quot;We're up 3-1,quot; he says. quot;That's what I play for. I don't play for points. I play to advance in the playoffs.''

The Mavericks have the Spurs on the brink of elimination because Nowitzki has put his faith in his teammates. The Spurs aren't going to let him put the Mavericks on his shoulders. So why try? As a result, he's averaging 10 points less than he did in the regular season.

Jason Terry is playing the same way.

And it's sending a profound message to their teammates. Because their leaders have faith in them, the confidence of players such as J.J. Barea, Antoine Wright, Erick Dampier and Brandon Bass is skyrocketing.

quot;We all act as one,'' said Barea. quot;We all want the same thing.

quot;Anytime you get your stars, Dirk and Jet, not caring about scoring, just wanting to win ... you can see it in Dirk's eyes. No matter who scores, he just wants to win. Anytime your leaders do that, it makes everybody else think the same way.''

That's why the Mavericks have had their most unselfish play of the season during this series. During the season, Nowitzki and Terry combined to take 2,784 shots, 41 percent of the Mavericks' total.

Because of the way the Spurs are playing defense, the pair have taken about a third of the Mavericks' shots, 99 of 295, in the first four games.

quot;We've been pulling together,quot; said Ryan Hollins. quot;If he [Nowitzki] scores 20, that's a low game. For him to do that and other guys stepping up, that's huge. We had scoring across the board, and we played defense too. That's something that's huge for this team.''

Hollins' magic potion? Nowitzki marvels at the exuberance displayed by backup center Ryan Hollins.

Hollins grabbed eight rebounds and blocked three shots in 19 second-half minutes in relief of Erick Dampier in Game 4.

quot;I don't know what he takes before the game, but I got to get me some of that,'' Nowitzki said. quot;He's all over the place. He's like a one-man press on defense.''

No love from TNT: The Mavericks should feel good about the fact that the TNT analysts aren't too impressed with their playoff run, as evidenced by this exchange during Saturday's telecast:

Kenny Smith: quot;The Dallas Mavericks are so fortunate. They might end up in the conference finals because of all the injuries [to the Spurs]. They have a great chance.''

Charles Barkley: quot;They just got lucky at the right time.''

Smith: quot;I didn't say they were good. I said they were lucky.''

Why should the Mavericks feel good about that? The TNT fellows haven't always had a sterling track record on their predictions.