Suns streak to 10th straight win; snap Dallas’ home surge

"Boris Diaw stepped up," said Suns coach Mike D’Antoni."He had, I think, two rebounds going into the fourth quarter and he ended up with ten. And they missed some shots in there, too; in the first half they were all going in and in the second half they missed."

Four Suns scored at least 20 points, including Steve Nash with 25 points and 11 assists, Shawn Marion ended with 22 points and 10 boards and Leandro Barbosa scored 20 for the Suns, who have the longest active winning streak in the NBA.

Dirk Nowitzki tallied 25 points and pulled down nine boards, while Marquis Daniels added 22 points and Jason Terry chipped in 21 for the Mavericks, who had their franchise-record home victory streak snapped at 16 games.

"This was a tough game and a tough team to play against," said Dallas head coach Avery Johnson. "They play like any other team in the league. We competed for the most part, but they put us in a bind. Diaw was a tough match-up for our centers."

Despite not having forwards Josh Howard (strained left hamstring) and Keith Van Horn (sprained left knee) and guard Devin Harris (thigh injury), the Mavericks held an eight-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, 89-81.

The Suns though overtook the Mavericks with a 9-0 spurt started by a Diaw layup. Phoenix went ahead 97-95 following the run.

Dallas briefly went back in front, 100-97, but was outscored 18-7 over the final 5:06 of the game. Diaw hit back-to-back field goals and Nash buried a three to cap the 10-0 run and put the Suns in control of the game at 107-100.

Terry pulled the Mavs to within 109-107 with just over a minute to play, but Marion responded with a layup on the ensuing possession as the Suns scored the final six points of the game.

The Mavericks jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the opening four minutes of the game as Nowitzki and Adrian Griffin both scored four points during the run as Dallas held a 31-24 advantage through one quarter.

The Suns came out firing in the second quarter as Barbosa hit a pair of jumpers and Marion scored five straight points as the Suns opened the quarter on a 9-2 run to tie things up at 33-33.

Dallas, however closed the quarter on a 16-6 run as Terry and Jerry Stackhouse hit back-to-back three-pointers to close the half and give the Mavericks a 62-51 halftime lead.

Game Notes

Griffin scored a season-high 14 points for Dallas...Dallas won the previous two meetings between the teams...Both teams shot the ball well as the Suns connected on 54.2 percent of their shots and Dallas hit on 52.3 percent of its attempts...Dallas dominated inside by outscoring the Suns 68-48 in the paint.