NBA Game Summary - Utah at Dallas

Dallas, TX (Basketball News) - Dirk Nowitzki scored a game-high 24 points, Jason Terry added 14 and playoff-bound Dallas hung on late to beat Utah, 88-81, at AmericanAirlines Center.

Michael Finley added 13 points, while Erick Dampier and Keith Van Horn each netted 10 points for Dallas, which has won three straight and seven of eight to own a 5 1/2 game lead over fifth-seeded Sacramento. The Kings were idle on Saturday night.

"This game was a struggle for us," said Mavericks head coach Avery Johnson. "It’s hard coming off a big emotional win like we had against the Spurs (on Thursday). I applaud our guys for gutting this game out and executing down the stretch when we needed to."

Kris Humphries paced the Jazz with 15 points, while Mehmet Okur added 14. Gordan Giricek and Kirk Snyder each added 12 points for the Jazz, who have dropped four of six. Matt Harpring chipped in 10 points and nine boards in a losing effort.

The game was knotted up at 23-23 after one quarter of play.

Dallas gained some breathing room midway through the second. The Mavericks opened the frame with 13-5 run that was capped by Finley’s jumper, staking the home team to a 36-28 advantage with under seven minutes left in the first half.

Dallas, which carried a 48-40 lead heading into the locker room, started to pull away in the third. Two free throws by Jerry Stackhouse pushed the Mavericks’ edge to 11, 59-48, with just under six minutes remaining in the frame. Moments later, the margin would grow to 64-48 on Stackhouse’s layup.

The Mavericks held a comfortable 68-53 lead after three quarters of action, but Utah hung tough and trimmed the deficit to six midway through the fourth. Harpring’s layup ended a 12-4 run by the Jazz to start the stanza, making it 72-67 with around six minutes to go.

Utah continued to chip away at the lead, slicing the deficit to one, 81-80, on Okur’s two free throws with 2:30 left in the game.

However, Josh Howard would convert an acrobatic basket at the other end for the Mavs to push the lead to three, 83-80, with 1:30 to go. On the Jazz’s ensuing possession, Okur lost the ball out of bounds and was then hit with a technical, his second of the night, for arguing a call.

Finley drained the subsequent free throw and Van Horn sealed the game with a short layin on Dallas’ next possession, making it 86-80 with 45 seconds remaining.

"We had a little lack of concentration in the fourth quarter," said Dallas’ Josh Howard. "Utah’s a good team, they came back and made it a game towards the end, but we executed well and finished the game off."