CHICAGO -- The Mavericks watched Thursday night as Chicago Bulls' swingman Jimmy Butler poured in 53 points in an overtime win at Philadelphia.

It was not all that surprising to Wesley Matthews, who played a season with Butler at Marquette University and has watched Butler's career closely through the years.

"We knew he had a lot of talent," Matthews said after a lengthy Mavericks' shootaround Friday. "Jimmy had a hard upbringing and all that. I'm proud of the way he fought through everything. We had to coach him a lot. He was like my little brother in college and we stayed in touch after that. I'm just excited to see him continue to play hard and do everything that got him to this point in his career."

Matthews likely will spend a lot of time covering Butler when the Mavericks and Bulls tip off at 7 p.m. at the United Center.

Matthews and Butler were on the 2008-09 Marquette team that went 25-10 and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

With a pair of future highly regarded NBA players on the roster, it's a bit surprising Marquette didn't go a little further.

That comment drew a laugh from Matthews, who said: "Well he (Butler) wasn't that good back then."

No denying his abilities now. Butler is averaging 23.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game.

"It's a team responsibility and we got to make it as hard as possible," coach Rick Carlisle said of defending Butler. "He's a great player. He can score outside, inside and is great at getting to the free-throw line. We got to make it hard without fouling him. It's a hard job. Great players are hard to keep down."

The Mavericks are trying to avoid their third loss in a row, which would tie their longest skid of the season.

They also reach the 41-game mark against the Bulls, taking a 22-18 mark into tonight's game. Last season at the midpoint, they were 28-13.

Dirk Nowitzki said the Mavericks need to play with a degree of anger.

"You got to usually hit first against a physical team," he said. "I think they're the No. 1 rebounding team in this league. So you got to be in a hit-first mentality and play with a little bit of attitude, especially at the beginning of the game."

Added Matthews: "We just came off a tough loss. I wouldn't say we necessarily need to be pissed off. I'd just say we have to play tough basketball again. Everybody that didn't play (at Oklahoma City) is ready to go. We still have that bitter taste of dropping that one to Cleveland."