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SAN ANTONIO -- Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle found plenty of positives in his teams performance against San Antonio. His counterpart, Gregg Popovich, could not stomach the Spurs awful and pathetic play.Oh, by the way, San Antonio won.Kawhi Leonard had 24 points and nine rebounds, and the Spurs escaped with a 96-91 victory over the struggling Mavericks on Monday night for their sixth straight win.Dallas (2-11) is off to its worst start since 1993-1994, when the Mavericks opened 1-23 in a 13-win season. But they put a scare in San Antonio, which had to keep Leonard on the floor for much of the fourth quarter.This was a pathetic performance on the part of the Spurs, Popovich said in a 30-second postgame interview. You know, they had some guys out, we had some guys out, but they had a lot more out than we did. I thought we showed a lack of humility, a lack of respect for the opponent, a very pathetic performance at both ends of the court. It was an awful performance. Oh, and they deserved to win the basketball game, I forgot to say that.Dallas almost did.With the Mavericks trailing 92-91, Harrison Barnes missed a step-back 17-footer with 15 seconds left that Manu Ginobili rebounded before being fouled. Ginobili hit a pair of free throws to extend the lead to three, and Seth Curry missed a 3-pointer with 6 seconds remaining.Curry matched a career high with 23 points, shooting 5 for 10 on 3s. Barnes and Wesley Matthews each had 20 points in the Mavericks sixth consecutive loss.Its tough, but the guys were fighting their (rear ends) off and theres a lot of positives, Carlisle said. Weve got to build on positives.San Antonio has won six straight against Dallas and 12 in a row at home.The once-heated rivalry between the Texas teams has cooled considerably with the Spurs sustained success and the Mavericks injuries and free-agent troubles.Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki and starting point guard Deron Williams both missed the game with injuries. San Antonio starters LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker were in uniform but neither played as Popovich opted to rest his veterans.Spurs rookies Dejounte Murray and Davis Bertans made their first starts in place of Parker and Aldridge, respectively, and fellow rookie Bryn Forbes also saw extended playing time early.Barnes took advantage of the inexperience, making all but one of his six attempts in scoring 10 points in the opening quarter.Dallas shot 8 for 27 on 3s.I think we really did an awful lot of good things, Carlisle said. Theres going to be missed shots, but it was one of our better shooting nights this season so far, so thats a positive.The Spurs enjoyed greater success when their veterans took the court.We let ourselves down in terms of bringing the energy and effort that we usually are pretty solid at, said Spurs reserve Patty Mills, who had 17 points. I dont think we were consistent throughout tonight. We win them together and we lose them together. We get better together.Leonard drove the lane and dropped a bounce pass between Dwight Powell and Dorian Finney-Smith that David Lee dunked ahead of a foul by Salah Mejri to pare the lead to 63-62. After Ginobili missed a 3-pointer, Lee tipped out the rebound to Mills for a 3 that gave San Antonio a 68-65 lead.Dallas had eight turnovers in the fourth quarter, which resulted in 12 points for San Antonio.Pau Gasol added 16 points and eight rebounds for the Spurs.TIP-INSMavericks: Nowitzki (strained right Achilles), Williams (strained left calf) and G Jose Juan Barrera (strained left calf) did not travel with the team. ... The last undrafted player to score 26 points in his first or second game prior to the Mavericks Jonathan Gibson doing so Saturday in Orlando was Spurs guard and New York playground legend Lloyd Daniels. He had 26 points on Nov. 7, 1992, at Denver. Both players hit the mark in their second game. ... Curry also had 23 points Nov. 8 in a 109-97 victory at the Los Angeles Lakers.Spurs: Leonard has scored in double figures in 48 straight games, the longest streak of his career. He is 95 for 100 on free throws this season. ... Gasol has played 37,565 career minutes, moving him past Clyde Drexler (37,537) for 49th in NBA history. ... G Nico Laprovittola missed the game with what Popovich described as a tooth-extraction thingy. ... The Spurs have established the longest home winning streak in series history. Dallas won 11 straight matchups at home from 1986-89.WINNING WAYSPopovich became the second-fastest coach to 1,100 career wins, doing so in 1,588 games. Phil Jackson collected his 1,100th victory in 1,560 games with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. Popovich is the seventh coach in NBA history with 1,100 wins.INJURIES MOUNTMavericks players have missed 31 games due to injury this season. Devin Harris (12), Nowitzki (nine) and Williams (six) have all missed at least a half dozen. Barnes said Dallas doesnt believe a return to health will cure all that ails the team on the court.We just have to stay vigilant and just continue to keep fighting the way we do, Barnes said. We just cant assume once we get Player X, Player Y, Player Z, the wins will start falling in place. Weve just got to keep plugging away.UP NEXTMavericks: Host the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday.Spurs: At the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday. Marshall Faulk Youth Jersey . