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.