The Dallas Mavericks approached .500 with a victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday but followed up that effort with back-to-back losses against the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies to drop to 12-15 on the season, good enough for 12th place in the Western Conference.

Playing without Dirk Nowitzki for this early stretch of the season, the Mavericks have kept their head above water, never straying too far from that .500 mark. But with five losses in their last six games, capped off by a 92-82 loss to the Memphis on Friday night, Dallas fell to a season worst record.

Looking ahead, the Mavericks schedule does not get any easier before Jan. 1. They travel to San Antonio on Sunday to face the Spurs before another road matchup with the Western Conference best Oklahoma City Thunder next Thursday. The Mavericks will then face the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs again the following week to close out 2012.

At 21-5, the Thunder top the conference standings, followed closely by the Los Angeles Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs. The Denver Nuggets would hold the 8 seed if the postseason started today, with the Mavericks two games out of the playoff picture.

The complete Western Conference standings are below.

Western Conference

		W	L	Pct	GB	Conf	Div	Home	Road	Streak
	Thunder	21	5	.808	0.0	11-3	2-1	14-2	7-3	Lost 1
	Clippers	20	6	.769	1.0	12-3	4-1	12-3	8-3	Won 12
	Grizzlies	18	6	.750	2.0	9-5	3-1	12-2	6-4	Won 4
	Spurs	20	8	.714	2.0	11-6	5-0	9-2	11-6	Won 1
	Warriors	18	9	.667	3.5	7-7	2-3	8-3	10-6	Won 1
	Timberwolves	13	11	.542	7.0	7-5	2-2	8-3	5-8	Won 1
	Rockets	13	12	.520	7.5	3-10	1-4	10-5	3-7	Won 2
	Nuggets	14	13	.519	7.5	10-7	2-3	7-1	7-12	Lost 1
	Jazz	14	13	.519	7.5	9-10	1-2	9-2	5-11	Lost 1
	Trail Blazers	12	12	.500	8.0	8-6	2-1	8-4	4-8	Won 4
	Lakers	12	14	.462	9.0	7-10	3-2	8-6	4-8	Won 3
	Mavericks	12	15	.444	9.5	5-7	1-1	8-4	4-11	Lost 2
	Suns	11	15	.423	10.0	6-6	1-3	9-5	2-10	Won 4
	Kings	8	18	.308	13.0	5-12	3-4	7-7	1-11	Lost 1
	Hornets	5	21	.192	16.0	2-15	0-4	3-10	2-11	Lost 10