Nowitzki leads Mavs over Kings

Josh Howard tallied 28 points. He and Nowitzki combined to shoot 24-of-33 from the field, as the Mavericks won their fourth straight.

The Kings played without their leading scorer, as guard Kevin Martin missed the game with a sprained right ankle. Brad Miller scored 19 points and Kenny Thomas had a solid inside game with 15 points and 15 boards, but Sacramento lost for the eighth time in 10 games and fell into a last-place tie with the Clippers in the Pacific Division.

Terry’s three-pointer boosted Dallas to an early 11-4 advantage, and the Kings couldn’t keep up without Martin. Sacramento shot just under 40 percent from the field. Mike Bibby had 10 points and six assists, but struggled by making 3-of-12 shots.

The Kings fell further behind less than three minutes later as Howard’s jumper moved the margin to 19-5. The lead reached as high as 17 in the period before Ron Artest’s layup cut the deficit to 33-18 going into the second.

Sacramento could never catch up. In fact, the Kings didn’t get within double digits the remainder of the half, falling behind 54-40 at the break.

The final 24 minutes saw a glimmer of hope for the Kings though. Shareef Abdur-Rahim’s layup brought his team within 73-67 with a minute left in the third, but Greg Buckner countered with a jumper and Terry banged in a three to close the period.

Sacramento didn’t get closer than nine in the final quarter. Dallas used a 21-8 run to make it a rout. Nowitzki’s jumper capped the push, making it 99-77 with under five minutes left.

Game Notes

Dallas has scored over 100 points in 15 of the last 16 meetings... Dallas has won three straight meetings...Abdur-Rahim also had 15 points and Artest scored 14...Buckner had 14 points.