NBA Game Summary - Sacramento at Dallas

Dallas, TX (Basketball News) - Michael Finley scored 29 points and Steve Nash added 20 points and 19 assists to lead the Dallas Mavericks over the Sacramento Kings, 127-117, at American Airlines Center.

Dirk Nowitzki chipped in with 27 points and 10 rebounds for Dallas, which drew within 1 1/2 games of idle Memphis for fifth place in the Western Conference.

Mike Bibby scored 23 points to lead Sacramento, which has dropped four of five and fell into a first-place tie with the Los Angeles Lakers in the Pacific Division and Western Conference playoff race. The Lakers beat Houston 93-85 on Thursday night.

Chris Webber added 22 points and 11 rebounds and Peja Stojakovic chipped in with 21 points, as the Kings trailed by as many as 27 points in dropping their second straight.

"We didn’t play with emotion and we didn’t play with good intelligence," said Kings head coach Rick Adelman. "We are still a team that has won 52 games and we have to find out how we did that."

Trailing by 20, 103-83, early in the fourth, Sacramento attempted to make this a game in the fourth. A 7-2 burst drew the Kings to within 15, 105-90, with eight minutes left. Then, with four minutes remaining and still down by 15, the Kings hit back-to-back three-pointers to get within nine, 120-111, with 3:03 on the clock.

However, Sacramento wouldn’t be able to draw any closer the rest of the way and allowed the Mavs to match a season high in points.

"We played well for a long, long period of time and then we went to sleep for a little bit," said Mavericks head coach Don Nelson. "We couldn’t guard anybody in the fourth quarter, but we had a big enough lead and kept scoring that it was never in jeopardy."

Antawn Jamison finished with 16 points and eight rebounds for the Mavs, who have won three in a row.

After a close first quarter, Dallas began to pull away in the second. With the score tied at 30-30 to start the stanza, Dallas later found itself ahead 50-46 before going on a 17-4 run to end the half. Finley, who had eight points during the burst, capped it with a layup to end the half and give his squad a 67-50 lead.

In the third, Dallas extended its lead to 20 points on a Finley three 2:28 into the frame. Finley later extended that cushion to 23, 91-68, with 4:28 left on another trey and the Mavs cruised into the fourth with a 101-81 lead.

Darius Songalia finished with 17 points off the bench for the Kings.