Richardson leads Golden State past Dallas

Ike Diogu scored 22 points and pulled down nine rebounds for the Warriors, who took three of four games from Dallas this season. Monta Ellis had a career- high 17 points, while Troy Murphy added 16.

"It’s very good, anytime you get one of those teams that are one of the top teams in the league, and you go out there and win, its a good win," said Richardson. "If we play like that, we’ll win a lot more games. We defended, we shared the ball, we dove on the floor for loose balls, guys just played hard tonight.

Dirk Nowitzki led all scorers with 29 points for the Mavericks, who saw their five-game winning streak come to an end and fell 1 1/2 games behind San Antonio for the top seed in the Western Conference.

"We still have a lot to prove," said Jerry Stackhouse. "Once the playoffs get here, it doesn’t matter what seed we are or who we are playing. I am glad that the Golden State Warriors are not one of the eight teams going because we have had a tough time against them this year. They are a difficult team to play. They have nothing to lose. They have something to build on for next year. Our only concern is us."

Stackhouse finished with 16 points for Dallas. Josh Howard scored 18 points. Nowitzki also contributed 10 boards.

Trailing by six, 73-67, with 4:32 left in the third quarter, Derek Fisher converted a three-point play to spark a 15-5 run to close out the period as Golden State took a four point lead into the final quarter, 82-78.

The margin remained four until Richardson nailed a trey and Diogu scored two from the charity stripe to push the lead to nine, 91-82, with 8:13 left to play.

Then, after a Nowitzki jump shot, Diogu scored a traditional three point play as the Warriors scored the next six points to build a 13 point lead, 97-84, with just under six minutes left to play.

Howard then broke the scoring with a field goal, but Richardson scored two from the free throw line and knocked down a field goal to push the lead to 15, 101-86, with 4:08 remaining as Dallas did not threaten the rest of the way.

Dallas staked out to an eight point lead at the end of the first quarter, 27-19, but the Warriors outscored the Mavericks by seven in the second and trailed by just one at the break, 49-48.

Game Notes

Fisher finished with 11 points and nine assists for the Warriors...Marquis Daniels scored 12 points off the bench for Dallas...Golden State outrebounded the Mavericks 45-38...Dallas shot 44.2 percent from the field, while Golden State shot 48.7 percent.