Nowitzki, Mavs cruise past Trail Blazers

Jason Terry had 19 points and Marquis Daniels added 13 points off the bench for the Mavericks, who have won two straight and three of their last four games.

Devin Harris had 12 points and seven assists for Dallas, which has swept the season-series, 4-0, against Portland for the second consecutive season and has won 10 straight and 11 of the last 12 games in the series. Dallas defeated Portland, 93-87, on Tuesday at American Airlines Center.

Zach Randolph had 29 points and five rebounds and Sebastian Telfair added 12 points and eight assists for the Trail Blazers, who have dropped their last four games.

The Trail Blazers had the lead for most of the first quarter. But, with the score 17-15 after Theo Ratliff hit two free throws with 4:26 left, the Mavericks closed out the quarter with a 10-2 run and took a 25-19 lead into the second.

Portland closed to within three points when Darius Miles hit a free throw to complete a three-point play and make it a 27-24 game a little over a minute into the second. But, that was as close as Portland got as Dallas went on a 11-2 run and had a 38-26 lead when Daniels hit two from the charity stripe with 6:57 left in the first half.

Dallas led 54-40 going into the locker room.

Things didn’t get any better for Portland in the second half.

The Mavericks opened up the third quarter with a 19-7 run and had their largest lead of the game when Nowitzki drained a turnaround jumper with 4:27 left to give his squad a 73-47 lead.

"We came into halftime talking about getting out to a good start in the third quarter and whatever we had to do to make them call the first timeout," said Terry. "That’s exactly what happened. Devin broke down the defense and I did what I do, just shoot the ball."

The Trail Blazers tried to claw their way back and closed out the third on a 16-6 run and trailed 79-63 going into the final 12 minutes.

The margin proved to be too much for Portland. The squad got to within 15 points when Viktor Khryapa slammed the ball home to make it 84-69 with 9:26 left. But, Dallas scored the next six points and cruised the rest of the way to the victory.

Game Notes

Dallas travels to Utah for a game on Saturday...Portland hosts Phoenix Sunday...Khryapa finished with 10 points and six rebounds...Dallas outrebounded Portland, 30-25...Dallas shot 55.4 percent from the floor and the Trail Blazers hit 47.9 percent of their shots...Jerry Stackhouse scored 11 points for Dallas.