Turns out the Mavericks haven't even been using smoke and mirrors.

They don't credit magic or tricks for any of their improvements. They've just been playing some good, hard, old-fashioned defense.
It hasn't been steady in the early season, but it has been good enough to earn praise, particularly after an active Charlotte game Tuesday. And when Mavericks coach Don Nelson considers that the Mavericks have been without Greg Buckner and Adrian Griffin, he reconsiders his assessment just a bit.

"When you think in terms of not having your two best defenders out there, we've been very good," Nelson said.

Buckner and Griffin are regarded as the team's best individual defenders. The Mavericks, then, have had to make do with team concepts. And they have worked.