DENVER — This year’s iteration of the Dallas Mavericks has built a reputation for being competitive, no matter the circumstances.

It doesn’t matter if they’re short-handed because of injuries or playing through their shooting struggles, the Mavericks typically find ways to keep games close.

That trend continued on Monday night against the Denver Nuggets as they found themselves in their 17th clutch game of the season.

Dallas used a 42-point second-quarter lead to erase a 17-point deficit, which set the stage for their most impressive win of the season — a 131-121 victory over the Nuggets.

The Mavericks (7-15) captured their second consecutive win for the first time this season, but that wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for the trio of Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg and Ryan Nembhard, who posted career-highs of 28 points and 10 assists.

The two-way rookie proved himself worthy of Jason Kidd’s trust in him as the team’s starting point guard and provided a much-needed lift for a struggling offense. Nembhard made 12 of his 14 shot attempts, and made four 3-pointers.

“I thought he was great the whole game,” Kidd said. “He’s been great since we put him in the starting lineup. Being able to find guys, also his shot as we talked about. To have 28 and 10, he controlled the game. Big play down the stretch. The ball touches the paint and he finds [Max] Christie in the corner for a big 3. He took what the defense gave him. He was really good tonight.”

Nembhard scored 15 points in the third quarter to keep the Mavericks within striking distance. He knocked down a midrange fadeaway to give Dallas a nine-point lead with 1:57 left, which was the game’s final dagger.

“Just trying to be aggressive,” Nembhard said. “They’re in that deep drop with [Nikola] Jokic. Just trying to be aggressive, get downhill and make plays.”

Nembhard wasn’t the only one making plays for the Mavericks. Dallas welcomed Davis back to the lineup after he missed Saturday’s win over the LA Clippers. He reasserted himself as the team’s number one option on offense and finished with a game-high 32 points and 13 rebounds in 32 minutes. It was the second-most points he’s scored in a Mavericks uniform.

The Mavericks entered the game with the fourth-best defensive rating in the NBA, but they were tested by the league’s best offense. Without PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford, it was a tall task to stop an offense powered by Jokic.

Denver came out the gate and dropped 42 points in the first quarter, thanks to Jokic and a second-year forward by the name of Spencer Jones, who scored a career-high for the second straight game.

Jokic stuffed the stat sheet early and finished with a triple-double of 29 points, 19 rebounds and 13 assists. Jones had 28 points, 19 of which were scored in the first half. That mark surpassed his previous career-best of 16 points from the Nuggets’ win at Phoenix on Saturday. Jones was also undrafted and signed to a two-way contract, just as Nembhard was by the Mavericks.

Nembhard also accomplished history on Saturday as he became the first undrafted rookie with 25 points and 10 assists and zero turnovers and the first overall rookie to accomplish the feat since Stephon Marbury in 1996.

“It’s just a blessing,” Nembhard said. “It’s a blessing to be with this group of guys. Great group here. I just put in my work every day and stay consistent with that. When you do that, good things will happen. It was a fun night.”

The Mavericks finish their four-game road trip with a record of 2-2, which left Nuggets fans booing their own team after witnessing four consecutive home losses.

X/Twitter: @MikeACurtis2

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

On Thanksgiving Day, the Dallas Cowboys underscored their seriousness about the 2025 season with a 31-28 victory over the Chiefs, giving them wins over the last two Super Bowl champs four days apart. As the rest of the final weekend of November played out, however, the club’s status changed.

The Cowboys are not really a genuine wild-card contender. They are very much alive, however, in the NFC East. That crazy statistic about no team having won the East in consecutive seasons since 2004 is suddenly back in play.

At 6-5-1, the Cowboys have a better chance of catching the Philadelphia Eagles than they do of running down any of the wild-card contenders. The Cowboys were part of an upset special Thursday when Green Bay, Cincinnati and Dallas all beat favored teams. When the Chicago Bears surprisingly continued that trend in a Black Friday game at Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles’ lead over Dallas fell to 1 1/2 games. It had been 3 1/2 games just five days earlier.

Eagles fans fear they have seen this story before. And it’s one of an epic collapse. In 2023, coming off of a Super Bowl loss to Kansas City — a game the Eagles had tied with five minutes to play — Philadelphia began the next season on a 10-1 tear. It was a house of cards. The Eagles were winning close games by the thinnest of margins, the luckiest turn of events. When the skid came, they finished 11-6 and were blown out at Tampa Bay in a first-round playoff loss.

That season the Cowboys trailed Philly by two games with six to play and didn’t exactly go strutting down the stretch, losing consecutive games in Buffalo and Miami. But that 4-2 finish was enough to get to 12-5 and take the East back from the fading Eagles.

Can something similar happen over the next five weeks? The answer is yes, but first let’s examine why that is the Cowboys’ only practical hope for postseason play.

