Amar'e Stoudemire has been here only a few weeks and he's already questioned the Dallas Mavericks' practice habits.

Coach Rick Carlisle questioned his team's effort, and its soul two days ago. He had every right to do it, since the Mavs had gone 8-8 since the All-Star break, losing seven games by 10 points or more.

And with the Mavs playing San Antonio Spurs on the seemingly rare night when the Spurs' stars -- Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili -- each were available, the season seemed at yet another crossroad.

Well, the Mavs showed us exactly what they're capable of doing when they play with maximum effort.

Dallas 101, San Antonio 94.

The win keeps the Mavs in seventh place in the Western Conference, percentage points behind the Spurs and two games behind Portland in the loss column for fourth place in the West.

If Monta Ellis plays with the same kind of purpose he showed in Tuesday's win, it will go a long way toward pushing the Mavs further in the playoffs. Jerome Miron/USA TODAY Sports

Dallas and San Antonio meet again Friday in San Antonio, which is why it was so important for the Mavs to win this game.

Now it's time for the Mavs to figure out a way to put their internal strife -- there seems to be quite a bit of it -- behind them and focus on playing winning basketball.

Do that, and the other stuff really does take care of itself.

If Monta Ellis, who scored 38 points while making 16 of 27 shots, plays with the same kind of purpose the rest of the season, then he won't have to worry whether the Mavs are going to give him the lucrative, long-term deal he craves.

Rajon Rondo, who spent the final few minutes on the bench, should take a similar approach. As for any personality conflicts, winning usually solves those. For as long as there have been sports, there have been teammates who managed to get along during games no matter how they felt about each other after the final whistle.

Winning also keeps Carlisle's occasionally abrasive personality and constantly demanding approach from beating the players down. The Mavs beat San Antonio because they played together, and they played with desperation.

They started slowly, trailing by 14 in the first quarter, but refused to fold mentally the way they've done way too often lately.

"We started playing harder," Chandler Parsons said. "They were getting every loose ball and every offensive rebound in the first quarter, and then we started imposing our will and making them play our style.

"We want to play more consistently, and play like we did in the second half. It's never about talent with us, it's about competing."

Rondo and Parsons each dove for loose balls in the second quarter. In the third quarter, Devin Harris sprinted the length of the court to prevent a layup, and in the fourth quarter Dirk Nowitzki drew a three-second violation with a terrific defensive sequence on Tiago Splitter.

Al-Farouq Aminu went into the stands along the baseline to save a ball to Dirk, who pumped-faked, gathered himself and drilled a 3-pointer that gave the Mavs an 81-66 lead a minute into the fourth quarter.

See, that's how these Mavs must play every night. They're lying to themselves if they think they can win any other way.

They can't. They're not good enough.

"We got into a hole, but everybody kept playing," Carlisle said, "and everybody kept digging in and believing in what we're doing, believing in each other and encouraging each other, and we got through it. It was a really important win for us right now."

The Mavs have taken risks to put together a team it believes can make a deep playoff run in the Western Conference, but that is the Mark Cuban way, because he's about winning titles.

So the Mavs added players such as Rondo and Stoudemire, who will be free agents at the end of the season. They signed veteran role players such Richard Jefferson and Charlie Villanueva to one-year deals.

And they pray the culture of winning that's been established during Dirk's tenure will keep everybody fighting for the same prize. It's beautiful when it works, but it can be tricky to keep everyone pulling in the same direction when the season has difficult moments, because those guys don't necessarily have the sweat equity to endure.

Last year, they did, and the Mavs forced San Antonio into Game 7 in the first round.

Ten games remain in the regular season, and we're still trying to determine whether this team has what it takes to make a run. Perhaps, beating the Spurs was an important clue.