DALLAS _ The experiment of Dirk Nowitzki and Andrew Bogut being separate but equal began on Tuesday night.
While they never set foot on the floor at the same time in the Mavericks' 113-105 win against Washington, they both found ways to impact the game and coach Rick Carlisle may have stumbled onto something with this strategy.
That doesn't mean he's in love with it, though.
"I don't like this," Carlisle said flatly after the victory. "He (Bogut) shouldn't be coming off the bench. But the fact that he's not only willing, but basically offered to, tells you a lot about his character. He wants to win. This is not a normal occurrence for a 12- or 13-year guy. And he's a proud guy. He deserves to start. They both do. But we haven't been able to make it work real well. So tonight, this is where we were.
"By (the next game), who knows what will come out of the microwave."
One game is not enough to draw any ironclad conclusions. But the idea of Nowitzki starting at center and Bogut coming off the bench seemed to fit on this night.
You know what else fit? The Mavericks no longer having the fewest wins in the Western Conference. They moved to 11-24 and what they hope will be a long, slow climb toward the top eight in the West began with a win in the opener of a three-game home stand.
It took a huge night by the bench as Devin Harris and Seth Curry combined for 33 of the 43 points the Mavericks got from their reserves. Harris had a season-best 17 points in just 17 minutes.
The only downer came late when Bogut limped to the bench. He had only six rebounds and a block in 20 minutes. But as usual, he was a strong screen-setter and smart passer on offense.
When he left the game with under four minutes to go after banging knees with a Wizard, there was cause to wonder whether the Bogut-Nowitzki strategy might be derailed by yet another injury.
Carlisle said that it is not believed to be serious, however.
And so, the bottom line looked good and so did the aesthetics when the Mavericks held the Wizards to 38 points in the second half.
"In the second half, we played the way we needed to play," Carlisle said.
Harrison Barnes had a team-best 26 points and Nowitzki had 11 points and nine rebounds in 24 minutes before leaving after reaching his minutes limit.
"The important thing is we're finding some lineups that work well together," Carlisle said. "Coming into the season, most people thought Barnes was a (small forward) who could play (power forward). What he's shown is he's a true four, who holds his own despite being a little undersized at times. Anytime Dirk's out there, it helps space the floor. It's going to give Barnes more room to operate.
"We just got to kind of doctor it up to make it work."
The Mavericks had a 110-100 lead with under 3 minutes to go. The question was whether they could hold on with Nowitzki done for the night and Bogut leaving after aggravating his right knee. The Wizards scored twice, including a 3-pointer by Bradley Beal, to cut it to 110-105.
The Mavericks couldn't score on three straight trips but the Wizards refused to go to the rim, instead missing three consecutive 3-pointers. Finally, Harrison Barnes put the Wizards out of their misery with a 3-pointer from straightaway with 24.3 seconds left that put the Mavericks up 113-105.
