NBA Game Summary - Portland at Dallas

Dallas, TX (Basketball News) - Dirk Nowitzki connected on 10-of-14 shots for 22 points and also pulled down eight rebounds, as the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 95-81, at American Airlines Center.

"He’s (Nowitzki) played great and he’s been steady for us all season long and this last month, he’s just been on a tear," said Jerry Stackhouse. "He’s trying to take his game to another level, which in turn is going to take our team to another level."

Jason Terry also scored 22 points and handed out seven assists, and Josh Howard netted 21 for the Mavericks, who have won two in a row and five of their last six games.

Ruben Patterson and Zach Randolph each scored 19 points for the Trail Blazers, who have lost three consecutive games. Randolph also grabbed 11 rebounds and Juan Dixon added 13 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

Dallas went into the half up 47-44, and the pace continued to go back-and- forth as the third quarter started, until the Mavericks took a 61-54 lead on a 12-6 run, capped by Nowitzki’s jumper.

Joel Przybilla was able to cut the deficit to three, but Dallas countered with a 7-2 streak, finished with Terry’s trey to make the score 68-60 with 3:35 left in the third quarter. That was the last field goal either team connected on and the Mavs were up 68-63 after 36 minutes of play.

Dallas went up 81-70, on an 11-3 run, including consecutive three-pointers from Terry and Nowitzki with almost eight minutes left in the game.

The Mavericks used a 10-4 run to go up 91-76, and put the game away on another Terry shot from beyond the arc.

"I thought Damp (Erick Dampier) really shut down a lot of their penetrations in the fourth quarter," said Mavs coach Avery Johnson. "He got a couple of blocks, rebounds and I thought he was the reason we won the game."

Dallas hit three of its first four shots and took a 7-2 lead, capped by Terry’s jump shot.

The Mavericks led by as many as eight points in the first quarter, but the Blazers came back with a 9-2 run, highlighted by Patterson’s three-point play to make the score 19-18. Portland trailed 24-20 after the first period.

In the second stanza the Blazers were able to tie the score 38-38 on Dixon’s fadeaway shot and was able to take their first lead of the game on Patterson’s free throw with 3:36 left in the period.

Dallas connected on 46.8 percent of its shots and Portland hit just 36.9 percent from the field. The Mavs outrebounded the Blazers, 52-40.