The Dallas Mavericks have finally found a way to contain Steve Nash: Let him score at will.

The Phoenix point guard tore through his former team Sunday night for 48 points, yet the Mavericks’ strategists have to be pleased after Dallas’s 119-109 victory tied their second-round series at two games apiece. Nash’s gaudy point total and his third quarter for the ages – in which he scored 23 of the Suns’ 29 points – obscured several big accomplishments by the Dallas defense and called into question the merit in Nash’s MVP Award.

Entering the series, the Mavericks looked like just the team to contain Nash. The 30-year-old point guard had directed the Dallas offense for six seasons before joining Phoenix as a free agent last summer, so the Mavericks figured to have a leg up in preparing for his frenetic pace and pinpoint passing. What’s more, Nash’s departure from Dallas coincided with a refocusing of the Mavericks’ efforts on the defensive end; the team improved in Defensive Efficiency from 104.3 points allowed per 100 possessions in 2003-04 (26th in the NBA) to 101.0 this year, good for ninth in the league.

Until Sunday’s Game 4, however, Dallas had failed to build even a speed bump. Nash, who averaged 15.5 points and 11 assists per game during the regular season, averaged 20.3 and 14.3 in Games 1-3 of the series. And while Nash was singeing the Mavericks, Phoenix center Amare Stoudamire was hitting them with a flamethrower, averaging 35.7 points and 15.3 rebounds.

So it came as no surprise when Mavericks coach Avery Johnson decided to scrap his defensive strategy before Game 4 and shift the focus to Stoudemire. The shocker was that it worked so well.

In the first half, Dallas swarmed Stoudemire with defenders, cutting off passing lanes and vigorously contesting every shot. With Mavs center Erick Dampier playing behind Stoudemire, a phalanx of guards and forwards – including Josh Howard, Michael Finley, Marquis Daniels, and Jerry Stackhouse – fronted the Suns’ big man. At times, Amare must have wondered if Dallas was playing with six or seven defenders; he looked confused and frustrated as the Mavericks took a 66-50 lead into halftime and rarely saw it shrink below double digits thereafter.

Stoudemire’s totals for the night – 15 points on 3-for-8 shooting and only five boards – reflect how completely Dallas removed him from the Phoenix offense. During Nash’s amazing third quarter, the guard scored on several drives in which Dallas gave him a free path to the basket in order to deny Stoudemire the ball.

The other key to Dallas’s defensive plan was to limit Nash’s passing, and that worked like a charm. Lost amid the 48-point total is that Nash had more turnovers (9) than assists (5) for the first time all season.

By denying Nash open passing lanes, Dallas was able to keep Shawn Marion (19 points) and Quentin Richardson (13 points) slightly below their postseason averages. The Mavs also prevented reserve guard Jim Jackson from effectively filling in for the injured Joe Johnson, who is out until at least Game 6 after suffering a fractured orbital bone in Game 2.

Johnson’s absence could become a key to this series if Dallas can continue to shut down Stoudemire. One of the many marvels of the Suns’ 33-win improvement in 2004-05 is that they accomplished it with very little help from their bench. During the regular season, the Phoenix starters played 76.9% of the available minutes, by far the most in the NBA.

Now, Johnson’s absence depletes an already weak bench. Four of the Suns’ starting five logged at least 43 minutes Sunday night, their fourth game in seven days. Their fatigue became especially obvious in the fourth quarter, when the team failed to make even a semblance of a run or to mount a full court press.

The Suns will no doubt relish the extra day off this week. In their preparations for tomorrow’s Game 5, they’ll have to find a way to get Stoudemire the ball, and the most likely strategy is to move him away from the low post. Extremely agile and unbelievably quick, Stoudemire also possesses a good touch on his midrange jump shots, as evidenced by his 55.9% shooting clip this season. If Dallas continues to double-team him away from the basket, it will open up driving lanes for Marion, Richardson, and, of course, Nash.

For many, Nash’s 48-point game underscores the legitimacy of his MVP award, but it should yield more questions than answers. Game 4 made it clear that Stoudemire is the key to the Suns’ offense, and an evaluation of their season stats shows that the All-Star center is better than the All-Star point guard. Using John Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating, which tallies all of a players’ offensive contributions on a per-minute basis, Stoudemire finished with 27.23 to Nash’s 22.52.

Nash is generally regarded as an “unselfish” point guard, which is usually a veiled reference to point guards who score in bunches like Stephon Marbury and Allen Iverson. Sunday night’s game, though, was an unusual score first display from Nash. It was a complete anomaly, but also a testament to the Dallas defense that he could be taken so far off his game.

When faced with a potent offense, most defenses have to choose whom to stop. The Mavericks made the wrong choice in the first three games, but on Sunday night, they changed their focus away from the player who won the MVP Award and instead put the clamps on their opponent’s best player.