"I don't think it was them," said Stephon Marbury, who was just 2-for-10 from the field. "I think it was us tonight. We were just making mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes."

Cuban said he began to soften his stance after spending some time with Dirk Nowitzki in Las Vegas in July. Once he got back to Dallas and spoke to his wife, friends and some other players, he began to lean against selling the team.

"As far as my obligation to the players, I thought I owed them more," Cuban said. "They've worked too hard. Hopefully, we'll see this all through to the end."

Did Cuban come to realize he would have regretted selling the team?

"I wouldn't have regretted it at all," Cuban said. "That would have been a nice opportunity to get some things off my chest, which I would have enjoyed immensely.

"It's not about regret. It's about obligation and commitment and respect and community and being part of Dallas. You guys don't see 99 percent of the things that really make running the team feel good. You get letters and e-mails and calls from people in the hospital, saying Mavs games is what makes it OK to go to chemo. That's their motivation to fight through.

The defending Western Conference champions have taken it to another level this season, as has Nowitzki, who after an 0-4 start, helped the Mavs win 51 of their next 56 games.

He has improved a heck of a lot as a leader, too. Terry said when things didn't go well on the court before, Nowitzki didn't handle it well, but "this year he's encouraging guys and at the same time correcting what error went on and he's doing it in a positive way. That's where he's taken his biggest strides, I think."

That's just another sign of a MVP.