In keeping with the theme of doing things a little differently this season, the Mavericks wrapped up a nice week of rest and relaxation before they taking off today for sunny South Beach.

This whole season has been atypical, compared to the past couple, so it stands to reason. They continued to make up for ground lost weeks and months ago, shellacking Indiana, 116-97, Friday night at American Airlines Center. It was the Mavericks' fourth win in a row, all at home, and each victory came by at least 19 points.

It was like a little vacation before heading to a party capital like Miami.

And yet, the concept of "taking care of business" seems to apply to the Mavericks in this stretch. They can't do anything about who's on the schedule. All they can do is try to pile up cheap wins, which they have done.

The schedule turns nasty next week.

"I think so far we've made improvement," said Dirk Nowitzki. "I don't think we've been really consistent over a whole game yet. But we've shown some great stretches.

"We'll see how far we are next week when teams challenge us more. Hopefully, Jason [Kidd] can use these games to get more and more adjusted to what we're doing. And Josh [Howard] is playing at a high level again."

Howard got off to a quick start with eight points and three assists in the first quarter, when the Mavericks went up by 14. He finished with 18 points and spearheaded a defense that limited the Pacers to 38.2 percent shooting.

Nowitzki led the way with 21 points for the Mavericks, but Jerry Stackhouse had 14, including a nice piece of payback right before halftime, when he thought he was fouled on a drive to the basket but didn't get a whistle.

On the ensuing inbounds play, he took a nice pass from Erick Dampier and nailed a 17-footer for a 62-46 advantage at the break.

"We still have issues to work out," coach Avery Johnson said. "But more than anything, the guys are bringing emotion, they're bringing energy, and they seem to have their batteries recharged somewhat, and they know there's not much of the season left."

The Maverick have one more cupcake left, visiting the league-worst Miami Heat on Sunday (5 p.m. tip). Then three legitimate title contenders – the Los Angeles Lakers, Boston and San Antonio – come to Dallas in a six-day span.

About the only hint of drama Friday was when the Mavericks were up by 19 points with just under 10 minutes left. Before the game, Johnson addressed why he had reinserted his starters into Wednesday's game against Charlotte, despite owning a 31-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

"Our pick-and-roll defense, we had some severe breakdowns in some games," Johnson said. "The other day, I was asked why I put my starters back in. It's because I wanted to work on zone defense. So there's some games being played within the games. And we're trying to win at the same time."

Then, in the fourth quarter against the Pacers, Nowitzki, who had played just 21 minutes in three periods, was put back into the game, and the full starting lineup stayed on the floor for more than five minutes.

We tried to go to our zone defense when we had a good lead, and we messed it up," Johnson said. "We screwed it up so bad, we couldn't even go back to it. That will be a point of emphasis at practice."

It's one of those things that could come in handy when the level of competition rises.

Nowitzki, who never likes coming out of games, dismissed the late playing time with a joke.

"It's kind of hard for me," he said. "I got a little ADD going. For me to stay focused when we're up 20 is not always easy. There's a lot of distractions in the arena.

But it's good for everybody to get some time now."