Mavericks lead sizzling Texas trio

Talk about depth: Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle missed Monday's game in Oklahoma City while recovering from knee surgery. Dallas turned to assistant Dwane Casey, who, at the end of his one and only stint as head coach, had the Timberwolves playing .500 basketball at 20-20 before being fired halfway through the 2006-07 season. Minnesota is 81-239 since Casey's departure.

Then the Mavs lost top scorer Dirk Nowitzki to a knee injury midway through the second quarter, and they entered the fourth period trailing by two without their MVP candidate for crunch time. No problem. They simply plugged in their other fourth-quarter ace in the hole, Jason Terry, who scored 11 of his 13 points in the final 12 minutes as the Mavs pulled away for a 103-93 victory to improve to 17-1 in their last 18 games. In 12 December games, the Jet has averaged eight points per fourth quarter, shooting 54.4 percent from the field (37-of-68), 44.4 percent from three-point range (8-of-18) and 16-of-16 from the foul line. In seven of those 12 games, Terry's fourth-quarter output has matched or exceeded his point total for the preceding three quarters. Now that's a designated closer.

Dallas' three quality road wins (against Miami, Orlando and OKC) over the past eight days, coupled with the Celtics' Christmas Day loss to the Magic, move the Mavs back to the top spot in the Power Rankings. The other two Texas teams are on a roll, too. San Antonio and Dallas join Boston and Miami as the league's hottest teams at 9-1 over their last 10 games, and right on their heels is Yao Ming-less Houston, which has won eight of 10.

(All stats and records are through Dec. 27.)

NBA Power Rankings