It's impressive. It's prideful. It's historic.

It's also meaningless.

Of all the things going right for the Mavericks early, nothing is showing better than their perspective. They haven't really done anything yet, something Dallas is rightfully the first to admit, because being crowned NBA November Champions isn't what it came for. It could take half as long for the great start to become an afterthought at the first sign of coming back to Earth, or if Charles Barkley steals the spotlight again by doing something else with someone's ass.

	Michael Finley was unstoppable against the Pistons in consecutive win No. 14.

Not to be forgotten, of course, is that the great start has come amid adversity. One starter, Raef LaFrentz, and one critical reserve, Nick Van Exel, have missed most of the party because of injury. Cleveland almost got that rope pulled all the way across the road when the Mavericks passed through Gund Arena as the winning streak started to get interesting. Then the Cavaliers, themselves shorthanded, fell by four. And then there was the night in New Jersey when the bus bringing coaches and most of the key players got lost somewhere between the hotel and the game, providing an unscheduled tour of Hoboken and Jersey City and the Hudson River, until finally arriving just 65 minutes before tipoff. The Vagabonds beat the defending Eastern Conference champions anyway.

The best start in franchise history pushed for the best start in league history, and everyone else seemed more taken by it than the Mavericks. They keep telling everyone it has to end sooner or later, that this first month of the season won't mean anything unless the last month of the season also goes well, that these events can only stand as the foundation of something bigger ... and then they arrived to play Detroit on Wednesday night with the marquee outside the Palace of Auburn Hills reading: Let's stop the streak.

The Pistons didn't, losing 102-82 to become victim No. 14.

But let's start the reality.

The 1948-49 Washington Capitols started 15-0, but went 23-22 from there, reached the Finals and lost to the Minneapolis Lakers in six games. The 1957-58 Boston Celtics broke out 14-0 and finished atop the Eastern Division, but fell to St. Louis in six games for the championship. The 1982-83 Seattle SuperSonics opened 12-0, but closed 36-34, finished 10 games behind the Los Angeles Lakers in the Pacific Division and were immediately eliminated by the Trail Blazers, in the days, the youth of Oregon will someday come to read in their history books, before Portland city officials wised up and just moved the courthouse inside the Rose Garden. The 1997-98 Atlanta Hawks started 11-0, then went 39-32 from there and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

There are the other cases. The 1993-94 Houston Rockets were 15-0, eventually finished five games behind the SuperSonics in the Western Conference, but went seven games to beat the Knicks for the title. The 1996-97 Chicago Bulls were 11-0, but that didn't mean anything since they were basically undefeated the rest of the season too, going 69-13. The 1990s? The Bulls? They probably won the crown.

So to start 14-0, as the Mavericks have, offers no historical footing for guaranteed future success. But November can still mean everything to them, because of the way they have set a tone for success at the very time the three other elite teams in the West have had their early struggles. In the cases of the Lakers and Kings, in particular, there have been extended stretches of lack of focus and energy, either a winner's cushion or leaving a wake-up call for March or falling into bad habits. Los Angeles has the added confidence of knowing it has been able to pull out of every tailspin the previous three seasons, so just maybe the champs aren't sweating this too much.

The reality is that the Mavericks are the only one among the four with something to prove, and they are playing like it. The Lakers have three titles in a row. The Spurs still have four players and the coaching staff from the 1999 championship. The Kings don't have a crown, but had the best regular-season record in 2001-02 and reached a Game 7 of the West finals, which was great if you're into consolation prizes but, most importantly, it was a playoff run that gave them infinite confidence for the future.

The Mavericks?

What a fun team to watch on offense. Through the second round.

Except that they became real threats from the start of this season. Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash and Michael Finley were flammable as always, but the early signs of huge improvements on defense showed a focus the three other contenders lacked and the real reason for encouragement in Dallas, not the undefeated beginning. Shawn Bradley was out of the giraffe house, a heavy reliance on zone D was working.

Entering Thanksgiving Day's game against the Pacers, in which they'll go for a record-tying 15-0 start, the Mavs were allowing 88.6 points a game, compared to 101 last season, commendable on its own but especially since LaFrentz, No. 2 in the league in blocks, had appeared in two of the first 14 games because of an ankle injury. In the more-telling statistic, since scoring defense can depend so much on how fast the offense plays, thereby creating more possessions for the opponent, the Mavericks were at 40.6 percent in field goal defense, a major accomplishment in the wake of the 45.2 in 2001-02. And that was before the Kings went through that red cap at the top of the lane in the conference semifinals.

The Mavericks hung a banner in their practice court for a daily reminder of how many layups and dunks Sacramento had in the five games, although no mention of how many calculators it took to count that high. They showed to camp talking about being better on defense, which sounded nice, except that then they did something about it.

They have seized at least temporary control of the standings by playing with the focus of a champion and the hunger of a bubble team. Because 14-0 might be impressive, but playing as the only team among the foursome that hasn't so much as reached the conference final has been far more telling about the start, and the potential for the finish.

"I'm sure there is some truth to that," owner Mark Cuban said. "We really do have a lot to prove. Even now, people are discounting us, and our guys are taking it personally."

That's a good start.

That's meaningful.

Scott Howard-Cooper, who covers the NBA for the Sacramento Bee, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.