"Our best offense is a stop," Carlisle said. "It's not even close."

Solid defense and strong defensive rebounding lead to fast break

opportunities with the ball in Jason Kidd's hands and those situations

tend to lead to baskets for the Mavericks. After a tough defensive

start to the season, the Mavs are now starting to reap the rewards of

their defense with three consecutive victories. Wednesday at Houston,

the Mavs held the Rockets to 37.2 percent shooting. On Tuesday,

Charlotte managed 38.8 percent.

"When we hold a team to 39 percent," Carlisle said, "we're going

to get some fast-break opportunities."

The Knicks on Sunday loaded up with 114 points, but were held

without a field goal in the final 7:26 of the fourth quarter and

overtime, starting the Mavs' three-game road sweep.

"We're one of the best running teams in the league, statistically,

when we get stops," Carlisle said. "A lot of that has to do with

defense creating those opportunities."

The streak could build with Memphis in Dallas on Friday and

Indiana on Tuesday.

MAVERICKS 96, ROCKETS 86: Jason Terry came off the bench and hit

his first six shots on his way to a game-high 31 points, 18 coming in

a first half controlled by the Mavericks. Dirk Nowitzki had 24 points

and for a second straight game the Mavs got solid contributions from

the bench, even from some unexpected sources such as 31 solid

defensive minutes from Shawne Williams, easily his longest run of

playing time this season. The Rockets were without Yao Ming (foot) and

the Mavs were missing Josh Howard (ankle), leaving Terry to pick up

the scoring slack.