Ten Western Conference teams entered the night with .500-or-better records. Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle described the difficulty of climbing in the standings as a ground war.
It didn't take long Tuesday night for the Mavericks to reiterate what has become increasingly clear since their 2-7 season start: They are more armed for all manner of basketball warfare than most preseason prognosticators believed.
Dallas' 111-102 victory over Portland at American Airlines Center was its ninth in the last 11 games and 10th in the last 13 games.
"To bounce back after the start they had, they've had impressive wins against really good teams," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "They share the ball well, they've got a lot of good shooters and multiple playmakers and a lot of guys that can hurt you on different nights."
Stotts was one of Carlisle's assistants on Dallas' NBA title-winning team of 2010-11, which, coincidentally, was the last Mavericks team to play as well at home as this season's squad.
The Mavericks (12-10) have won eight straight at American Airlines Center, the longest streak since the championship team won nine in a row between January and March.
Still, the Mavericks entered Tuesday eighth in the West and, for their efforts, ended the night in a seventh-place tie with the Blazers.
"It's crazy," Stotts said of the conference logjam. "It's going to be interesting where it goes from here.
"I mean, 14 teams in the thick of things, 20-some games in, I've never seen anything like it. In some ways, it's really cool. In other ways, you'd like to get some separation. But I think it goes to show what everybody thought going into the season _ that the West is really strong.
"And especially when you look at the fact that Houston and Golden State have come back, that makes it even more interesting."
If the Mavericks continue to play this way, they'll climb, gradually, although on Wednesday night they have the difficult task of playing at New Orleans on the second game of a back-to-back.
Carlisle hoped to limit starters' minutes Tuesday after Dallas led by 19 early in the fourth quarter, but the Blazers made a run, forcing Carlisle to reinsert the starters and leave them in. Portland pulled within 105-99, but a Luka Doncic step-back 3-pointer with 58 seconds left put the game out of reach.
Doncic, named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for October/November earlier this week, finished with a game-high 21 points.
The Mavericks now are 10-1 in games they've led entering the fourth quarter, including 8-0 at home. The Mavericks are averaging 115 points at home _ a reversal of last season when, en route to a 5-17 start, the Mavericks lost nine of their first 11 home games.
"It's not like it was the last two years," Carlisle said. "We have better players. We have more depth, so everybody's sacrificing a little bit. To win in this league, especially in the West the way it's clustered up, you got to be willing to do these things.
"There's only one ball out there. That's one of the things that makes NBA basketball such a wonderful game is that everyone focuses on the ball," Carlisle said. "But in instances when the ball constantly moves, it's even a more beautiful game to watch. The teams that move it well tend to be the better teams, too."
Right now the Mavericks might not be one of the better teams, but they've become a pretty good one.
