out, it is an entirely different style of ball those boys are playing these days, and the reigning NBA Finals MVP says all credit goes to this season's Coach of the Year, Gregg Popovich.

"To me, he's the best coach in the league, he's a genius on both ends of the floor," Nowitzki said. "The adjustment that he goes through -- at the beginning they win all their championships with defense, and he saw where the game's going; the game is going to free-flowing and more movement, you need basically four shooters on the floor at all times, and he's the man, he made it all happen.

"With [general manager] R.C. Buford helping him, finding people left and right. I mean, they draft people in the second round that nobody gives them a shot and they turn them into players. They have an amazing franchise and they really do a great job finding people that play well in their system and Pop makes them believe in their system. They're really fun to watch, they're rolling."

Dirk said he's ready to get this series going now, but unfortunately we'll have to wait until the end of the weekend. So, he's got the Spurs getting back to the NBA Finals for the first time in five seasons, but he's looking for the thing to go the distance, strictly from an entertainment standpoint.

"It's going to be spectacular. Hopefully, it's going to be a long series and we can all watch some great basketball," Nowitzki said. "The whole thing is full of great matchups. Just off the bench with Ginobili and [James] Harden going at it, the two point guards, obviously [Russell] Westbrook was phenomenal against us all series, but Parker is having a phenomenal year, probably in the prime of his career and Duncan is still looking really good this year. And now they got another week off to rest everybody.

"So, it's going to be an incredible series to watch."

Indiana Pacers coach Frank Vogel opened the season by imploring his team to become an unselfish, ball-movement offense like the champion Dallas Mavericks.

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But when he told his team Sunday prior to its Game 4 against the Miami Heat to pass like champions, he was probably talking more about the San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs, winners of 18 in a row and headed back to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2008 after sweeping the Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Clippers, have put on a clinic this postseason in championship passing. No team is throwing the rock around with such exacting precision and spectacularly devastating results.

Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili are combining for nearly 12 assists a game. Tim Duncan, Boris Diaw and Stephen Jackson are combining for more than seven. And that still leaves five or so assists unaccounted for.

The Spurs' dynamic and often artistic offense -- the only one generating more than 100 points a game in the playoffs (102.5), better than three more points a game than their likely West finals opponent Oklahoma City Thunder -- has reminded just what the re-tooled Mavs lost in a year's time.

Dallas was the No. 1 passing team in the Western Conference last postseason and the best of the four 2011 conference finals teams, having averaged 20.1 assists a game. The Spurs are blowing that mark out of the water, averaging 24.1. They've assisted on 193 of 308 baskets (62.7 percent) in eight playoff games and they were even better in the just completed sweep of the Clips, assisting on nearly seven of every 10 buckets (107 of 154, 69.4 percent).

During this truncated regular season, the Mavs were rarely at full strength -- including the game's all-time second-leading assist man Jason Kidd missing multiple games three different times with back, calf and groin injuries -- and finished 15th in assists. And they regressed further in the four-game sweep at the hands of the Thunder.

The Mavs rank 15th among the 16 playoff teams in assists. Kidd averaged 6.0, but only Jason Terry (3.8) averaged more than 2.0 a game as the team averaged just 15.5 assists in the four games. OKC, not known as a high assist team led by high-scoring point guard Russell Westbrook, out-assisted the Mavs on average by two a game.

San Antonio, meanwhile, is whipping the ball around which such proficiency that no one else is even close. The Celtics rank second at 21.9 assists a game led by triple-double threat Rajon Rondo. The Spurs' two playoff victims averaged 6.25 fewer assists a game, and that includes perennial All-Star point guard Chris Paul.

Of course, players have to make baskets for assists to be racked up. And no one can match the Spurs in that category either. Even Mavs owner Mark Cuban prior to the start of the playoffs questioned whether the 3-ball-happy Spurs could live that way in the postseason. They can and have. San Antonio is killing it from the 3-point arc to the tune of 42.3 percent with six players shooting at least 43 percent from downtown. The Clips are the next best at 37.8.

Overall, San Antonio is shooting a whopping 49.1 percent with the resurgent Duncan hitting running hooks and jumpers from seemingly every angle for a team-best 54.0 percent.

The Mavs shot the 3-pointer fairly well in the first round (37.2 percent) but overall made just 40.4 percent of their shots, not terribly far off from their disappointing regular-season shooting of 44.3 percent that ranked 19th in the league.

The Mavericks clinched the franchise's record 12th consecutive playoff berth with Houston's loss to New Orleans on Thursday night.

