Back in November, when the Dallas Mavericks were 2-11 and owners of the NBA’s worst record, Mark Cuban insisted his team wouldn’t tank until at least some time in late March, but it appeared then the Mavs had little choice, what with a roster split between inexperienced upstarts and ailing veterans.

But mothertruckers act like they forgot about Rick Carlisle.

Inspired by their unconventionally brilliant coach who in the past week alone has described them as “a s*** team” and literally drew a reset button on his whiteboard during a game, the Mavs have won eight of their last 11 games and three in a row — including back-to-back wins over the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers — to climb within 2.5 games of the Western Conference’s eighth seed.

[Follow Ball Don’t Lie on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Tumblr]

Should the Mavericks make the playoffs for an eighth time in Carlisle’s nine seasons, this season belongs among his most masterful performances, which also include the 2010-11 NBA title campaign. We could do our best to describe what Carlisle has molded the Mavericks into, and it would not be better than the description the coach came up with on his own after Monday’s upset of the Cavs:

How, exactly, has Carlisle shaped this “s*** team” into “an underrated s*** team”? Let’s take a look.

The simple answer is the Mavericks replaced undrafted rookie Dorian Finney-Smith in the starting lineup with low-cost free agent Seth Curry — younger brother of the NBA’s two-time reigning MVP — a move that has coincided exactly with the team’s 8-3 stretch since Jan. 12. And then they inserted 10-day D-League signee Yogi Ferrell into the starting spot left vacant by an injured Deron Williams, a necessary adjustment that’s timed up seamlessly with the team’s current three-game win streak.

In 76 minutes over three games together, that duo has steered an offense that’s outscored opponents by 16.2 points per 100 possessions, operating at the helm of what would be a top-10 offense and the top-ranked defense if maintained over the whole season. Small sample size, for sure, but no less remarkable, considering Curry and Ferrell are scrap-heap signings making a combined $3 million.

“I’ve just been joking around a little bit lately,” Curry told the Dallas Morning News of a change in tone with the texts he’s been sending his All-Star brother, “saying, ‘Me and Yogi [Ferrell] need to be thrown into that best backcourt conversation [with Steph Curry and Klay Thompson] over the past few days.”

[Sign up for Yahoo Fantasy Basketball | Mock Draft | The Vertical | Latest news]

More precisely, Dallas is slowing the game down, limiting games to a league-low pace of 94.1 over the past three weeks, and then out-executing opponents on those fewer possessions, submitting the NBA’s lowest turnover rate while forcing the opposition into the league’s second-highest turnover rate in that same span. Curry and Ferrell’s combined averages of 33.7 points, 10 assists and four steals over the past three games have reflected the sort of stingy two-way effort that’s resuscitated the Mavs.

And when they weren’t, Carlisle found a creative way to get them back on track against the 76ers:

With 4:40 remaining in the second quarter, Carlisle called a timeout and literally drew a reset button on his whiteboard. Curry pushed the imaginary button, and the result was an 8-0 run that catapulted the Mavericks to a 113-95 victory. Afterwards, Carlisle told reporters Curry’s first half to that point was “very much below his standards,” and the 26-year-old point guard concurred, according to Mavs.com:

In addition to their patchwork backcourt and relatively consistent contributions (when healthy) from vets Dirk Nowitzki, Harrison Barnes, Wes Matthews, Andrew Bogut, J.J. Barea and Devin Harris, Dallas has squeezed production from the likes of Salah Mejri (16 points and 17 rebounds against the Sixers), Dwight Powell (14 and 8 against the Cavs) and Justin Anderson (19 and five in a win over the Lakers).

There is no one lineup Carlisle has relied upon much more than another, mixing and matching as he sees fit, and finding his best success in the sort of small-ball lineups with Barnes at power forward that made the Golden State Warriors such a juggernaut — only playing at a snail’s pace. The result has been the league’s third-best net rating (9.5) since Jan. 12 and tops overall (16.2) in the past six games.

Either Carlisle is pushing all the right buttons, or his players are giving superhuman effort. Or both:

These are the sort of machinations that a skilled coach can draw with under-appreciated young, hungry players willing to learn under the relentlessly methodic guidance of Nowitzki. The question of whether they can sustain this success and secure an up-for-grabs eighth seed isn’t easily answerable, but consider this: According to NBAstuffer.com metrics, the Mavs have played the West’s toughest schedule to date, and only the last-place Phoenix Suns have an easier road the rest of the way.

So, it seems Cuban will have to keep his tank parked in the garage until game 82 for another year.

More NBA coverage from The Vertical:

– – – – – – –

Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach