Matthews on Mavs after Cavs heartbreak: 'We're a damn good team'

Wesley Matthews isn't interested in moral victories. He doesn't care that his Dallas Mavericks took LeBron James and the defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers to overtime. He just knows they lost, 110-107.

Matthews, who had a particularly poor shooting night, going 3-of-11 from the field and 3-of-8 beyond the arc, knows the Mavs blew an early 16-point lead and couldn't close out the game when they had chances in regulation and overtime. Matthews isn't interested in hearing about how Dallas almost beat the Cavs. He made his feelings clear to reporters following the game.

While the Mavs (22-17) are widely seen as a surprise so far sitting in fifth place in an overall underwhelming Western Conference, they view themselves nearly halfway through the season as a team that can make some noise in the playoffs.

And this week is supposed to prove it to the league with games against Cleveland, Oklahoma City (Wednesday), Chicago (Friday) and San Antonio (Sunday). Recovering quickly to challenge the Thunder on their home floor will be a difficult task considering Matthews, Deron Williams and Chandler Parsons all logged more than 40 minutes Tuesday night, and Dirk Nowitzki played 38.

After a double-overtime win last week against Sacramento in the first game of a back-to-back, Mavs coach Rick Carlisle rested all of his starters except Parsons the next night at New Orleans, and Dallas still managed to win. Carlisle and the Mavs will be hard-pressed to do the same at Oklahoma City.