THE GOOD: Los Angeles Clippers (currently No. 4)

How they have played: The Mavs are 1-2 against the Clips, who won the first matchup at home, 91-89, without Chris Paul. But Dirk Nowitzki shot horribly, Mo Williams went off for 26 points and Chauncey Billups (out for the season) hit a game-winning buzzer-beater. The Mavs took the second game at home, 96-92, with both teams healthy with the exception of Billups. Dirk didn't shoot well again, but went 11-of-15 from the line. The third game might have been the Mavs' most disappointing performance of the year. They failed to show up, shot 39 percent and were embarrassed on the boards in a 94-75 home loss.

How Dirk has played: Nowitzki shot just 38 percent in the three games, but he's getting to the foul line a lot. Blake Griffin's athleticism always creates a tough matchup and defensive specialist Kenyon Martin adds an edge the Mavs are quite familiar with from his Denver days. The numbers don't tell the whole story though. Only Nowitzki, Brendan Haywood and Shawn Marion started all three games against the Clips.

How the Mavs will fare: Most agree this is probably their most favorable matchup, but nothing is a lock for the defending champions. If Dallas wants to move into the second round, they'll have to be on their toes when it comes to transition defense and find a way to get others beside Nowitzki involved in the offense.

THE BAD: Los Angeles Lakers (currently No. 3)

How they have played: The Mavs are 0-4 against the Lakers, but three of those could have gone either way. Shawn Marion is as good as anyone in the league checking Kobe Bryant, but the Pau Gasol-Andrew Bynum connection has averaging 36.8 points a game Injuries skewed games for both teams. Bryant's best game, a 30-point performance in the 109-93 win in Dallas, came with Marion sitting out.

How Dirk has played: He's averaging a double-double with 24 points and 10.3 rebounds, but shooting just 30 percent from beyond the arc.

How the Mavs fare: This matchup heavily rides on the health of Kobe. Nothing will keep him out of the playoffs, and he is expected to return on Friday. But if his sore left shin continues be a problem, the Mavs might catch a break. If he comes back healthy and refreshed after averaging a whopping 38.5 minutes a game, don't count on much rust from the league's leading scorer. Even if he does struggle with his shot, Gasol and Bynum have played lights-out against Dallas.

THE UGLY: Oklahoma City Thunder (currently No. 2)

How they have played: The Mavs are 1-3 against the Thunder and the ugly fact that the youthful Thunder found ways to pull games out late is concerning considering the Mavs prided themselves on such heroics during their championship run, and especially so against OKC in the West Finals. Kevin Durant stole the first meeting with a 3-point buzzer-beater at OKC in third game of the season. The Mavs looked great in one of their best all-around wins of the season, 100-87, soon after in the second game at home. The Thunder returned to Dallas a month later and returned the favor. But the Mavs were severely shorthanded without Jason Kidd, Brendan Haywood and Lamar Odom. Durant and Russell Westbrook struggled in the season finale, but the Thunder defense shut down the Mavs in the final minutes to win at OKC.

How Dirk played: Nowitzki was solid if not spectacular against the Mavs' Red River rival. He shot 44 percent and averaged 22.5 points per game. We haven't seen him be "championship Dirk" consistently this season, but the German torched the Thunder for 32.2 points per game in last year's playoff series.

How they fare: The Thunder have struggled late in the season, and losing the top seed to San Antonio wouldn't be any help to their momentum. The Mavs have held Westbrook and Durant below their season averages in scoring. The problem is that no one but Dirk can score consistently against the Thunder.

THE UGLY II: San Antonio Spurs (currently No. 1)

How they have played: It's hard to imagine the Mavs are 2-2 against San Antonio because Dirk has not played well in three of the four games. The Spurs embarrassed Dallas 93-71 in the first game without Manu Ginobli and with a barrage of 3-pointers, which became a theme against Dallas. In the final game of the series, a shorthanded Spurs squad did it again to the Mavs by 17 points, playing without Tony Parker. The Mavs coughed up a huge lead in the second game at home and won in OT after Danny Green's buzzer-beater was reversed by replay and the game went to an extra five minutes.

How Dirk played: In the third game of the series, a 106-99 win, he had a team-high 27 points. In the other three games, he scored 10.6 points per game on an abysmal 13-of-46 shooting.

How they fare: The Spurs have successfully mixed young, athletic newcomers with the Big Three and have arguably been the most consistent team in the NBA. Jason Terry has been great against the Spurs this season, but they'll need Dirk to find his rhythm to get past this potential first-round foe.

We’ll take a look at the games that impact the West playoff picture each morning for the rest of the regular season.

