DALLAS -- Brandan Wrights season debut just happened to come on a night when Dirk Nowitzki was home sick. The trade-off worked out just fine for Dallas. Wright led the Mavericks with 19 points, Jose Calderon got the offence going early and finished with 18, and Dallas shrugged off the absence of Nowitzki and coach Rick Carlisle to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 106-93 Saturday night. Nowitzki and Carlisle missed the game with an undisclosed illness. Carlisle has been fighting an upper respiratory problem since before a four-game road trip that started last week. Wright, who missed the first 23 games with a shoulder injury, scored seven straight points in a 19-5 run that put Dallas in control, 43-26, early in the second quarter. "Im going to be aggressive either way it goes," said Wright, who was 9 of 10 from the floor and added six rebounds in 19 minutes. "If Dirk plays or Monta (Ellis) plays or none of those guys play, Ive got to play the same way. Ive got to play hard." John Henson had 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Bucks, who fell behind by 34 late in the third quarter before rallying in the fourth to make the final score respectable. O.J. Mayo, who played despite the recent death of his grandmother, had four points on 1-of-6 shooting in his first game in Dallas against his former team since signing with the Bucks as a free agent last summer. "We came in here and laid an egg," Milwaukee coach Larry Drew said. "We didnt play well. We had very low energy, which was disappointing." Nowitzki and Carlisle missed the shootaround earlier Saturday and werent at American Airlines Center for the game. The Mavericks dont play again until Wednesday, so they should have plenty of time to recover. Even without their star and their coach, the Mavericks were never in much trouble with assistant Monte Mathis in charge. Dallas didnt even need much from Ellis, the teams leading scorer. He had seven points and five assists and essentially deferred to Calderon, who had 16 points at halftime on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. "Very important, especially with Monta kind of feeling things out and not getting some of the opportunities that he typically has, its good for another guy to step up and be aggressive," Mathis said. The biggest decision for Mathis was whether to bring back any other starters after the Bucks went on a 13-0 run in the fourth quarter and eventually got within 13 in the final 2 minutes. Mathis did reinsert DeJuan Blair after Wright had returned, and the Mavericks kept the lead in double digits. "One or two more baskets," Mathis said of how tempting it was to go with Ellis and Calderon again. "We didnt want to get them in there. We wanted our other guys to finish it out." Shawn Marion had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Mavericks. Vince Carter had 15 points and a game-high nine assists. Brandon Knight scored 16 for Milwaukee, but only four after the first quarter. "We came out flat," Henson said of the Bucks, who lost by a point to Chicago at home a night earlier and have played five sets of back-to-back games in their last 10. "The combination of these games and the travel, I think we kind of hit that wall." Wright grabbed two quick rebounds after coming in midway through the first quarter and finished the first half with 11 points and five rebounds in 10 minutes. The highlight for Wright was a putback dunk for a 79-51 lead in the third. Just 3 minutes later, Blair gave the Mavericks their biggest lead at 90-56 on a jumper. Blair had 11 points and nine rebounds. Samuel Dalembert, signed in the off-season to be the starting centre for the Mavericks, was the only Dallas player who didnt get off the bench. For Dalembert, it was something of a replay of his one season with Milwaukee, when he went through a long midseason stretch without playing and got into just one of the last 11 games. NOTES: Bucks G Carlos Delfino had surgery on his right foot performed by Dr. Donato Villani in Argentina. There is no timetable for the 31-year-olds return. ... Carlisle missed a game for the first time since the franchises only championship season of 2010-11. He missed a Dec. 27 victory at Oklahoma City a day after having arthroscopic knee surgery. Assistant Dwane Casey, now the head coach in Toronto, filled in then. ... Bucks G Gary Neal left late in the second quarter with plantar fasciitis and didnt return. Fake Vans Toy Story . Napoli hit two home runs, Jonny Gomes and prized rookie Xander Bogaerts also connected, and the Red Sox kept up their dizzying scoring spree at Yankee Stadium by bashing New York 13-9 Saturday for a fifth straight win. Wholesale Fake Vans . Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon; a brief, poor outing that served to highlight two trends that have developed this season. http://www.fakevans.com/. -- The Guelph Storm are moving on to the Western Conference final after defeating the London Knights 5-4 on Friday in Ontario Hockey League playoff action. Fake Vans Online .Y. - Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby captured his second career Art Ross trophy on Sunday after leading the NHL in scoring this season. Cheap Fake Vans .5 million, four-year contract with the Texas Rangers that could be worth $32.Steve Nash says theres a big difference between playing basketball and swinging a golf club.The Canadian NBA star posted a letter on Facebook on Friday night, to explain the extent of his back injury and to answer fans who are angry over a video of him swinging a golf club. The 40-year-old from Victoria will miss what would have been his 19th — and surely last — season in the NBA with nerve damage in his back. He recently posted a video on Instagram, which has since been deleted, of him hitting balls at a driving range, sparking outrage from some fans.. . . there is an incredible difference between this game and swinging a golf club, hiking, even hitting a tennis ball or playing basketball at the park, Nash wrote. Fortunately those other activities arent debilitating, but playing an NBA game usually puts me out a couple of weeks. Once youre asked to accelerate and decelerate with Steph Curry and Kyrie Irving it is a completely different demand.Nashs injuries have limited him to just 65 games in two seasons in L.A.I definitely dont wantt to be a distraction, but I felt it best everyone heard from me in my own words, the two-time NBA MVP wrote.ddddddddddddI have a ton of miles on my back, Nash continued. Three bulging disks (a tear in one), stenosis of the nerve route and spondylolisthesis. I suffer from sciatica and after games I often cant sit in the car on the drive home, which has made for some interesting rides. Most nights Im bothered by severe cramping in both calves while I sleep, a result of the same damn nerve routes, and the list goes on somewhat comically.Thats what you deserve for playing over 1,300 NBA games. By no means do I tell you this for sympathy — especially since I see these ailments as badges of honor — but maybe I can bring some clarity.The Lakers are 0-5 and last in the Western Conference.Nash wrote that hes always been one of the hardest workers in the game, and that for the past two years hes worked like a dog to both overcome the setbacks and to find the form that could inspire Lakers fans in what he called my last chapter. ' ' '