Avery Johnson calls it a revolving door at shooting guard for the Mavericks these days.

But it seems like whoever comes wheeling through that portal makes his case for sticking around for a while.

Moe Ager, who hadn't done much more than keep a chair warm on the bench in the first seven games, was the latest to blast into the starting lineup. With the injury to Eddie Jones, Johnson is mixing and matching in rapid-fire fashion.

All Ager did was score more points in the first quarter Thursday than he had the rest of the season. He threw down a wicked dunk to cap a fast break late in a 17-1 blitz that staked the Mavericks to an early 20-8 lead against San Antonio.

Give Ager credit for being patient while he played just two of the first seven games (13 minutes, total).

"We thought he was OK, overall," Johnson said. "He didn't do anything crazy. He bought us 20 minutes, and I was only hoping for 16.

"That's just the way we feel we need to go right now. We're going to give it a look. Even if he'd played bad, I think he would have started the next game. I'm going to have some patience there. He's been awfully good overall in practices."

Johnson said Ager made one glaring mistake, allowing a wide-open Bruce Bowen 3-pointer. Other than that, the second-year player who made one start as a rookie passed the test, his second in two days.

"I gave him a surprise quiz yesterday in front of the whole team on some of our defensive coverages – and he passed," Johnson said.

Ager, who finished with five points and three assists, was asked what was tougher, the test or the start against the defending NBA champions.

"The test," he said.

Picking his spots: Thursday night was not a time for resting key players, but the subject of preserving heavy lifters for times when the stakes are higher was a hot topic beforehand.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said there is no telling how many numbers he's robbed Tim Duncan of by not playing him 40 minutes per game.

"I always tell Timmy I've screwed his legacy up forever," Popovich said. "Timmy, he understands. Over the years, I've wrecked his lifetime stats immeasurably by sitting him in fourth quarters. He could have more points and rebounds without a doubt."

That begs the question of whether Johnson will start sitting Dirk Nowitzki more often, perhaps even in games that aren't blowouts. So far this season, Nowitzki has averaged 36 minutes per game; Duncan 32.3 minutes. Four minutes per game over 80 games equates to playing nearly seven fewer games in a season.

"It's very valuable," Popovich said. "I try to sit those guys as much as I can during the regular season, have some days off here and there and hopefully feel like there's some money in the bank when you get to playoff time."

Patience is a virtue: Devin Harris doesn't think it's a big deal about being left off of the All-Star ballot. His coach thinks it will do nothing but delay the inevitable.

"That's out of our control," Johnson said. "I think he should let his game do his talking for him. He'll have his name on the ballot, and he's probably going to make it [into the game] down the road."

Johnson, by the way, remembers the first time he was on the All-Star ballot.

"Somewhere around the mid- '90s," he said, "I guess because the game was in San Antonio."

Repeat after him: The Spurs already are growing tired of answering questions about why they never repeat as champions. Their titles have come in 1999, 2003, '05 and '07.

"The hardest thing? It's to stay motivated and to make sure we play as though we didn't win a championship," point guard Tony Parker said. "It's a great motivation for us because we didn't do it in '04 and '06. So I think everybody understands how hard it is to repeat, and that's why I think we got enough motivation."

And then there's Popovich's take.

"I'm not trying to repeat," Popovich said. "We're just trying to win a championship. It's no different than any other year. It's difficult to win a championship. Repeating has nothing to do with it."

Avery was never right: Popovich still loves to relive Johnson's playing days. He particularly likes to discuss that Johnson was a pure left-hander.

"It was always amazing to me," Popovich said. "I don't remember him going right once in his life, and he still beat everybody in the league going left. They never figured it out. That's all he did, was go left – and tell me what to do. Those are the only two things he ever did."