The distractions of the last few days didn’t carry over to the court in Game 3. Instead of focusing on the circus around them, the Mavericks zeroed in on what happens between the lines.

This first-round clash with New Orleans is about basketball and the Mavs got back to playing some with their season on the brink. Avery Johnson’s team isn’t out of the woods yet, but following up Friday’s 97-87 victory with another aggressive effort would give the Mavs a fighting chance Sunday.

“We’ll just keep teaching and challenging, encouraging, prodding, hugging, whatever it takes,” Johnson said Saturday after practice. “They had a chance to see the difference between Game 2 and this game, and they liked more of what they saw in this game. Now it’s just a matter of coming out and trying to get better. We still think we can get better.”

If they do get better in Game 4 at American Airlines Center, the series could be knotted up. Getting back to even would turn the best-of-7 into a best-of-3, with two of the three potential games on the Hornets’ floor. But the only concern for the Mavs at the moment is protecting their hardwood once again.

“Everyone has written us off and said the series is over,” Jason Kidd said. “We feel that there is a lot of basketball to be played. And we can take a page from New Orleans and understand that they protected their home court, and we have to do the same and try to tie this series at 2-2.”

Protection has become a key as the series begins to get a little chippy. Dirk Nowitzki was involved in incidents with Tyson Chandler and David West in New Orleans. Game 3 featured Chris Paul shoving Nowitzki in the first quarter – a foul wasn’t called – and Erick Dampier’s flagrant-inducing half-tackle of Paul in the fourth.

Jason Terry came to Nowitzki’s defense and faced up to Paul after the first incident, while plenty of words were exchanged from both sides in the latter. It’s not exactly Bulls-Pistons circa 1990, but the Mavs are starting to show some of the nerve Johnson had been waiting to see.

“It hadn’t been that physical, but as far as who was winning that battle, they were,” Terry said. “I thought last night we did a better job with our physicality and, hey, it’s going to be a tough series. It’s going to be a tough, hard-fought series, and the team that’s more aggressive will have the edge.

“Not saying they’re going to win, but they will have the edge. Momentum is everything. We got our first win. We got our feet in the series. Now it’s our job to take care of business once again tomorrow night.”

Being more physical and aggressive helped keep Paul in check for the first time in the series, as Terry and Kidd led the defensive effort against the dynamic point guard. Those two traits are also often rewarded with more trips to the foul line. The Mavs made 28 of 38 free throws in Game 3, compared to 13 of 13 for New Orleans.

“We don’t want anybody to give us anything,” Johnson said. “We just want to earn it. Make aggressive moves. We’re a team that knows we can’t beat anybody just on jump shots. We tried that experiment already and it didn’t work, especially for most of this season. We’ve got to mix up our games and hopefully get some wide open looks.”

If the Mavs stay with that course, perhaps the first true stretch of consistent basketball would follow.

“It’s kind of been the cycles of the season for us,” Johnson said. “It would be nice for us to just hit a good wave. We’ve had times over the last couple of years where we’ve gone on big, huge winning streaks. We’ve done it in playoffs and the regular season.

“And this year we haven’t had any sort of really sustained momentum for a long period of time. Like I keep telling the team, this would be a good time to start.”