DALLAS _ The Mavericks' roller-coaster season reached its midpoint Wednesday night with an uptick, not to be confused with a surge or high point of the season.
Wednesday's 104-94 win over Phoenix at American Airlines Center was somewhat expected, despite the lowly Suns' inexplicable domination of Dallas the past three seasons.
The Mavericks' 19-22 record puts them on 38-victory pace, not that their disjointed showing up to now makes anything about the season's second half predictable.
"Our inconsistency," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said, "is a nemesis."
Two nights after blowing a 15-point lead and falling at home to the LeBron James-less Lakers, Dallas struggled for long stretches against the Devin Booker-less Suns, displaying some of the same sickly symptoms that have plagued them much of the season.
Luka Doncic's 30 points, six rebounds and five assists helped the Mavericks hold off the Suns (10-33) despite shooting 43 percent and committing 20 turnovers.
Yes, the Mavericks have six more victories than they did at last season's midpoint, which represents progress, but guess what?
They finished 13th in the Western Conference last season, ahead of only Memphis and Phoenix _ and halfway through this season they are tied for 13th with Memphis in the ultra-competitive West, ahead of only Phoenix.
"I think it's still better than last year, so hopefully we still have time to make a run," guard J.J. Barea said. "I think we're capable of putting games together, so we'll see what happens."
Capable: The Mavericks have one four-game winning streak, a pair of three-game winning streaks and at one point won 11 straight at home.
Inadequate: They have a pair of six-game losing streaks.
Dallas is a more-than-promising 16-4 at home, but is an atrocious, NBA-worst 3-18 on the road.
The Mavericks have beaten the likes of Golden State, Houston (twice), Oklahoma City (twice), Boston and Utah _ but lost to bottom-feeders Phoenix (twice), New York (at home) and Atlanta.
"What I like is we've showed the ability to be a very good defensive team," Carlisle said. "We (also) show the ability to be a very good offensive team and an efficient offensive team.
"But, too often, we've mixed in a 19-turnover game and bad transition defense to take the wind out of our sails. There's still a long way to go, a lot to be determined, but the urgency is there."
It's never a good sign when your most consistent player is a 19-year-old rookie (Doncic) followed by veteran center DeAndre Jordan, while fellow usual starters Harrison Barnes, Wesley Matthews and Dennis Smith Jr. each have had pronounced lulls.
The Mavericks' brain trust believed that by pairing the creative Doncic and Smith and adding a stabilizing presence in the middle in Jordan that it would at the least continue, and more likely enhance, the efficient offense that has characterized Carlisle teams during his 11 seasons here.
Instead, the Mavericks are 28th out of 30 NBA teams in turnover percentage and 28th in opponent steals, big reasons they are last in the league in fast-break points allowed.
Dirk Nowitzki, who missed Wednesday's game due to illness, said that even though lack of ball-movement has been a sporadic problem this season, he doesn't believe it is due to any selfish play.
"It's like guys are like, 'OK, I can win this for us,' " he said. "And then the ball sticks a bit and the next guy is like, 'I can win this for us.' I just think it's not selfish; it's just guys thinking they can make plays for us.
"But we've got to play together. I think that's when we're at our best, when we share the ball and move it side-to-side, maybe numerous pick-and-rolls on one possession, trying to find a way to get easy baskets."
Nowitzki said the Mavericks staple is, and must continue to be, defense _ which triggers fast-break opportunities and, ultimately, better ball movement.
"The name of the game these days" he said, "is drive and kick and get wide-open shots."
How uncharacteristic is the Mavericks' turnover plague? In Carlisle's previous 10 seasons here, the Mavericks only on one occasion finished lower than sixth in the NBA in turnovers per game. The outlier, oddly enough, was the championship season of 2010-11, when Dallas finished 15th.
Last season's Mavericks averaged the fewest turnovers (12.3) in the NBA. This season's Mavericks average 16.2 turnovers per game.
Has there been a prevailing reason behind the turnovers?
"It's been wide-ranging," Carlisle said. "But we've shown the ability to be efficient. Sometimes it's too big of hurry to do try to do what you think is the right thing. Sometimes spacing is a little bit off. Sometimes guys are too unselfish. Sometimes we need one extra pass.
"It's a conglomeration. There's no excuse, other than to study it and work at getting better at it."
Carlisle noted that the Mavericks have protected the ball well in games against Oklahoma City, which leads the league in steals, yet "we've had other ones where we're setting world records (in turnovers), or something close to world records."
Yes, there have been moments of brilliance, often Doncic-instigated, but mostly there has been volatility.
The Mavericks, fittingly, are averaging 109.9 points per game while allowing 109.7, while giving fans glimmers of hope during the season's first half _ but also reasons for management to look extra-hard at the roster as the Feb. 7 NBA trade deadline approaches.
