DALLAS -- As poorly as the Dallas Mavericks have opened the season -- as recently as a 17-point setback at Minnesota on New Year's Day -- their two best games have come against their most important opposition.

Dallas beat the Oklahoma City Thunder convincingly Monday night, 100-87, five nights after falling at the buzzer with a big road win just 1.4 seconds and a Kevin Durant 3-pointer away. There's no question the Durant-led Thunder are a potent club and a top threat to take over the Western Conference, but Dallas continues to give their athletically superior foe multiple headaches. Including all eight of last season's matchups and the split of the first two of four regular season-games this season, the elder Mavs hold a 7-3 advantage.

Dallas' win pushed it to 2-4 and handed the Thunder their first loss after five consecutive wins to start the season.

"For us, our experience, that's all we can really fall back on," said guard Jason Kidd, who recorded a season-high nine assists to go with five rebounds on an 0-of-1 shooting night. "When you look at the age it's different. We're a little bit older than those guys, but I think just the experience of seeing just about everything. It goes back to the game we had up there; we were down, but we found a way to take the lead. Right now, that's probably the slight advantage that we do have. But they're going to get better."

Jason Terry, who had 15 points with three 3-pointers and added three assists, took a rare night off from talking to the media, so that drastically reduced the chances of a Mavs player taking the liberty of saying that they hold a psychological edge over the youthful Thunder, whose two All-Stars, Durant and Russell Westbrook, are both 23 years old -- 15 years younger than Kidd.

Remember, it was Terry, who after the 104-102 loss at OKC last Thursday, said that if the Thunder are the pick to win the West, then these re-tooled Mavs are feeling pretty good about things.

"Dallas was a better team than us last year, they proved that in the playoffs," OKC coach Scott Brooks said. "We would like to close that gap. We feel that we've gotten better, but we still have things to work on and areas to get better at. They match up well against everybody. You have one of the smartest point guards in the league and you have Dirk making the shots he makes -- he commands double-teams -- and he's a great passer now and they have good shooters around him."

But because of that age difference and the fact Dallas is still meshing its roster while the Thunder have continuity from last season, Monday's game seemed made for the Thunder to run away and hide. They followed up a Saturday blowout of Phoenix in which no one played more than 26 minutes with a day off Sunday. Meanwhile, Dallas was getting an unwanted crash course in the future of Timberwolves basketball with Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love.

Minnesota handed the Mavs a 99-82 loss on the first of a back-to-back. Monday was the other end of that, plus it was the fourth game in five nights, typically a killer, a built-in loss in this rapid-fire schedule.

"It's big," Kidd said. "I mean, this is something we're going to look at the tape tomorrow and build on because this is four [games] in five nights and most of the time with this shortened season these games are the throwaway games, you have every excuse to say, 'Hey, we're tired,' but mentally and physically we were here tonight, and that's what we have to do from here on out."

Dallas showed several encouraging signs. The defense buckled down, holding OKC to 20 points in the first quarter and 18 in the third when the Mavs broke open a 15-point lead and were never really threatened again. Their two centers, Brendan Haywood and Ian Mahinmi, again found soft spots in the OKC defense and combined for 16 points and 17 rebounds.

Vince Carter played aggressively and scored eight of his season-high 14 points at the free throw line. Lamar Odom had what coach Rick Carlisle called his best game yet. He had eight points, but showed off his versatility handling the ball at small forward in a big lineup. He also had five rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes.

"If Vince and Lamar play well off the bench, I think it helps me and Jet score. We get easier looks," said Dirk Nowitzki, who had a team-high 26 points, six rebounds and three assists. "If we attack from a lot of angles, I think we're a tough team to beat. I've always said this team has a lot of potential, a lot of scorers, a lot of veterans who know how to play. We've just got some work to do.

"I think we can be a very dangerous team."