RISING ABOVE IT ALL

DALLAS

The durable All-Star is on the injured list for the first time in his career. The leading scorer has missed games because of problems with both ankles. Ineffectiveness, not injuries, forced several highly paid big men to the bench.

The coach went from celebrating a major career milestone to learning his wife has breast cancer. And the owner just racked up the biggest individual fine in NBA history, doubling the record he set last season.

Add it up, and the Dallas Mavericks sure seem like a team in turmoil.

Yet a check of the standings shows the Mavericks are still among the top teams in the Western Conference, which proves their success last season was no fluke.

At 24-11 going into tonight's home game against Indiana, Dallas is battling San Antonio and Minnesota for the lead in the Midwest Division and is among a five-team cluster atop the Western Conference.

The Mavericks also are two games ahead of last season, when they went 53-29, their best record in 13 years, and reached the second round of the playoffs.

"I think we've kind of set the tone now that we're a playoff team," coach-general manager Don Nelson said. "Where we settle in, whether it's fourth, fifth, sixth, I think if we get healthy at the end, then we have a chance to be a really good team."

Anything's better than before

Considering the Mavericks were a really bad team for a really long time, being able to weather their rocky first half is a tremendous step in their development.

Heck, it wasn't so long ago that Dallas couldn't win 24 games in an entire season even with everyone healthy.

"We're all older and better and we have more players this year, we're deeper, so I think we're able to handle situations that we weren't ready for a few years ago," said Steve Nash, the Mavericks' first-half MVP. "Hopefully this is a work in progress and by the end of the season we'll be a much more formidable opponent for the rest of the West."

Injuries to Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki, poor play by Shawn Bradley and Evan Eschmeyer and Nelson's spark-seeking demotion of Juwan Howard to sixth man have resulted in 18 lineups the first 35 games. That's only two less than Dallas used in 82 games last season.

Back in better health

Nash is the only player to have started every game and Howard the only other who has played in every one. Last season, Nash missed 12 games while Finley and Nowitzki started them all.

Nowitzki, who is among the league leaders at 23.4 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, has had trouble with both ankles; part of his problem came from jamming a foot into a shoe.

Finley has a strained hamstring that on Dec. 29 forced him to end his NBA-leading streak of consecutive games at 490. He missed two games, then reaggravated the injury in his second game back and went on the injured list. The soonest he can return is Thursday.

"I'm going to practice him, be observant, see where he is, then make my decision," said Nelson, who criticized himself for letting Finley come back too quickly the first time.

About the time Finley gets back, Nelson will leave for a few games to be with his wife, Joy, when she undergoes treatment for breast cancer. Their son, Donnie, will take over, the way he did last season when his dad missed 21 games while fighting prostate cancer.