If you want a good place to eat before the game, there is a place right beside the arena called the Yardhouse that has very good food. Fair warning though, I was at the Chicago game in February and it was extremely busy there. Not sure if you'd have the same experience with a Dallas game, but with their playoff race going on you never know. I bought my tickets off of StubHub a few months in advance. Probably didn't get the best price I could've but I wanted to guarantee I had some. Do some pre-drinking because the beer at the game is surprisingly expensive!
I ate the best pizza I've ever had at Pizzaria Bianco. This place is often called the best pizza in America and it pretty much blew my mind how delicious it was.
http://www.pizzeriabianco.com/
A good, challenging golf course we played was Johnson Ranch. It's a desert style course with a few really cool elevated tee boxes. Pretty long too if I remember correctly at over 7200 yards. It isn't in Mesa, you'd probably have to drive 30-40 minutes to get there, but that's pretty much the norm in Phoenix.
I don't really know if this is your kind of thing but my parents went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and said that was a really cool place to see. Well worth it they said.