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. Pat McAfee Youth Jersey . "Jeff is a hard worker who was an important special-teams contributor for us last season," said Stamps GM John Hufnagel. http://www.officialindianapoliscoltspro.com/Marshall-faulk-colts-jersey/ . The third-ranked Ivanovic, who won the event in 2008 and 10, served five aces and broke Wickmayer, also a former winner in 2009, five times. "The result looked easier than it really was," Ivanovic said. Malik Hooker Womens Jersey . The Americans, skipped by John Shuster, seized the advantage in the eighth end by scoring five points for a 7-3 lead. The Czechs pulled two back in the ninth, but Shusters team of third Jeff Isaacson, second Jared Zezel and lead John Landsteiner ended with another point to secure the last Olympic berth on offer. Pat McAfee Jersey .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. FRISCO, Texas -- Because they were on opposing teams at the Senior Bowl, Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott didnt spend much time together talking about the future.Even if they had, its hard to imagine the soon-to-be rookie quarterbacks in Philadelphia and Dallas could have come up with this doozy: Exactly nine months after that showcase, they would face each other in a key NFC East prime-time game as the toast of the town in both cities, as one of their coaches described it.Thats a lot of what ifs and a lot of different things happening for this to all play out like this, Wentz said. Its exciting for him, for me. Obviously, its going to be played up into something. Its cool to see another young guy like him that Ive come to know and to see the success hes having.Wentz starting the opener wasnt really a stretch by draft time because he went No. 2 overall to the Eagles. But there was still the surprising trade just before the season that sent Sam Bradford to Minnesota, clearing Wentzs path to the job .Prescott was a fourth-round pick who started training camp competing for the No. 3 job.Backup Kellen Moore got hurt first, breaking an ankle in camp. Then 10-year starter Tony Romo broke a bone in his back in a preseason game, and the 135th selection in the draft had shown enough in the preseason for the Cowboys to believe he could handle the starting role .Now that the Cowboys (5-1) have won five straight and are tied with the Vikings for the best record in the NFC, the question is whether Romo gets his job back when hes ready to play again.That issue can wait at least one more week. Meantime, these longtime rivals get to watch the apparent futures of their franchises square off Sunday night after an early season stretch when they kept trading the rookie record for pass attempts without an interception to start a career.Its great from an NFL standpoint because obviously these two kids are the talk of the town, lets say, first-year Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. It is fun. Its fun for a coach to watch. I think its fun for players to watch it. Its exciting for the fans.Prescott said the pair got to know each other better at the NFL combine after spending more time together. The Dallas rookie said they stayed in touch via text as the offseason continued, but havent been in contact since the season started.I dont really think too much of it or make it a big deal out of the opponent or who Im playing if its another rookie or not, Prescott said. Carsons doing a ggreat job and as I said, I wish him all the luck except when we meet up.ddddddddddddWentz cooled off a little sooner than Prescott, throwing his first interception on the final pass of his fourth game, the start of a two-game skid for the Eagles (4-2). Prescotts only pick of the season came in the sixth game, a win at Green Bay.And while Wentzs passer rating has dropped significantly each of the past two weeks, Prescott has a franchise rookie record of five straight games with a rating of at least 100.The bottom line is wins, though. And these are the top two teams in a division thats stronger than expected.They know how to win, Pederson said. They know how to lead their teams. Nothing seems to be too big for either one of them. They take it in stride. The ability to protect the football I think through these first six, seven games like this has been crucial.The biggest difference is the college background. Prescott came from Mississippi State and the SEC, specifically the SEC West, which earlier this season he jokingly called the third-best conference or division in all of football behind the AFC and NFC.Wentz had the small-school tag coming out of North Dakota State, although its not like most small schools. He was the starter for the last two of five straight lower-division national championships. In his mind, that was just part of it.I was at the line making audibles, calling the protections, run-game checks, in the huddle, all those things that correlate to the NFL, he said. The games very similar. We just call things different in this offense. I think that was actually an advantage where I went to school.As for the similarities, many of the same words come from Pederson and Cowboys coach Jason Garrett, whose staff had Wentz on its team at the Senior Bowl: preparation, maturity, leadership.The Eagles knew they were drafting their future at quarterback. The Cowboys were hoping. Its looking like both franchises did.We got to know each other during some of the other rookie things and the combine and everything, Wentz said. I thought we got along great. I thought we were good friends. Who knows? We might be playing each other for a long time.But they cant exactly say they saw it coming.---Online:AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apschuyler ' ' '