
Josh Howard scored 28 points, Jason Terry had 12 of his 20 in the final quarter, and the Mavericks snapped their two-game road slide with a 107-98 victory over the Orlando Magic on Monday night, despite Hedo Turkoglu's first career triple-double.
Dallas dropped a close contest to the league-leading Boston Celtics without Kevin Garnett on Thursday night.
They were embarrassed by the Detroit Pistons 90-67 in a nationally-televised game on Sunday, but bounced back with a wire-to- wire win over the South-east Division leaders.
"The last game Detroit was the aggressor and we wanted to try to be the aggressor tonight," Dallas coach Avery Johnson said. "We didn't want to leave anything in the gym tonight."
Dirk Nowitzki also had 20 points with nine rebounds and Brandon Bass chipped in with 16 points off the bench for Dallas (32-15), which finished 1-2 on its road trip against the Eastern Conference divisional leaders.
The Mavericks raced to a 13-point cushion after one that swelled to 19 in the second period.
The lead was trimmed to 83-80 on Rashard Lewis' three-pointer with 7:15 left to play. However, Terry buried three jumpers to highlight a game-breaking 10-0 run while Nowitzki and Howard nailed one apiece, opening up a 13-point cushion with four minutes left.
Dallas never allowed the lead to dip below six the rest of the way.
"That's the money time of the game," Terry explained. "Five minutes and under we are really looking to get the ball to our scorers. We stayed aggressive and got stops on the other end."
Dwight Howard collected 27 points but just seven rebounds, while Turkoglu had 13 points, a career-high 13 assists and 12 boards for Orlando (31-19) which had its four-game winning streak ended.
"Coach reminded us that they got their butts kicked in Detroit so they're going to come with a lot of energy and enthusiasm to try and win the game," said Magic guard Carlos Arroyo, who finished with 14 points. "That first quarter for us was terrible and we couldn't get back into the game."
Elsewhere:
Utah Jazz 110, New Orleans Hornets 88
Deron Williams had 29 points with 11 assists, Carlos Boozer added 19 points with 17 rebounds and the surging Jazz ( 31-18) rolled to its ninth consecutive win.
Kyle Korver scored 20 points, including six of Utah's franchise- record 14 three-pointers en route to its 11th consecutive home victory.
Janero Pargo led New Orleans (32-15) with 24 points.
Houston Rockets 92, Minnesota Timberwolves 86
Tracy McGrady scored 26 points, including the game-sealing three- pointer with 30 seconds remaining, and the visiting Rockets won for their fourth in a row.
Al Jefferson had 33 points and 16 rebounds for Minnesota (10-37) which had its season-high four-game winning streak snapped.
Toronto Raptors 114, Miami Heat 82
Chris Bosh scored 24 points, Italy's Andrea Bargnani had 22 and the visiting Raptors handed the hapless Heat its 19th loss in the last 20 games.
Dorell Wright scored 17 points for league-worst Miami (9-37) which suffered its worst loss of the season.
Phoenix Suns 118, Charlotte Bobcats 104
Brazilian speedster Leandro Barbosa scored 30 points, Raja Bell had 24 with seven of the Suns' 16 three-pointers to remain perfect at home against the Bobcats.
Amare Stoudemire chipped in with 24 points and 11 boards as Western Conference-leading Phoenix (34-14) improved to 8-0 all-time against Charlotte.
Jason Richardson scored 25 points while Emeka Okafor had 18 and 13 rebounds for Charlotte (18-31) losers of four straight.
Atlanta Hawks 96, Philadelphia 76ers 91
Josh Childress scored 21 points, Josh Smith had 19 points, nine assists and nine blocks, helping the host Hawks overcome a 20-point first-quarter hole.
Andre Miller led Philadelphia (18-30) with 29 points and Andre Iguodala had 22.
Denver Nuggets 105, Portland Trail Blazers 103 (OT)
Allen Iverson drilled a 14-foot jumper from the free throw line with nine-tenths of a second left in overtime, lifting the visiting Nuggets over the Trail Blazers.
Carmelo Anthony led Denver (29-18) with 28 points with 15 rebounds while fellow All-Star Iverson finished with 25 points.
Brandon Roy paced Portland (27-20) with 26 points while Jarrett Jack had 17 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.
LA Clippers 103, New York Knicks 94
After missing the last four games with the flu, Corey Maggette scored 19 points and Chris Kaman 15, helping the Clippers snap a nine-game road losing streak.
Eddy Curry netted 19 points and Jamal Crawford had 16 of his 18 in the final frame in New York's (14-34) sixth straight loss.
Chicago Bulls 118, Seattle SuperSonics 108
Joe Smith scored 25 points, Ben Gordon had 20 and the visiting Bulls snapped the Sonics' season-high three-game winning streak.
Wally Szczerbiak led Seattle (12-36) with 21 points and rookie Kevin Durant added 20.