Defense is what the Mavericks sorely need if they want to crack the win column.

"It'll be the major theme every day going forward," coach Rick Carlisle said. "When you defend well, your offense is always going to be better, and when you run offense well, your defense will be better."

Carlisle told his players they must go all-out on defense.

"Right now we've got to start the game with five guys in a stance and get after it defensively," Carlisle said. "And look, what I told the guys is, 'Hey, you've got to play to exhaustion and then we'll get somebody else in there.' We've got to establish a tone defensively. Any other stuff about rotation and who's playing is insignificant to the major theme, which is hard play and tough defense."