Mavs' spot in the standings: They’re sitting in seventh, a half-game behind the Rockets and a half-game ahead of the Nuggets. Dallas is 1 ½ games ahead of the Suns and two games ahead of the Jazz.

SUNDAY'S GAMES

Spurs 114, Jazz 104: Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined for 51 points in the first-place Spurs’ 11th straight win. Utah guards Earl Watson (knee) and C.J. Miles (calf) left the game due to injuries.

Thunder 91, Raptors 75: Oklahoma City went on a 24-0 run in the second half to turn a close game into a comfortable win.

Rockets 104, Kings 87: Courtney Lee scored 25 points to lead the Rockets in point guard Kyle Lowry’s return after missing 15 games due to a bacterial infection.

TODAY’S GAMES
Lakers at Hornets
Thunder at Bucks
Clippers at Grizzlies
Warriors at Nuggets
Suns at Timberwolves
Spurs at Jazz
Rockets at Trail Blazers

If the playoffs started today: Mavs vs. Thunder

How it happened: A magical blend of Dirk Nowitzki, defense and depth carried the Mavs to the franchise’s first title last season. Dallas was dreadful in each of those departments Friday night at the AT&T Center.

The Spurs, playing without All-Star point guard Tony Parker, had plenty to do with that, physically dominating Dallas while playing a beautifully skilled game.

However, Nowitzki had arguably his worst performance since his horrific start of the season. He finished with 16 points, but he made only five of 21 shots from the floor. He was an embarrassing liability on the glass, grabbing only two rebounds.

Nowitzki’s night ended after he was whistled for a technical foul with 2:04 remaining, when he vented some frustration by shoving Kawhi Leonard in the back. Lamar Odom still didn’t take off his warm-ups, collecting his first DNP-CD of his extremely disappointing season.

With Dallas center Brendan Haywood sitting out his fourth consecutive game due to a sprained right knee, the Spurs punked the Mavs in the paint. San Antonio had outrageous edges of 54-34 on the boards, 21-7 in second-chance points and 50-16 in points in the paint.

The Mavs’ bench, a longtime strength, was severely outplayed for the second consecutive game. Jason Terry had 18 points on 7-of-18 shooting, and the rest of the Mavs bench contributed only five points.

What it means: The Interstate 35 rivals split the season series, as the Mavs and Spurs both held serve on their home courts in the four meetings between the longtime Western Conference contenders. While the Spurs sit comfortably at second in the West standings, the Mavs are in jeopardy of dropping out of the top eight as they head to Houston for the butt end of a back-to-back. Dallas is part of a six-team pack within one game of each other fighting for the final five seeds.

Bold play of the game: Gary Neal ran off a couple of screens, caught the ball and fired over scrambling 7-foot Nowitzki. Neal didn’t call glass, but that’s the way the 3-pointer went down. The lucky bounce capped a 12-0 run at the end of the third quarter that gave the Spurs the lead for good. San Antonio stretched the spurt to 14 unanswered points by scoring the first bucket of the fourth quarter.

Stat of the night: The Mavs, kings of the comeback during their championship run, are 0-11 when trailing after three quarters on the road this season.

Rodrigue Beaubois remains somewhat of a riddle as the guard with Globetrotter-like flair from the little island of Guadeloupe nears the end of his third NBA regular season.

Is he a point guard or a shooting guard or both? Can he be more of a competitor than an entertainer? Does he merit a significant role once the Mavs’ roster is fully healthy?

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And the biggest question right now about Roddy B.: Can the Mavs really count on the kid in prime time?

The answer to that question at the end of Beaubois’ injury-interrupted sophomore season was absolutely not, which is why the Mavs’ vets successfully lobbied for DeShawn Stevenson to replace him in the starting lineup for the regular-season finale and postseason. The Mavs are still in the process of figuring out whether Beaubois is really big-game ready after another year of seasoning.

His splendid performances in wins over a pair of playoff teams -- the Spurs and Nuggets -- during the last week were certainly encouraging. Was Beaubois’ off night in the loss to the Lakers just a hiccup or him reverting to form against high-caliber competition?

“These are all great opportunities for him to get better,” coach Rick Carlisle said after Wednesday night’s loss to L.A., when Beaubois had six points on 3-of-12 shooting and struggled defensively when matched up with Kobe Bryant or Ramon Sessions. “This has been one of the more difficult teams for him to play against if you look at his history, but I will remind everybody that the last two games were against pretty damn good teams, too, and he played terrific.

“We’ve got to stay the course with him. To be fair, we’ve got to look at larger blocks of time and we’ve got to have discretion about when we get the microscope out.”

