Kristaps Porzingis was back on the floor and the Mavericks looked completely different than they did, oh, about 24 hours earlier.
Which was a very good thing.
The Mavericks shook off the hangover of a lousy Tuesday in Memphis and smothered the New Orleans Pelicans 125-107 Wednesday at American Airlines Center as Porzingis returned after two weeks on the shelf and Luka Donu010diu0107 got back to being Luka Donu010diu0107.
The dominant win pushed the Mavericks to 41-29 with two games remaining in the regular season. Their magic number for clinching one of the top six playoff spots was reduced to one,
One more win, or a loss by the Los Angeles Lakers (who played late Wednesday against Houston) will assure the Mavericks the No.