The Mavericks are the hottest team in the NBA, but you'd never know it by the way they finished Sunday's harder-than-it-should-have-been win over New Orleans.

They led by 25 points in the third quarter, but had to slug it out down the stretch as the Hornets peppered them with 3-pointers and tried to steal the game.

It ended up as a 108-100 victory for the Mavericks, who technically still are on the best roll in the league with a seven-game winning streak. They now are only a half game out of second place in the Western Conference and remain 4½ games up on San Antonio in the Southwest Division.

But Dirk Nowitzki, who had a huge night at American Airlines Center with 36 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, wished they had put the game away sooner.

"We made this a lot harder than we should of," Nowitzki said. "We had a nice lead in the third quarter and we were rolling, and the next thing you know, we're throwing the ball all over the place."

The Hornets were within 101-97 when Nowitzki missed a jumper. But Brendan Haywood secured the rebound for another chance.

After both sides botched several possessions, Nowitzki hit a jumper in the paint with 58.2 seconds left for a 103-97 lead.

When Caron Butler stole the ball from rookie Darren Collison, which resulted in a dunk for Haywood, the Mavericks were clear.

They'll face a tough back-to-back tonight in Charlotte, and, really, they should have been able to rest their key players throughout much of Sunday's game.

But that wasn't the case because of a puny third quarter. The Mavericks had a once-prodigious 25-point lead, but it slipped under 10 in the fourth quarter, requiring them to lean on Jason Kidd, Nowitzki and the other starters down the stretch.

"You're going to get a little sloppy at times," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "We brought a lot of it on ourselves, but hey, it's a good win against a team that has come back against a lot of teams this year."

In fact, the Hornets have erased double-digit leads to win 12 times this season.

Butler returned to the lineup after missing two games when medication gave him a bad reaction that required a couple days for his left knee to settle down.

He looked like he didn't miss a step, scoring 19 points.

Mavs need the tension: The minutes have been piling up on the Mavericks' six key, healthy contributors. But beyond those heavy lifters, the playing rotation is completely up for grabs, Carlisle said.

"I'm not sure there's going to be a set rotation," he said. "And I'm not sure there should be. I think it's good to have it be competitive and have the minutes be based on how you're playing, how hard you're playing."

Asked to elaborate on whether a level of tension is good for most teams, Carlisle deferred.

"I'm not sure," he said. "I just know for us, more competitive is better."

Briefly: As they figured, the Mavericks were informed Sunday that they no longer have any chance of landing Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The search for big-man help will be clearer tonight, which is the deadline for players to be waived and still be eligible to play for another team and be playoff-eligible.