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Johnson encouraged about team's ability to weather busy stretch

The Mavericks aren't exactly twiddling their thumbs waiting for this interminable four-day break between games to end.

They got Tuesday off, sort of. After arriving home at 4 a.m. from Sacramento, they spent the day trying to get their body clocks readjusted.

Wednesday and Thursday were geared to conditioning. The Mavericks spent time mostly in the weight room and working on their shots and defense.

It's the conditioning aspect that has coach Avery Johnson encouraged with his team going into a six-game stretch in 10 days. Last week, the Mavericks won games at Seattle and in Los Angeles against the Clippers in different ways on back-to-back nights.

"I think our conditioning had a lot to do with that," Johnson said.

Dirk the dominator: Dirk Nowitzki has gotten on a nice run lately and, while he still hasn't hit one of those rolls where he's consistently scoring 30 points a night, he's on the rise, which is what his coach wants to see.

"He's in a good mental state right now," Johnson said. "Dirk's going up the mountain right now, and it's good to see that."

Nowitzki even pulled out his lefty hook shot a few times recently. He's been working on the shot for years, but has used it in games only sparingly.

"For a guy his size, he can make quick moves," Johnson said. "It's good to see him have the confidence to use it [the hook]."

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