It’s notable that this was the first time Beaubois got off the bench against the Lakers this season. He sat during the Mavs’ first two losses to Kobe and Co. this season, as Carlisle called those “veteran’s games.”

As Carlisle mentioned, Beaubois has never had much success against the Lakers. He had a couple of particularly painful-to-watch performances in losses to the Lakers during the brief experiment with Beaubois as a starter last season.

Is that because of matchups -- good luck finding many guards who feast against Kobe -- or because the figurative lights are too bright for Beaubois?

“It just wasn’t a good night for me,” Beaubois said. “It was tough for me to find a rhythm and the shot wasn’t going in. That doesn’t help, but I have to find a way to help the team even when my shot doesn’t go in. Tonight, that wasn’t the case. I have to do a better job of that.

“It happens, but I have to be ready for the next one.”

The next one happens to be against the Spurs, the one elite West foe that Beaubois has given fits.

Beaubois only non-garbage time playoff experience came out of desperation when the Mavs dug a big hole in a win-or-the-end Game 6 against the Spurs in the 2010 first round. He got the Mavs back in the game with 16 points in 21 minutes before Carlisle made the controversial decision to go with ice-cold Jason Terry as the Mavs fizzled down the stretch.

Two of Beaubois’ best games this season came against the Spurs. As the fill-in starting point guard, Beaubois had 14 points and seven assists in a Jan. 29 overtime win, when fellow Frenchman Tony Parker was 2-of-11 from the floor and watched the entire fourth quarter and OT from the bench with the rest of the Spurs’ starters. Beaubois had 16 points and a career-high-tying eight rebounds in last week’s win over the Spurs.

“I don’t think he looks at any game like prime time,” Jason Kidd said. “I think he just wants to get better at his craft and we all want to help him get better. It’s not about prime time. It’s just a matter of being good and being consistent. That’s what we all fight to try to do.”

That might be true, but Beaubois has more to prove than any other holdover from last season’s Mavericks' roster. With the Mavs two games into a 10-game stretch against playoff competition, he’ll have plenty of opportunities to do it.

San Antonio Spurs All-Star point guard, leading scorer and closet MVP candidate Tony Parker left Wednesday's win against Minnesota in the second quarter with tightness in his left hamstring.

Parker did not return and his status for Friday's game against the Dallas Mavericks, their second matchup in a week, is up in the air. Parker, 29, is averaging 19.6 points and a career-high 8.0 assists.

In the Mavs' 106-99 win last Saturday, Rodrigue Beaubois helped to limit Parker to 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting. He did have 11 assists but was not his pervasive, problematic penetrating self.

If Parker is out, it comes at a bad time for the Spurs. They begin their only back-to-back-to-back of the season against the Mavs, followed by a short trip to New Orleans on Saturday and back home against Philadelphia on Sunday.

The severity of Parker's injury was deemed to be mild. The Spurs will know more today.

At least one Spurs player, guard Gary Neal, predicted Parker will be back to face the nemesis Mavs.

"I think Tony will be back with that one,” Neal told the San Antonio Express-News. "If I was a betting man, I’d say he’ll be back."

After the Spurs dropped last Saturday's game at the American Airlines Center, Parker excused it as more or less a schedule loss coming after a "playoff atmosphere" win at Oklahoma City the night before. He then handed out something of backhanded compliment to Jason Kidd, who hit four 3-pointers and had 14 points, just his fourth double-digit scoring game of the season.

Offered Parker: "He shot the ball well and we didn’t expect that. I give him credit on having one of his biggest offensive games of the year and he shot the ball well."

Kidd probably wouldn't mind poking Parker again on the night he turns 39.

If Parker is sidelined, it might increase the Mavs' chances of winning, but it sure won't be as much fun.

Of the four teams the Dallas Mavericks face this week, three coming on the road, only the Denver Nuggets can claim to be hotter, as well as more mysterious.

More mysterious? The Nuggets, winners of seven of their last 10, did just make the most stunning trade at the deadline, sending Nene to Washington for talented, but blooper-reel center JaVale McGee. They also just reached a long-term deal with forward Wilson Chandler, who headed to China during the lockout. Both players are expected to be available for tonight's game.

As for the Mavs, with 20 games left can anyone claim to pinpoint where this team is headed -- down the drain or on their way to another championship? Injuries are again forcing odd lineups such as this one that actually got some run twice and held its own against the Spurs on Saturday: Jason Terry, Rodrigue Beaubois, Brian Cardinal, Lamar Odom and Brandan Wright.

