Sefko: Maybe not the 'Bad Boy' Pistons of the '80s, but these Mavs have shown they have fight

One of the best things you can say about an NBA team is that it has the grit of Grade-Z sandpaper.

Nobody wants to be considered wimpy, although the Mavericks certainly have been lumped into that category more than a few times in the past.

So far -- and 12 games is a decent enough sample size -- these Mavericks have passed the backbone test.

They don't wilt when things go bad. They don't let iffy whistles from the refs get to them (much). And they don't let a little success go to their heads, either.

These are all attributes that rugged teams possess.

They may not be the Bad Boy Pistons of the late '80s. But they are showing an ability to grind things out.

"We're showing how tough of a team we are," Raymond Felton said. "And it's only going to get better. We have a group that's been in the league for a while and take things one possession at a time. We can be a good team. We just have to play with intensity and heart. We don't always shoot great. But we make plays."

Like the one Felton made in the final seconds against Boston on Wednesday. After he missed two free throws to give the Celtics a chance to take the lead, he hustled back defensively and tipped the ball away from Isaiah Thomas, icing the Mavericks' fifth victory in a row.

Tenacity is a product of strong-willed players. And the Mavericks did a good job over the summer of getting a couple of them in Wesley Matthews and Zaza Pachulia. They don't take a back seat to anybody when it comes to being physical and going about their jobs in a blue-collar fashion.

Felton, Devin Harris, Deron Williams and others also have willingly sacrificed their bodies to take charges and hit the floor in scrums for loose balls.

All that stuff gets contagious when your best players are doing it.

Asked what the Mavericks' best attributes are so far, Chandler Parsons said: "Just sticking together and playing hard. We have such a balanced attack. We're more solid defensively and not gambling. And our offense is hard to guard. We're still waiting on a night when we all hit shots, but we can win games even when we're not."

The challenge for the Mavericks will be to keep this collective attitude when times aren't going so well.

Perhaps the most impressive win so far this season came when they came off a blowout loss in New Orleans last week, then returned home for the second night of a back-to-back and smacked the Los Angeles Clippers.

That was the start of this winning streak. And the Mavericks have looked like a different team since.

That's why, when they got 18 points down in the first quarter against Boston, they didn't phone ahead to have the chartered jet start revving up the engines.

"Our mentality is to try to get every win," Felton said. "We stepped in this arena [in Boston] thinking, we're going 3-0 and going back to Dallas. Teams make runs, but the biggest thing is we knew it was going to be a dogfight and that it was. But we came out on top."

It's called winning ugly when a team shoots 5 of 18 (27.8 percent) in the first quarter against the Celtics. There would have been no shame in falling to the Celtics, who were coming off a 2-0 road trip.

But over the last three quarters, the Mavericks shot 32 of 54 from the field. That's 59.3 percent. If that's winning ugly, then call them Bertha and they'll be fine with that.

That perseverance is what got them the victory.

They'll get another chance to prove they aren't a group of pretty boys Friday against Utah, which always seems to be a rugged group regardless of who is suiting up.

Twitter: @ESefko