Let’s play a word-association game. What’s the first word that comes to your when I mention the Dallas Mavericks? Offense? Shooting? Run-and-Gun? Soft?

Besides “Benefactor,” those are the words the Mavericks conjure up. In recent years, they have become synonymous with a wide-open, offensive style of play that puts virtually no emphasis on defense.

That playing style produced, in my estimation, the greatest offensive team in history last season. The 2003-04 Mavericks were further above the league average in Offensive Efficiency – my measure of how many points a team scores for each 100 possessions – than any other team since 1973-74 (when the league first tracked turnovers). The 2002-03 version of the Mavs weren’t far behind, ranking fifth on the chart.

While all that offense was ridiculously entertaining, it proved ultimately un satisfying. The Mavs met a familiar fate in last year’s playoffs, getting dropped in five games by Sacramento for the second time in three years.

This off-season, though, we witnessed the dismantling of the dreaded Dallas attack. First and foremost, Phoenix outbid the Mavs for the services of point guard Steve Nash. The Suns subsequently rocketed to the top of the offensive charts under Nash’s aegis, while point guard has been a trouble spot for Dallas all season.

In an effort to patch the hole left by Nash’s departure, Dallas sent high-scoring forward Antawn Jamison to Washington in return for swingman Jerry Stackhouse and rookie point guard Devin Harris. Jamison has keyed the Wizards’ resurgence this season, while Harris disappointed when handed the reigns at point guard to start the season.

The Suns and Wizards aren’t the only teams who can thank the Mavs. Amazingly, Dallas unwittingly triggered the resurgence of a third team when they sent Danny Fortson to Seattle for backup center Calvin Booth. Fortson’s career regained traction in the Northwest, while Booth is still, well, a backup center.

Not yet satisfied, the Mavs kept dealing. In what was perhaps their only intelligent move, they sent unrepentant gunner Antoine Walker to Atlanta for guard Jason Terry and forward Alan Henderson. They immediately undid the good from the deal, though, when they completed a sign-and-trade deal with Golden State for center Erick Dampier. Dampier gave Dallas its first “real” center of the Dirk Nowitzki era, but the Mavs paid as much for him as Phoenix paid for Nash. Too bad, because Dampier has been a bust, averaging 8.9 points and 7.5 rebounds a game.

All these offseason missteps have crushed the Dallas offense. The Mavs now rank fourth in the NBA with an Offensive Efficiency of 106.9, “only” 4.1 points above the league average. Relative to the league, they’ve lost roughly five points a game, and since each point in victory margin is worth about 2.7 wins, such a sharp drop in productivity would normally cost a team about 13 wins. Subtracting from last year’s total of 52, that should have led the Mavs into a 39-43 disaster this year.

Guess again. In reality, they could well surpass last season’s win total. Right now, they’re 28-13, and that’s without backcourt ace Marquis Daniels, who’s missed most of the season with an ankle injury.

The Mavs have coped with the tremendous loss of offensive output by completely changing their stripes on defense. Last season’s Mavericks were the fourth-worst defensive team in the league with a Defensive Efficiency of 105.2, but this year they’re the sixth best, allowing just 100.7 points per 100 possessions.

Dallas is 2.1 points better than the league average on defense, compared to 4.4 below a year ago – a gain of 6.5 points relative to the league. In other words, the Mavs more than made up for the offensive deficit with their defensive improvement.

How’d they do it?

The lion’s share of the credit can go to two players: Josh Howard and Nowitzki. In his second season, Howard has taken over the starting guard spot vacated by Daniels and blossomed into a determined defender. He’s 6-foot-7 with extremely long arms, making him an imposing obstacle to shoot over. At the same time, his lateral movement is outstanding, so beating him off the dribble is no cinch, either.

Howard won’t get All-Defense consideration because players’ reputations tend to lag behind their performance in this area (similar to baseball’s Gold Gloves), but he’s one of the premier defenders in the league right now.

And surprise, surprise, so is Nowitzki. This is where the Dampier acquisition, despite his underwhelming play, has paid serious dividends. The Mavs played Nowitzki out of position at center for most of last season, which meant he could feast on offense but got pounded defensively, with teams routinely abusing the Mavs in the paint. This year, he’s playing power forward, and at 7-feet-tall with good agility, the position suits his talents much better.

Nowitzki also deserves credit for his efforts to improve on the defensive end of the floor. Just two years ago, he was a massive liability no matter which position he played, but this season he’s been noticeably more determined and focused on defense.

Wednesday night’s win in Portland was a good example. With Dallas clinging to a 91-88 lead in the final seconds, it was Nowitzki who stepped in front of a Nick Van Exel pass to make the game clinching steal. It finished off a night when the Mavs held Portland to 40.5% shooting, and Nowitzki’s final line included two blocks, two steals, and 14 defensive rebounds. It was the seventh time in eight games a Dallas opponent failed to score 100 points, and the sixth time in seven games an opponent shot 43% or less.

The revamped Howard-Nowitzki-Dampier arrangement has had an additional side benefit – no more gimmick defenses. With Nowitzki playing center and no stopper on the wings, Dallas coach Don Nelson felt compelled to throw zones, traps, and all other manner of tricks at opponents. Some nights it worked, sort of, but often it exposed new holes in an already overstretched arrangement. Thanks to their improved defensive lineup, the Mavs no longer rely on smoke and mirrors.

So while it’s easy to get starry-eyed wondering how good this team might be if Nash, Jamison, and Fortson were still in Dallas, one can’t help but be impressed by the team’s resolve in the face of so much off-season tumult. This year’s Mavs won’t go down as the greatest offense in history. But, even more impressive, they may go down as a better team than the greatest offense in history.