The quest for consistency took a turn no one expected last Saturday night. That’s when Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle announced forward Dirk Nowitzki would miss at least the next four games in order to get himself in the necessary shape he needs to be in for the rest of the season. It’s also a timely break for Nowitzki to take a few precautionary measures with his troublesome left knee.

At first it seemed like this break was an admission that Nowitzki’s knee was bothering him more than initially believed, but those fears were quickly squashed when it was announced Nowitzki would be doing conditioning workouts and two-a-day practices during this short hiatus from the team.

Between the shortened preseason due to the lockout, extended partying after winning the championship, and extra national team duty late in the summer, Nowitzki simply wasn’t able to go through his same routine he usually does to properly prepare for the season.

Carlisle even acknowledged before tonight’s game against the Phoenix Suns that it could be longer than just a four game absence for Nowitzki.

“If he’s not ready after four games,” Carlisle said of Nowitzki. “We may extend this thing.”

And just like that, the Mavericks were without their superstar for at least a week.

The show went on though on Saturday in New Orleans against the Hornets. The first game sans-Nowitzki was an 83-81 win despite the Hornets having a chance to tie the game on the last possession with a Jarret Jack shot in the lane that fell short. Considering the Mavericks went 2-7 over a nine game stretch without Nowitzki last year, Dallas will take any win they can get without him in any way possible.

Teams in the NBA are obviously always at a disadvantage when they are without their star players, but the Mavericks have historically become even more out of sorts than they should be without Nowitzki, despite their considerable overall talent up and down the roster. Because of how the Dallas offense relies so much on the scoring of Nowitzki and how he passes out of extra attention from opponents’ defenses, the offense becomes extremely stagnant and predictable as it gets later and later in games.

Still, this Dallas Mavericks team feels like it has a couple new factors to somewhat make up for what Nowitzki’s vast talents offer: Solid team defense and a capable backup power forward in Lamar Odom. It’s obviously very well documented this season how Odom hasn’t yet met expectations, but he has the necessary skills to step in and adequately replace some of the offensive flow that Nowitzki provides.

Conversely, there is also hope that starting a few games and eating up some more minutes will help Odom get in some kind of groove and improve on his disappointing 7.6/4.8/34% numbers. With a defense that is allowing only 88.5 points per game so far this year after holding New Orleans to just 81 on Saturday, the Mavericks firmly believe they have the tools to score just enough while stifling opposing offenses to get by while their star gets himself right.

With the Suns, as well as the Timberwolves, Jazz, and potentially the Spurs all coming to town with Nowitzki sidelined, both of those factors will need to be relevant in order for Dallas to stay afloat. Ultimately though, the resting of Nowitzki sticks closely to the “Just Get to the Playoffs” mantra Mark Cuban and the rest of the organization have echoed during this lockout shortened season of chaos.

That’s all well and good, but the regular season does have to be played other teams are going to show up, tonight in the form of the Suns. Nowitzki’s unavailability means scoring has to come from somewhere else and tonight much of that came from Shawn Marion against his former team. The last time Shawn Marion hit four three-pointers in one game was January 18th, 2008, back when he was still riding shotgun alongside Steve Nash in the Mike D’antoni offense. Those days are long gone and seemingly so was Marion’s shot from beyond the arc, but he’s showing quite a resurgence so far this year as he’s already hit nine three-pointers after combining for only eighteen over the last four seasons.

Led by the scoring of Marion (29 points on 11 of 21 shooting), as well as another solid team defensive outing by holding Phoenix to 87 points, the Mavs jumped out to a 2-0 start to the Nowitzki-less stretch of games by downing the Suns 93-87. Though not perfect, it’s a win they’ll take as the idea of a winning record over this Dirk-less stretch is becoming more of a reality than a pipe-dream.

Now, if they do continue winning over the next few games, all the Mavericks have to do is make sure they can keep the momentum going without that Nowitzki character eventually returning and destroying the great chemistry they created.

Just kidding.