DALLAS -- His lineup change for Game 4 of the 2011 Finals, when the Dallas Mavericks were down 2-1 to a heavily favored Miami Heat super team, will always be part of coach Rick Carlisle's legend around these parts.

Carlisle plugged in pesky J.J. Barea, and the Mavs didn't lose again, delaying King James' coronation and finally bringing Dallas its first NBA championship parade.

"Hey, I hope it works the same way," Barea said with a big smile after he played a starring role in Dallas' sweep-denying 121-109 win over the Houston Rockets on Sunday night. "I hope we win 15 more like that in a row."

Even if that miraculous hope came true, Carlisle couldn't quite take as much credit for this successful tinkering with Dallas' starting lineup four years after those Finals. Frankly, the coach didn't have much choice other than to plug in Barea and Al-Farouq Aminu for Game 4.

The starters at small forward and point guard, Chandler Parsons and Rajon Rondo, are out for the season due to injuries, one painfully real and one ridiculously imagined. Their replacements for Game 3, Richard Jefferson and Raymond Felton, suffered injuries in that heartbreaking loss and were hobbled Sunday night.

Well, maybe desperation created a stroke of genius for Carlisle.

The big-money starters still standing definitely did their parts to prevent the Mavs' vacation from beginning prematurely Sunday night. Shooting guard Monta Ellis had his second consecutive sensational scoring performance, putting up a game-high 31 points on 13-of-21 shooting. Power forward Dirk Nowitzki, the face of the franchise, scored 10 of his 16 points in the fourth quarter to make sure the Rockets' rally fell short. Center Tyson Chandler (10 points, 13 rebounds, two blocks) won the big man battle against Dwight Howard.

But Barea and Aminu, a couple of minimum-salary bargains off the bench all season, were the difference for Dallas.

"I thought J.J. and Farouq were phenomenal tonight," Nowitzki said. "It was kind of like a next-man-up mentality. Those guys stepped in and both were great."

You can get an idea of how great just by looking at their lines in the box score. Barea had the first playoff double-double of his career with 17 points and 13 assists, arguably the best performance by a Mavs starting point guard all season, not to damn him with faint praise. Aminu (16 points, 12 rebounds) also had his first career postseason double-double, albeit in only his fourth playoff game.

Barea and Aminu played a total of 35 minutes together, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Mavs outscored the Rockets by 25 points during that time.

There was a strong hint late in the Mavs' heartbreaking Game 3 loss that this starting lineup could work. After playing only one minute together in the first two games, the group of Aminu, Barea and the three regular starters still in uniform outscored Houston by nine points in eight minutes during the fourth quarter, giving Dallas a chance to pull off a comeback that fell just short. (Actually, it fell way wide right on Ellis' brick at the buzzer.)

That five-man lineup (plus-21 in 18 minutes) was even better in Game 4.

The fill-in pair combined to do the two things it seemed Dallas desperately needed Rondo to do for this to be a competitive series: Run the offense in a manner that allows it to flow, and make life hard for Rockets MVP candidate James Harden.

Rondo, the basketball genius whose disastrous Dallas stint ended with his bizarre departure, could have learned a lot by watching Barea. Carlisle's biggest beef with Rondo was his frequent refusal to push the pace. Barea gets the ball and goes, attacking and probing and giving Houston all kinds of hell.

Barea's style is working wonders. Dallas has scored a spectacular 121.4 points per 100 possessions with Barea in the game this series, compared with a dreadful 92.0 when Rondo ran the show.

Barea created a total of 47 points between his scoring and his assists Sunday night. The Mavs' starting point guards had combined to create a total of 33 points in the previous three games.

"I'm trying to push it every time," Barea said. "I'm trying to be aggressive, and my teammates, people around me are ballin'. I'm just trying to attack and do my job. If I do my job and I create problems for their defense, then I think everybody else plays a lot looser and more open."

Aminu, who has replaced Shawn Marion as the Mavs' version of a defensive Swiss Army knife, a dude who can guard practically any position, embraced the challenge of being the primary defender on Harden. Harden still led the Rockets with 24 points, but according to ESPN Stats & Information, he was only 5-of-11 for 11 points with Aminu defending him.

Aminu's awesome work on the defensive glass also kept Harden from getting the kickout 3s after offensive rebounds that had been killing Dallas.

"I always try to provide energy and defense," said Aminu, a 24-year-old former lottery pick who has gone from a reclamation project to a must for the Mavs to re-sign this summer. "That's what my staple is on this team. I just try to do my job."

It's a massive bonus that Aminu scored 16 points in efficient fashion. He was 6-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-5 from 3-point range, doing most of his damage when Harden was defending him.

The Mavs even ran an iso play for Aminu, who faced up against Harden after catching the ball on the block, made a pretty spin move toward the baseline and finished with a tomahawk slam. He couldn't remember the last time he had a play called for him.

"He's come light-years this year as a player offensively," Carlisle said. "For a guy who is new to a team, playing a totally different style, it takes a while. It takes a while to learn two positions. He's one of our most relentless workers. He's earned this opportunity. He impacted the game in a lot of ways tonight."

Aminu definitely did. So did Barea.

Which makes one wonder why Carlisle didn't go with that duo in the starting lineup sooner.

"Take it easy on him," Barea said with a laugh.

Hey, better late than never. The history of the NBA playoffs, in which no team has ever overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a series, shows it's probably too late. But the Mavs at least have a flicker of hope and a flight to catch to Houston.