Sometimes it takes a village. Or a committee. Or a group of brothers who all want to move in the same direction, even though they haven’t been able to pull all at once for the Mavericks so far.

Through the first four games, the Mavericks had four players who could lay claim to being their most important player off the bench in at least one of those games.

Dereck Lively II was the most consistent producer in a backup role. But Spencer Dinwiddie, Jaden Hardy and Quentin Grimes have also had games where they provided the spark that ignited the Mavericks when they needed an edge. And Naji Marshall is undoubtedly ready to join the party soon.

The Mavericks are built around three future Hall of Famers who are great offensive players.

But even that wealth of firepower needs help.

And while teams sometimes rely on one player to be the sixth man and do most of the damage offensively off the bench, the Mavericks are not built that way so far in the infancy of this season.

“We would love to have Jason Terry or that type of player,” coach Jason Kidd said. “It makes it easy because that role is filled.

“We try to make guys feel comfortable in their roles. We’ve had different looks on this journey to see who feels comfortable in that role.

Thursday wasn’t particularly comfortable for anyone coming off the bench. And really, the starters were blah, too, through the first three quarters, as the Houston Rockets earned a lead of as many as 23 points. The big three came alive in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets were able to hold on for a 108-102 victory, the first home loss of the young season for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks’ reserves were outscored 33-21 by the Rockets’ bench, not a good sign for a team that considers itself one of the deepest in the NBA.

Aside from this clunker, Lively has been the most reliable bank member to date. He’s not necessarily the prototype for bench scoring. Usually it’s a guard or small forward who fills that role, as Terry did so well for the Mavericks for years, including during the 2011 championship run.

But the 7-1 center, who shares time with Daniel Gafford but averages 26 minutes ahead of Gafford’s 20, was a force on both ends of the court.

“(He’s) one of the guys that might be a little bigger than Jason Terry and might not shoot the three at a high clip, but D-Live is seen as that sixth man,” Kidd said. “He could be Jason Terry in a different light.”

Another possibility, Kidd said, is Dinwiddie, who scored 11 key points in Monday’s 110-102 win over Utah.

“Spencer, he’s a professional,” Kidd said. “If he comes here, he could be fifteen^e boy. He now appears to be the sixth man. That role can change as we get healthy, or that role can change if someone isn’t well enough to start.

“You need guys like that on your team to be able to quickly adapt to a role and he’s one of those guys who can do that. He now does that for us at a high level.”

Klay reaches 2,500: Klay Thompson reached 2,500 career triples with his second three-pointer that brought the Mavericks within 98-94 with less than four minutes remaining.

He becomes the sixth player to achieve that many trifectas in NBA history. He joins Steph Curry (the leader with 3,758 players), Ray Allen, James Harden, Damian Lillard and Reggie Miller.

Thompson passes Miller for fifth on the list with 61 more 3-pointers, which could happen sometime around New Year’s Day.

Rockets Growing Up: The Rockets are a team built around a handful of good players, none of whom have made the leap to superstar status.

Jalen Green may be trying to change that. He came into Thursday’s game averaging 28.8 points and shooting 41.5 percent from three-point land.

At halftime against the Mavericks, the 6-4 fourth-year guard had just seven points. He heated up in the second half and his three-pointer with 1:12 to go put the Rockets up 103-97. He would finish with 23 points to go with 12 rebounds.

Behind Green, the Rockets entered Thursday with four other players behind Green averaging between 10 and 15 points. That trend continued as there were five players behind Groen who scored between 10 and 17 points.

Short: Dereck Lively II, who calls his favorite movie Jurassic Park, arrived dressed as one of the workers at the dinosaur park at the American Airlines Center. . . Dante Exum (right wrist) and Maxi Kleber (right hamstring) remained sidelined for the Mavericks. Kidd did not provide a timeline for Kleber and said it was unclear if the 6-10 center/forward would be able to return for this five-game home stretch. Exum is out indefinitely after wrist surgery. . . Rockets coach Ime Udoka said this about the Mavericks with Klay Thompson: “It’s a threat again. Difficult enough with two very good scorers and creators like Irving and Dončić. So another threat that everyone respects. Great addition, another good job from Nico to complement the pieces they already have. I have the lob threats, the scoring threats with those two and now the shooting threat.

X: @ESefko