Houston Rockets vs Dallas Mavericks 97-94

Luis Scola and Erick Dampier fight for a rebound

HOUSTON – Aaron Brooks felt in a groove, and that was all the Houston Rockets needed to pull out another close victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Brooks scored 30 points, Shane Battier made a tiebreaking three-pointer with 2:11 left, and Rockets beat the Mavericks 97-94 on Thursday night. “I wanted to extend the defence a little bit and open up Carl (Landry) on the inside a little bit,” Brooks said. “I feel we did a great job doing that. I’m going to go out there and play hard and shoot when I’m open and whatever happens after that, I’m going to roll with it.” Brooks followed Battier’s three with one of his own for a six-point lead with 1:35 remaining, and the Rockets held on when Jason Kidd missed a potential tying shot from behind the arc in the final second. “I got a great look,” Kidd said. “I might have rushed it a second. I would love to have that shot again. Give Houston credit. They won the game. The zone helped us in the second half to get back in the game. We had an opportunity.” The Rockets led through most of the first half and went up 66-52 in the third quarter, aided by six quick points by Brooks. But the Mavericks scrambled back into the game and tied it at 89 with 4:52 to play. Jason Terry led a strong bench performance by Dallas with 20 points. Josh Howard had 16 points and Drew Gooden added 10 points off the bench. Shawn Marion had 16 points and Kidd scored 14 for the Mavs, but Dirk Nowitzki sat out much of the first half with three fouls, and finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. Landry added 15 points for the Rockets. “We’ve struggled with Dallas early in the season,” Houston forward Luis Scola said. “We finally could win the last two games so we finished the year on a great note and we’re happy with it.” Houston led 56-47 at the half and Brooks took charge with 13 points in the third quarter to keep the Rockets rolling to a 78-70 lead after three quarters.

The Rockets beat the Mavericks 116-108 in overtime in their last meeting on Dec. 18. There were seven technical fouls called in the game and the Mavericks protested to the NBA that the final 61 seconds should be replayed, believing a “misapplication of the rules” led to the ejection of Dallas centre Erick Dampier in the extra period. This time, there were two technicals.

“We’re rivals and have been since I’ve been in Dallas,” Terry said. “It’s been tough all season and it’s an early end to our matchup during the regular season. Good luck to them and maybe we’ll see them in the playoffs. They always play hard.” The Rockets led by 10 points late in the first quarter, but the Mavericks fought back and took their only lead of the second period, 38-37 on a 16-foot jumper by Terry. Kyle Lowry followed quickly with a three-point basket and the Rockets held on to their lead at the half.

Howard had 11 second-quarter points to keep Dallas close. The Mavericks started cold and the Rockets broke from a 7-7 tie to a 24-17 lead. Scola broke the tie with two straight baskets and the Rockets took advantage of early foul trouble by Nowitzki, who drew his second foul at 6:31 and sat out the rest of the first period. He got his third late in the second quarter. “Our undoing was a sluggish first quarter,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. “Houston hit us with early transition points and threes. The rest of the game was about even. With a team like this you have to come out with energy early or you are in trouble.”

Notes: Rockets rookie guard Chase Budinger is still recovering from a sprained ankle Dec. 19 and sat out Thursday’s game and likely will miss Saturday’s at New Orleans. Nowitzki has 10 double-doubles this season. Terry is the Mavericks’ No. 7 career scorer with 6,152 points.

Phoenix suns vs dallas Mavericks 101- 102

Dirk Nowitzki

Mark Cuban got body-slammed through a table here Monday night by a professional wrestler as several Mavericks were sitting nearby.The players didn’t come to the Mavs owner’s rescue against a carrot-topped WWE villain named Sheamus on Monday Night Raw. But Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard, J.J. Barea, Jason Terry and company climbed into the ring Tuesday night and battled to a 102-101 victory against the Suns. The Mavs halted a two-game losing streak and handed Phoenix its fourth straight road loss.

Nowitzki scored a game-high 33 points, his seventh 30-point game of the season. Howard added a season-high 20 points, six rebounds and three steals off the bench in his return from a month-long injury absence. Making his first start, Barea tied his season high with 14 and had six assists. Terry scored 15, including four free throws in the final 12.3 seconds. Jason Kidd tallied 11 assists as the Mavericks improved to 10-1 when dishing at least 25 dimes (26).

Steve Nash led the Suns with 27 points against his former team and drilled two late 3-pointers as Phoenix hacked away a nine-point deficit in the final 90 seconds. Richardson finished with 25 points, eight rebounds and four assists and Amar’e Stoudemire added 20 points.

“Too little, too late,” Nash said. “We didn’t play well. We also let them out of the bag there for a small stretch in the second half, and couldn’t get them back. So very frustrating.”

The Mavs received an early boost from Barea and a late surge from Howard as they bounced back from ugly weekend losses to Memphis and Atlanta in which they averaged just 78.5 points. Barea scored eight of the Mavs’ first 10 points and sank six of his first seven shots. He went to the bench with his fourth foul early in the third quarter, but returned to spark a 9-2 run that gave Dallas a 77-70 edge entering the final frame.

“J.J. played extremely well. He kept us going again early when we were struggling,” Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle said. “His combination of offense and energy helped us.”

Howard then provided a spark that had been missing with his aggressive and effective drives and timely outside shooting. He scored nine straight Dallas points and 16 of 22 during a stretch that turned a 66-66 tie into an 88-79 advantage with 5:53 remaining.

“He really kept us afloat,” Carlisle said. “He is the best cutter that we have. He is a great runner and he is probably our best driver. He is a dead-eye shooter from mid-range and he makes spot-up threes. He is invaluable, because all those things come into play over the course of our games somehow or another.”

An All-Star in 2006-07, Howard missed 18 of the first 21 games following offseason surgery on his left ankle. He averaged 12.7 points on 35.1 percent shooting in 22.3 minutes in three starts, but had not played since aggravating the injury on Nov. 11.

“It really helped to have Josh back out on the floor and his ability to take guys off the dribble, which he did a good job with tonight,” Nowitzki said. “He hit some big shots for us tonight. Once he gets a good rhythm going, we’ll be a really tough team to beat.”

Trailing 96-87 with 1:26 to play, Phoenix got a three-point play from Stoudemire and a rainbow 3-pointer by Nash over Nowitzki to pull within three. Kidd answered with a 23-foot jumper with his foot on the arc. But Richardson drained one from downtown to make it 99-96 with 21.8 seconds to play. After Terry hit two free throws with 12.3 ticks left, Nash answered again with another trey to trim the deficit to 100-99. Terry hit two more from the line, followed by two from the stripe for Nash. Terry was sent to the line again with 2.4 seconds left. He missed them both, but Richardson’s 65-foot heave was off the mark at the horn.

“We had no timeouts left, so in that situation you’ve got to pray that you’ve got Kobe Bryant on your team, I guess,” Suns head coach Alvin Gentry said.

The Mavericks won the battle of the boards 42-40 and improved to 11-0 when outrebounding their opponents. They were outscored 44-38 in the paint, but that was 28 more than they scored inside against the Hawks on Saturday night.

The road-weary Suns play nine of their next 13 at home, where they are a perfect 7-0 this year and have a 16-game winning streak dating back to last season.

“We don’t have a rhythm to our game. We haven’t the last three games,” Gentry said. “To win on the road, you’ve just got to be consistent in what you’re doing and we had a little lapse in there and that was the difference in the game.”