The Mavericks tapped into a deep reservoir of experience, using old-school traps to choke off the Thunder?s transition game. They rediscovered an inner defensive nastiness, further ratcheting up an already physical series for Game 4 here Monday night.

?Experience is always a positive factor, but it?s not a guarantee,? Dallas Coach Rick Carlisle said. ?We found that out in Game 2. There?s no next step until we got a ring on our finger.?

He added: ?We?ve got to play with an edge, and we didn?t do that at home. We were able to recapture it on the road.?

The Mavericks apparently took their 106-100 loss in Game 2 personally, and challenges were issued throughout their locker room, beginning with holding the Thunder to fewer than 100 points. Oklahoma City thrives on solo riffs from Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as they dribble, cut and slash off screens, but the Mavericks knocked them off key from the start.

?It was mostly our disposition,? Carlisle said. ?Our collective intensity and will. And we have to continue that.?

The Thunder scored only 12 points in the first quarter, and Dallas led by as many as 23 points in the first half behind balanced scoring and patient passing. The Mavericks proved vulnerable, having a 22-point lead in the second half cut to 4 late, but Dirk Nowitzki scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter to keep a complete collapse at bay.

?They came out and just played harder from the get-go,? said Westbrook, who scored 30 points, 13 of which came on free throws. ?We weren?t ready to play from the start, and it was kind of too late in the second half for us to pick it up.?

The Thunder was so harassed it hit only one 3-point shot in 17 tries, missing its first 16. Durant was 0 of 8 from 3-point range and finished with 24 points. And Oklahoma City?s 11 assists ? compared with 21 for Dallas ? illustrated the Thunder?s frustrations searching for flow on offense.

?They double-teamed a lot more and made us pass the ball,? Durant said. ?They just made it tougher on us. We?ve got to adjust, and I?m confident we will. We?ve got to figure out ways to have a better start.?

The Mavericks prevailed despite shooting significantly fewer free throws, hitting 14 of 18 to the Thunder?s 32 of 36, an indication of Dallas?s efforts to stymie Oklahoma City?s quickness.

?This is as hard a team to guard as there is in basketball,? Carlisle said, ?just because they?re great at putting constant pressure on you off the dribble, off screens, in transition, so many different ways.?

Carlisle did not seem to mind the Mavericks? being whistled for seven more fouls, although he did question some of the Thunder?s tactics against Nowitzki, who missed 10 of his first 14 shots.

?Well, they?re making a great effort on him,? Carlisle said. ?Now, I don?t know in terms of legal limits, I believe the line may be crossed at times. And if so, the league will see that.?

The Mavericks practiced Sunday at Oklahoma City Arena, where the Thunder might want to start charging them rent. Dallas won the last two regular-season meetings here, and the Mavericks? victory Saturday night was their fourth road playoff victory.

The Mavericks were 28-13 on the road this season, the best in the Western Conference and tied for the best in the N.B.A. with the Miami Heat. They found the Thunder?s style more complicated than matchups posed by the Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers, their previous playoff opponents, and they think they have solved a Sudoku in preparing with Oklahoma City for Game 4.

?We really didn?t call that many plays,? Nowitzki said. ?We just played off our defense. We moved the ball, got some good looks, and really executed.

?We had to grind it out, but we kept making plays. We kept our composure when they made a run and hit some clutch shots.?

Nick Collison, assigned mostly to guard Nowitzki in this series, said it was now the Thunder?s turn to find an answer for the Mavericks? veteran savvy.

?They came out and had a lot more energy than we did,? he said. ?They had more of an edge. I think they were the hungrier team.?