San Francisco has looked like a vulnerable wild-card team all season with its abundance of injuries that include lots of comings and goings among receivers and the loss of Nick Bosa and Fred Warner, their two best defenders, for the season. And leading Cleveland just 10-8 at halftime, maybe the Browns and their powerful defense would knock off the 49ers and help the wild-card cause. A fumble and a muffed punt changed all that, setting up two touchdowns and allowing San Francisco to roll on to a 9-4 record.

It’s unrealistic to think Dallas can catch any of the three West contenders — Rams and Seahawks at 9-3 and 49ers at 9-4. Add to that the Bears and Packers’ victories that leave those NFC North rivals at 9-3 and 8-3-1. All of these teams battling for the three wild-card spots in the conference have better records than the Eagles, not to mention nothing resembling Philly’s sluggish offense.

Hard to believe that the team that led the Chiefs 40-6 in last year’s Super Bowl looks so inept for such long stretches on offense. The Cowboys are the only team the Eagles scored 21 points against in their last four games. And they finished here with 41 scoreless minutes. They didn’t get their next touchdown until nearly 37 minutes deep into the Chicago game (a five-quarter stretch against the Cowboys and Bears in which they scored three points) when suddenly Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown remembered how to connect play after play.

So what lies ahead?

The Cowboys obviously have to continue their three-game win streak Thursday night in Detroit, and even with the Lions falling to the Packers, this is the toughest game remaining on Dallas’ schedule. Might even be the last time they are an underdog, pending how the Chargers are playing when they come to Dallas Dec. 21. The Cowboys will be solid favorites in all the rest against New York, Washington and the awful Minnesota Vikings, although Sunday night’s overtime game with Denver reminded us that it’s not smart to simply assume a Cowboys’ win on Christmas Day in Landover. And the Eagles have two games remaining against Washington.

Philadelphia’s schedule is slightly tougher, facing their two best opponents — the Chargers Monday night and Buffalo Dec. 28 — on the road. Even if you give the Eagles layups against the Commanders twice and the Raiders, they would have to play a lot better than they did at home against Chicago to win in LA.

So it’s not impossible by any means for the Cowboys to take a 3 1/2 game deficit and trim it to a single 1/2 game in barely two weeks. But they have work to do in Detroit, and as good as the Cowboys are properly feeling after knocking off the Eagles and Chiefs, beating a good team on the road is something Dallas has not accomplished in more than a year.

The Cowboys are back in the East race, to be sure. Now they have to do the rest.

Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.

Founded decades earlier as Bethel Baptist Tabernacle, the church in Far East Dallas had been shrinking for years. Leaders had tried to attract new worshippers to its sanctuary on Ferguson Road, but membership dwindled until it was down to a few dozen people in the early 2020s.

Mike Chism, a former associate pastor whose grandfather was a charter member of Bethel, said remaining members decided to merge with a church in Mesquite. That left Bethel with a four-acre campus of sturdy, cream-colored brick buildings surrounded by expansive parking lots they needed to sell.

The situation could have deteriorated into another disheartening story about a dying church with an empty building that decays into a neighborhood eyesore.

Instead, it’s an encouraging tale of a church determined to see something good grow on its former property and a watchful nonprofit, the Ferguson Road Initiative, that helped ensure its redevelopment fit the area’s needs. In a city where strident NIMBYism often obstructs redevelopment, it’s a story where NIMBY never happened.

“We had been members of [the Ferguson Road Initiative],” Chism said. “They were aware that we were struggling and needed help figuring out what we wanted to do with the property. They put us in touch with a developer.”

Bethel sold the property to a local developer active in the area and committed to building homes for middle-income families. The deed transferred in March. Proceeds from the sale went to the congregants’ new church home in Mesquite.

Dallas County commissioners agreed in November to kick in $1 million to help pay for underground infrastructure. By mid-2027, construction should be underway on 53 new, single-family, detached townhomes that police officers, teachers and social workers could afford to buy.

“We are absolutely committed to building ‘missing middle’ housing in this community,” said Vikki Martin, the initiative’s executive director.

Her organization’s involvement helps explain why the deal progressed relatively smoothly. The Ferguson Road Initiative has been steadily organizing neighborhood associations and crime watch groups since 1998. It does not run programs; it convenes meetings and coaches local leaders. When there’s a zoning change request, or a major property for sale, the initiative has a process to ensure local residents help guide what happens next.

Martin’s group will arrange a preliminary meeting to bring together the developer, property owner, neighborhood association leaders, relevant City Council and Plan Commission members and a few others. The leaders take the information back to their associations and solicit comment. The process leaves room for reasonable discussion and compromise.

“It’s all very organized,” Martin said. “There’s no yelling.”

The vacant church, with its distinctive, blocky tower, still stands near the intersection of North Buckner Boulevard and Ferguson Road. After it’s gone, something very different, but very much needed, will rise in its place. Bethel’s final legacy in Dallas will be new homes and an example of how redevelopment can grow from trust and goodwill.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here.

If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com