Dallas might have to go there again tonight at Denver. They know center Brendan Haywood (sprained right knee) won't play and guard Delonte West remains out. It was against the Nuggets more than a month ago that West's right finger bent in a way it never should when he reached out try to make a steal.

The big question is whether small forward Shawn Marion (sore left knee) will be back after missing his first game of the season against the Spurs. Dallas needs him badly on the road to help defend Danilo Gallinari, whose sprained ankle kept him out of the last matchup, and possibly even point guard Ty Lawson, who Marion held to three points and two assists last month.

Since West's injury, Marion has been charged with guarding point guards, which begs the question in tonight's game -- with or without Marion -- if Beaubois will make his second consecutive start after stringing together four impressive outings.

Coach Rick Carlisle doesn't divulge plans for starting lineups, but he did suggest that he might not be particularly hip to the idea of starting Beaubois at shooting guard.

"One of the downsides to starting him is his minutes get run way up," Carlisle said. "He's not used to playing 35, 36 minutes a game. We've got to be mindful of it because of the frequency of games."

At 23, who better to run up big minutes, especially if Beaubois is playing well? The Mavs have two back-to-backs in the next seven games, which isn't crazy by their recent standards.

Beaubois played 35 minutes against the Spurs, recording 16 points and eight rebounds, and he might have gone longer than that had his 3-pointer with about four minutes to go in the game hadn't of missed the basket entirely. Carlisle used that as a cue to get him out of there. In his other recent start at New Orleans on March 2, Beaubois scored 25 points in 31 minutes.

The announcement of tonight's starting lineup will be interesting. Will he or won't he be in it?

Tonight: at Denver Nuggets (25-20), 9:30 p.m.
TV/Radio: TNT/ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM; 1270 AM (Spanish)
What to watch: Gallinari is back from an awful ankle sprain and after a four-game breaking-in period in which he averaged 4.5 points on 5-of-25 shooting, his touch has returned over the last three games as he's averaged 18.0 points on 17-of-36 shooting, including 7-of-16 from beyond the arc. A rare site on the Nuggets' game-day notes is a blank injury box. The Nuggets, already one of the deeper teams in the league before bringing Chandler back into the fold, hit hard times without Gallinari but seem to be hitting their stride again. They'll push the tempo all night and force the Mavs to keep up.

Wednesday: vs. Los Angeles Lakers (28-17), 8:30 p.m.
TV/Radio: ESPN, FSSW/ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM; 1270 AM (Spanish)
What to watch: The Mavs know they won't have to worry about a late 3-ball again from Derek Fisher. The Lakers shipped him out at the deadline in favor of younger, more athletic point guard Ramon Sessions, who comes to Tinseltown via Cleveland. L.A. saw its five-game win streak snapped Sunday night against the Jazz. It was only the Lakers' third loss in 22 games at home. On the road, L.A. hasn't exactly been Showtime at 9-14. The Mavs will get the Lakers on the second night of a back-to-back -- they're in Houston on Tuesday. Led by Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, L.A. did get a 96-91 road win at Dallas in the final game before the All-Star break and it sent the Mavs spiraling down a bad path. Odom left on a personal leave prior to that game, but the former Laker is expected to be around for this one.

Friday: at San Antonio Spurs (29-14), 7:30 p.m.
TV/Radio: ESPN, FSSW/ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM; 1270 AM (Spanish)
What to watch: Tony Parker claimed that he and the boys were worn out from a playoff-atmosphere win at Oklahoma City on Friday and didn't have the energy they needed to win at Dallas on Saturday. It is certainly true that the Mavs were happier about getting that much-needed win than the Spurs were unhappy about dropping it. San Antonio will be better rested for this one. They face Minnesota at home on Wednesday night. Stephen Jackson will also be better integrated into whatever role coach Gregg Popovich sees fit for him. This will be the final game of four this season with the Spurs looking to gain the split. And don't look now, but a first-round playoff series is not out of the question.

Saturday: at Houston Rockets (24-22), 7:30 p.m.
TV/Radio: ESPN, FSSW/ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM; 1270 AM (Spanish)
What to watch: Wait, these guys are still in the NBA? The Rockets are the only Western Conference team the Mavs haven't faced this season despite being division foes. Dallas might be getting them at the right time, although the week will ultimately bare that out. Houston has played beyond expectations for most of the season but is dangerously close to being knocked out of the playoff mix by the red-hot Phoenix Suns. If the Rockets have an advantage in this one, it will come on two fronts. One, Houston does not play a back-to-back this week and it will be at home all week. Two, it added center Marcus Camby at the deadline to back up Samuel Dalembert. Along with clever power forward Luis Scola, the Rockets might be able to take advantage of a Mavs team that is expected to still be without Haywood and coming off Friday's game at San Antonio.

