DALLAS -- The competitive spirit that burns inside Wesley Matthews wanted to outwork Kobe Bryant.

Matthews, who is quick to remind you that he’s an undrafted dude that has been proving people wrong his whole career, had heard how hard Bryant worked to return from a ruptured left Achilles tendon in a little less than eight months. Matthews’ mission after suffering the same injury last March was to work even harder.

“You heard stories about what he was doing during his [rehab] -- 1,000 calf raises a day and all that stuff,” Matthews said. “He’s obviously a driven individual, a driven athlete. Part of me, the competitor in me, was like, ‘All right, 1,000 calf raises a day? I’m going to do 1,001.’”

But “Iron Man” realized relatively early in the process that it was counterproductive to use Bryant as a measuring stick. Matthews embraced the extreme individual challenge, focusing on listening to his body, not chasing the steps of the Los Angeles Lakers legend.

Fabrice Gautier, the L.A.-based physical trainer Matthews worked with for much of the offseason, convinced him that intense exercise needed to be balanced with proper rest, regardless of how much that went against Iron Man’s nature. Gautier got Matthews to accept that the quality of his reps was more important than the quantity.

Matthews ended up beating Bryant, returning to game action several days faster than Bryant did in 2013, both coming back in less than eight months. What mattered to Matthews: He was ready for the start of the regular season, as he’d always planned, even if the Dallas Mavericks didn’t expect it when they signed him to a four-year, $70 million max deal this summer.

“I think he’s done a phenomenal job,” said Bryant, who could be making the final American Airlines Center appearance of his career Friday, when he’s questionable due to a back injury. “He and I have talked several times throughout this process. It’s tough. It’s tough to go through that, man. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. It’s very, very tough.

“But he looks good. When we saw him in L.A., I was very, very happy with the way he was moving. He seemed to be pretty comfortable. That’s a tough thing to go through."

Bryant preached patience, warning Matthews about how frustrating the process would be. Bryant originally reached out to Matthews on the early March night when Matthews was injured playing against the Mavs in Portland. They interacted occasionally when Matthews would update him at milestone moments, such as getting out of his cast and taking his first steps.

Patience isn’t Matthews’ best virtue. He has missed only one game, sitting the second night of the season. Matthews was mad as hell about that and made his feelings clearly known. He’s given the Mavs’ medical and coaching staff nothing but reasons to loosen the reins.

Matthews’ minutes restriction has been pushed up into the 30s. He played both ends of this week’s back-to-back, starring in the second game, setting season highs with 25 points, six rebounds and three assists plus locking down All-Star point guard Chris Paul during Wednesday’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers.

It’s the kind of performance Dallas’ decision-makers, confident as they were that Matthews would make a full recovery, didn’t expect until December at the earliest. It was especially sweet after all the physical agony and mental anguish he experienced over the previous eight months, when he was so often frustrated that he couldn’t fast-forward the process, or sometimes even maintain the same pace.

“My excitement for the grind would get humbled a lot,” Matthews said.

Matthews hopes that outing represents a major step. He’s still making strides with conditioning and getting the feel of the game back. He’s also getting comfortable in a new system and convincing coaches and teammates they can count on him.

“If everything around me is, ‘It’s going to be a process,’ what confidence do they have in me to go on the block consecutive times and be able to produce?” said Matthews, who is averaging 10.9 points and has the Mavs’ second-best plus-minus (plus-26). “I’m not saying they haven’t seen me do it before, but to be able to do that, they see that I have it and it’s there. For myself, I see that I have it and it’s there.”

Matthews knows he can regain the form he had the last five seasons in Portland, when he averaged 15.4 points and earned a reputation as a smart, sound, tough wing defender. Consistently playing at that level again won’t be good enough to satisfy Matthews.

“I’m thinking that I’m going to be a better player regardless,” Matthews said. “If that falls in the category of the best that anybody has ever been coming back from this injury, then so be it.”

Information from ESPN.com’s Baxter Holmes was used in this report.