The Dallas Mavericks continued through their beast of a schedule heading into the All Star break by hosting the Boston Celtics Monday night. Despite a slight misstep in New York against the Knicks on Sunday, the Mavs entered tonight’s game 6-1 seven games into their nine-game gauntlet.

It may have gone unnoticed by the rest of the country, especially on Sunday, but the current form the Mavericks are showing against some of their toughest competition serves as a reminder to astute NBA viewers how the current champions will put up a fight to defend what they won last summer.

After being declared ‘done’ by some after a slow start, reigning Finals MVP Dirk Nowitzki has quietly rounded into form and averaged 25.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game over the last nine games. While Nowitzki and the Mavs are currently trending up, the 15-15 Celtics are doing the opposite as they came into Dallas on a three-game losing streak. Two losses over that stretch were against the lowly Detroit Pistons and another against the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls.

As if they needed worse news, Boston found out before the game that they would be without starting point guard Rajon Rondo (Suspension) and again without starting power forward Kevin Garnett (Personal Reasons). In a game featuring the two league leaders in defensive field goal percentage, missing Rondo and Garnett’s offensive prowess certainly wasn’t going to help an already struggling Celtics offense.

According to the halftime score, the game followed that exact script as the Mavs held Boston to only 34 points on 41% shooting. The Celtics also held Dallas to just 41% shooting, but Dirk Nowitzki was having none of it as he continued being himself with 19 points at the half and ultimately finishing with 26 and 16 rebounds. Tonight marked another notch in the career belt of Nowitzki, as the German recorded his 1,000th career block to become only the third player to ever record 1,000 blocks and 1,000 three-pointers. He also passed Robert Parish for 20th on the All-Time scoring list against The Chief’s long time team.

Jason Kidd also got himself a montage on the big screen in the American Airlines Center as a second quarter steal moved him into second on the All-Time steals list, passing Michael Jordan.

For tonight’s game, Jason Terry also added 16 points, continuing the troubling trend of brilliance at home and debilitating shooting struggles on the road. Terry has always been a hot and cold shooter, but as evidenced in New York on Sunday, Nowitzki needs his right hand man to get back into last season’s playoffs shooting form for the Mavs to reach optimum offensive efficiency.

The final result was about what you would expect between a nearly full-strength defending champion and a struggling, injured Celtics team as Dallas easily won 89-73. The Mavericks jumped on the Celtics from the start, clearly eager to get Sunday’s bitter taste out of their mouth.

Moving to 7-1 on their difficult run through the schedule, the Mavs can make it a solid eight wins out of nine attempts with another solid showing against the Los Angeles Lakers in Dallas on Wednesday.