DALLAS -- The offensive fireworks started Saturday night on the first possession with a soaring Rodrigue Beaubois grabbing an alley-oop lob from Jason Kidd with two hands high above the rim and slamming it down to the roar of the sellout crowd.

It included 27 points and a couple of big-bang, second-half 3-pointers from Dirk Nowitzki that provoked the big guy to stick out his tongue and bark as he headed back down the floor.

Highlights included Kidd canning four of his own 3-pointers in his most efficient offensive performance of the season and his first double-double as well. The high-intensity show ended with Jason Terry nailing two 3-pointers in the final 2:46 with the grand finale splashing down with 41.9 seconds to lock up the 106-99 victory the division-leading Spurs.

Dallas, now 26-20 with 20 games left, produced one of its best shooting games beyond the arc, finishing 11-of-24, while shooting 46.8 percent overall, a positive performance for a club that has been stuck at about 43 percent all season to rank in the bottom 10 of the league. When the Mavs shoot 45 percent or better, they're 14-2.

The 106 points represented the second highest total since Jan. 30 at Phoenix. The highest came two games earlier -- 107 against Washington -- to kick off this 3-0 homestand. In the middle was 101 points against Charlotte. The Mavs had reached 100 points just 10 times in the 41 games prior to the homestand and scored more than 102 points just four times.

Do the last three games signify a long-awaited offensive breakout? It's easy to dismiss the first two totals against NBA bottom-feeders Washington and Charlotte. And as Spurs point guard Tony Parker pointed out, he and this teammates were fatigued from Friday night's playoff atmosphere win at Oklahoma City.

So be it, but from a purely Mavs point of view, the sudden surge in points has to be viewed as a confidence-builder heading into the rugged final two weeks of March.

"I never view our team as lacking confidence,'' coach Rick Carlisle said. "We just need to play at a certain level and we have to have the right kind of presence on the court. Tonight, there were no lags. We've had lags in other games. Tonight, there couldn't be a lag and there wasn't.''

Well, maybe just one in the 18-point second quarter that only got to 18 thanks to Dirk Nowitzki scoring the final 12 points over the last seven minutes of the quarter. But Dallas responded with a 32-point third quarter and 60 points in the second half.

It's no coincidence that in the past three games in which the Mavs have averaged 104.7 points, Beaubois has stepped up to average 16.3 points, quite a boost for a team that had averaged 92.8 points in the nine games after the All-Star break for a 2-7 record. Only four teams are averaging triple digits in this quirky, shortened season -- San Antonio being one; Dallas not being one -- but just how big is it when the Mavs reach that magic mark?

They're now 13-1 with the lone 100-point loss coming to the Thunder on a Kevin Durant buzzer-beater in the third game of the season.

"We were trying to be aggressive, penetrate, make the extra pass and guys were knocking down shots," Kidd said of Saturday's San Antonio win.

That was apparent with 21 assists on 37 field goals and by 25 free throws taken, seven more than the Spurs with their penetrating guards Parker and Manu Ginobili.

So is this recent offensive surge a trend or just a passing fad?

The Denver Nuggets on Monday night will be the next to find out.

DALLAS -- Shawn Marion's sore left knee will keep him out of tonight's game and opens the door for Rodrigue Beaubois to start at shooting guard with Vince Carter sliding over to small forward.

Without Marion, who has had to defend the league's top point guard with Delonte West (fractured finger) shelved, the Mavs have little choice but to start Beaubois and use him to defend Spurs point guard Tony Parker.

Marion likely would have seen time against Parker as well as shooting guard Manu Ginobili, who is coming off the bench tonight.

Beaubois will make his seventh start of the season and first since March 2 at New Orleans.

DALLAS -- The San Antonio Spurs have very quietly put together a terrific regular season with a surprisingly deep roster bolstered with no-name youngsters who have fit seamlessly into the team concept.

And on Thursday they added edge and attitude by trading Richard Jefferson to Golden State for former Spur Stephen Jackson. He had not reported to the team as of early Saturday, but he could be in uniform tonight to play against the Mavericks. The Spurs won Friday night at Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City with Manu Ginobili sitting the game out.

Ginobili is expected to play tonight as the Spurs try to become the second team in the West to notch 30 wins.

"You’re talking about maybe the hottest team right now in the league," Mavs guard Jason Kidd said. "You've got to be prepared. We've got to play our best if we’re going to have any chance of beating them tonight."

