Dirk Nowitzki disagrees with the strategy laid out by Mark Cuban for the Mavericks to tank the remainder of the season.

"You don't really want a culture here that's just giving up and quitting and not playing hard," Nowitzki said after Monday's win by the Mavericks over the Pacers. "I think it just sets the wrong tone for the future.

"I think it's important for our young guys to learn how to compete and to compete all the time, play hard. You play your minutes hard. That's the only way to get better. That's the only way to play in this league, and whatever happens after the season, we'll just go from there. But for now, you play your minutes hard and you play to win."

The win was the first one by the Mavericks since Cuban received a $600,000 fine for revealing that he told his team that tanking was the best course for the franchise.

"You don't want to have an acceptance of losing," Harrison Barnes told ESPN. "Obviously, the quotes about tanking and all that type of stuff, you can't avoid that. We've been getting asked about that since they were said, but at the end of the day as professionals, as players, you have to go out there and you have to play to win.

"Any time you don't play to win or you're just kind of going through the motions, that can become contagious. That can become a habit, and that can become your culture. 'Oh, it's OK for us to do this. Oh, it's OK for us to not give full effort.' Then next season rolls around, and you can't flip that switch. It's still that malaise that you had from the year before."