"Dirk Nowitzki scored a season-low 10 points Wednesday night at American Airlines Center, but the Dallas Mavericks carried on undisturbed anyway.

You couldn't say nearly the same about the Timberwolves and their leading scorer, Michael Beasley.

Beasley sat down barely two minutes into Wednesday's game because of two early fouls, a development that affects not only his team's scoring but also its swagger.

The Mavericks simply replaced Nowitzki's 25.7-point scoring average with a deep bench that on Wednesday outscored the Wolves' reserves 59-32 on the same night that Mavs center Tyson Chandler -- not Kevin Love -- set a rebounding record.

The Wolves, meanwhile, struggled all evening to find their pulse as they once again committed too many turnovers (17) and surrendered too many three-pointers (10).

"It hurt us," Beasley said of his early foul trouble.

By the time he got back into the game early in the second quarter, the Wolves already trailed by 11 points, a deficit that grew to 24 points by the fourth quarter.

Beasley drew Mavs small forward Caron Butler as his defensive assignment Wednesday -- a matchup that at first glance didn't seem nearly as daunting as Love being asked to defend Nowitzki out on the floor. Beasley picked up a foul trying to stop Butler 85 seconds into the game.

Just 49 seconds after that, he picked up another trying to stop Chandler from scoring inside. Chandler set a franchise record by getting 14 of his game-high 18 rebounds in the third quarter alone, when the Mavs led by as many as 19 and never by fewer than 10.

"I'm the main part of the offense," Beasley said. "When I'm not in the game, it hurts. I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but we really don't score as much when I'm not on the floor. Me getting early foul trouble is hurting the team.""