A San Antonio win would push Dallas 6 1/2 games back in the Southwest Division standings with just 20 games to go -- not that either veteran team is particularly concerned with seeding in this shortened regular season. Still, the Mavs would certainly like to start the playoffs at home and it will take moving up in the standings to do so.

Meanwhile, the Mavs are just looking to create some momentum. They got two ugly victories over woeful Washington and Charlotte after their 2-7 stretch. Of their final 21 games, the Mavs face 15 that currently occupy playoff spots.

"We would like to be healthy going into the playoffs, but you got to win games first," Kidd said. "So we can’t think about the playoffs right now. We got to win games and hopefully everything else falls into place."

Records: Spurs (29-13); Mavs (25-20)

When: 8 p.m.

Where: American Airlines Center

TV: FSSW, NBA TV

Radio: ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM/1270 AM (Spanish)

What to watch: The Mavs' 3-point defense will again be put to the test against one of the league's best 3-point shooting teams. The Spurs have killed Dallas this season from beyond the arc, dropping 16-of-33, including 11 in the first half in a 22-point win at San Antonio in early January. In late January, the Spurs' bench wiped out an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter by hitting 7-of-8 from long range. They finished 12-of-25 for the game. Mavs guard Jason Terry calls 3-point defense the key to tonight's game.

Key matchup: Rodrigue Beaubois vs. Tony Parker
This would seem a great time to start Beaubois over Vince Carter at shooting guard and let him go after Parker from the start. Even if coach Rick Carlisle doesn't agree with that approach, expect Beaubois to see plenty of time on the Spurs' point guard. Parker his having a tremendous season, averaging 20.2 points and a career-best 8.0 assists.

Injuries: Spurs -- None. Mavs -- G Delonte West (fractured right ring finger) is out; C Brendan Haywood (sprained right knee); F Shawn Marion (sore left knee) is questionable.

Up next: Mavs at Denver Nuggets, 9:30 p.m., Monday

DALLAS -- Rodrigue Beaubois is showing those flashes again. Two big games against two awful opponents lead to tonight's big one against Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs.

Jason Terry said tonight's matchup could have lasting effects for the Mavericks' third-year guard, who is still trying to make consistent inroads as a rotation player.

"It’s huge for him. I talk about it all the time. When you play against veteran guys and you kind of look up to them, you’ve got to make a stance," Terry said. "For him, this will be his third time playing against him [this season], and this is his time. This is going to be a defining moment in his career. Is Tony going to continue to beat him up or is he going to come out tonight and make a stand?"

Terry compared the matchup to his early days going up against fellow Seattleite Gary Payton.

"I looked up to him, I idolized him, but it came to a point where I had to man-up and go at him," Terry said. "And I did pretty good with him after that."

Terry said he hopes to see similar fight out of the French-speaking Beaubois, who has long looked up to the Spurs' dazzling French point guard. Parker is having a tremendous season and should at least be in the conversation as a league MVP, averaging 20.2 points, the second-highest mark of his career, and a career-high 8.0 assists.

Beaubois is looking to simply string together more quality appearances and do so against quality competition. Beaubois' minutes could again become quite limited when Delonte West returns from a fractured right ring finger.

"Obviously, it is a big challenge because he is a French guy and so obviously every time I play against a French guy, and he plays my position, obviously it’s a big challenge, plus he’s a great point guard," Beaubois said. "Tony Parker is one of the best point guards in the NBA, so every time I play against him I have to be ready, for sure."

Beaubois is averaging 8.9 points and 2.5 assists this season, while shooting 43.4 percent from the floor. He's scored in double figures in three consecutive games and four of his last six.

"It’s big," Beaubois said of maintaining consistency. "So that’s why I have to be very focused tonight and very aggressive and do my best for the team to win because it’s going to be a very good game, a pretty tough game, so I have to be ready to help the team."

Mark Cuban was hoping for, oh, three minutes for his superstar, but he'll be happy with the 14 minutes Dirk Nowitzki logged jogging up and down Dwight Howard's home floor -- tick, tick, tick -- in Sunday night's All-Star Game.

In his 11th consecutive appearance as a West reserve, Nowitzki put up seven points on 3-of-8 shooting in the West's hang-on, 152-149 victory. True to his regular season, he wasn't feeling it from 3-point range, banging in just one of five attempts from downtown. He missed his first two in the first quarter, when he logged nearly half his total time.

Nowitzki would not be seen again until midway through the third quarter. He nailed his only 3-point attempt of the period and fed Tony Parker for a reverse layup, his lone assist of the game. He also finished with four rebounds, including two offensive boards.

Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant took home MVP honors having scored 36 points and his coach, West coach Scott Brooks, wasn't shy about playing his superstar, leaving him in for a game-high 37 minutes.

And Dirk seemed perfectly content playing what he did and cheering on his fellow All-Stars. After all, if Charles Barkley is right, Dirk doesn't have many of these left. Still, he was clearly enjoying himself if you couldn't tell by his towel-waving after Blake Griffin's monster dunk late in the fourth.

He enjoyed it enough to even share a postgame embrace with -- cough, cough -- Dwyane Wade, who recorded only the third triple-double in All-Star history.

Parker, Marc Gasol, Steve Nash, starting center Andrew Bynum and first-timer LaMarcus Aldridge all played fewer minutes than Nowitzki as the other four starters and reserve guard Russell Westbrook, one of Brooks' OKC boys, took on the heavy minutes.

Nowitzki heads back to Dallas for a 2:30 p.m. practice Monday as the Mavs begin the final 32 games of the season at home Tuesday against the New Jersey Nets.

DALLAS – At first glance, a backcourt featuring Jason Kidd and Vince Carter appears to be an ill fit at their advance age.

After all, somebody has to guard all the good point guards the Mavs will see. And almost all of the Western Conference contenders have one: Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, the Clippers’ Chris Paul, San Antonio’s Tony Parker, Denver’s Ty Lawson, Houston’s Kyle Lowry.

Shawn Marion can solve a lot of problems, including the mismatch issues with the geezer guard combo. At least, that's what the early evidence indicates.

We got a glimpse of how the Mavs might approach the opposing point guard problem on Friday night, when Kidd returned from a six-game absence. The Mavs stuck with Carter as the starting shooting guard instead of putting Delonte West in that spot and gave Marion the assignment of defending rookie sensation Ricky Rubio.

“This is nothing new,” coach Rick Carlisle said of Marion’s ability to be a defensive problem-solver regardless of position. “He’s been one of the most versatile players that we’ve had at both ends of the floor in the game in the last decade. It helps. He’s always up for those kinds of challenges, too.”

It worked wonderfully against the Timberwolves. Rubio had a so-so outing, scoring 10 points on 2-of-8 shooting and dishing out eight assists. Meanwhile, Kidd keyed a Mavs win, as Dallas outscored the Timberwolves by 23 points in Kidd’s 27 minutes.

Marion’s ability to defend point guards keeps Kidd’s lack of elite quickness from being exposed and limits the wear and tear on the 38-year-old. It allows the Mavs to continue starting Carter, who has by far the team’s best plus-minus this season, and ensures that West will be available to play all the backup point guard minutes.

It worked against Rubio. What about against an elite point guard like Paul? We’re about to find out.

How it happened: The Dallas Mavericks survived a rough return by Dirk Nowitzki and a spectacular performance by the San Antonio Spurs' bench.

Dallas did it by hopping on the wings of the Jet.

Jason Terry, whom Nowitzki has long referred to as one of the game’s best closers, was at his clutch best after the Spurs erased an 18-point deficit by stunning the Mavs with a 26-4 run fueled by a 3-point barrage.

With Nowitzki struggling offensively after a four-game layoff, Terry took over the game down the stretch. He scored 16 of his game-high 34 points in the final 6:43 of regulation and the overtime period. That included a pull-up to force overtime and a jumper to give the Mavs the lead for good in the final minute.

But everybody in the American Airlines Center held their breath until the final buzzer, when Danny Green missed an open 3-pointer.

Nowitzki played hard, grabbing a season-high 13 rebounds, but he couldn’t buy a bucket for most of the game. He finished with 10 points on 5-of-14 shooting.

That was still much more impressive than the performance of the Spurs’ stars. Tim Duncan (12 points, six rebounds) and Tony Parker (nine points, 2-11 FG) sat with the rest of the Spurs starters from the 2:44 mark of the third quarter for the rest of the game.

What it means: This was one heck of an entertaining fight for first place in the Southwest Division. The Mavs will fly to Phoenix a half-game ahead of Houston and one game ahead of the archrival Spurs.

Play of the game: Nowitzki grabbed a defensive rebound with six seconds remaining and got the rock to Jason Terry, who furiously pushed it up the floor and drilled a cold-blooded 17-foot pull-up jumper with 0.5 seconds remaining. That forced overtime … after Green’s would-be game-winning turnaround at the buzzer was ruled a split-second late upon review.

Stat of the night: Two Mavs had season-high point totals: Terry (34) and Vince Carter (21).