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Mavericks sneak past Spurs in OT

Jan 30, 2012 - 4:00 AM Dallas, TX (Sports Network) - The Dallas Mavericks squandered an 18-point third-quarter lead, but Jason Terry scored four of his 34 points in overtime to lead the Mavericks to a 101-100 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at American Airlines Center.

Dirk Nowitzki returned to the lineup after missing the last four games with a sore right knee and struggled offensively, scoring 10 points on 5-of-14 shooting. He did pull down a game-high 13 rebounds as Dallas won for the fifth time in six games.

Gary Neal scored 19 points to pace a Spurs bench that scored the team's final 55 points after San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich subbed out his starters when his team faced a 67-49 deficit late in the third quarter.

Danny Green, Richard Jefferson and Tim Duncan each netted 12 points in the Spurs' second straight loss.

After Terry's pullup jumper gave the Mavericks their 18-point advantage with 3:43 left in the third quarter, the Spurs bench took over, reeling off a 26-4 run that stretched into the fourth quarter.

The run was highlighted with the long ball as the Spurs connected on seven three-pointers by four different players, including three straight by James Anderson, Green and Matt Bonner to cap the run and put San Antonio ahead, 75-71, with 8 1/2 minutes left in the game.

The Spurs stretched their lead to nine points before Dallas rallied to tie the game in the final minute.

With San Antonio holding a 89-87 lead with 58 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Tiago Splitter was fouled as he made a layup but failed to convert on the three-point play to keep the Mavs in striking distance.

Rodrigue Beaubois' driving layup then pulled Dallas within 91-89. On the Spurs next touch, Nowitzki stole the ball off of Neal at the top of the key and took the ball down the court, resulting in Terry's 16-foot jumper that tied the game at 91 with 0.5 seconds left.

Coming out of a timeout, Green grabbed an inbounds pass off a screen and seemed to drop in a baseline jumper as time expired for the game-winner, but a review revealed the ball was still on his fingertips as the clock ran out to force overtime.

"You don't see that very often, but we were just on fire shooting threes and it got us back in the game. It's as simple as that," Popovich said about his team's run. "I thought the energy defensively was great; we double-teamed everywhere. I thought that the group that was on the court did a great job in that sense and got a lot of stops. And we combined it with making threes and it got us back in the game."

The Spurs held a 98-95 advantage with 1:18 left in the extra period after a Green layup, but Dallas responded with a short Nowitzki field goal followed by a Terry jumper to put the Mavericks ahead, 99-98, with 41.9 seconds left.

Shawn Marion then took the ball away from Neal, leading to two free throws by Terry and a 101-98 Dallas lead.

On the ensuing Spurs possession, Neal was fouled as he drove to the lane and dropped in a layup, but his game-tying foul shot was no good.

After Ian Mahinmi missed both free throws at the other end, Green's three- pointer at the buzzer rimmed out to give Dallas the victory.

"What a great game. It seemed like we'd play all night, but somehow we put this team away," said Terry. "These are the type of games that we have to win to be the basketball team we want to be. Early on in the season, we lost our fair share of close ball games and it looked like it was headed that way for a second there, but we stuck with it, we persevered and we got the [win]."

The Spurs made just 15-of-42 shots in the first half, including 2-of-9 from beyond the arc en route to a 51-40 halftime deficit.

Dallas went 24-for-46 from the floor in the first half, but struggled to a 16- for-44 mark in the second half as the Spurs made their push.

Game Notes

Mavericks guard Jason Kidd did not play in the game and is expected to miss at least one week of action due to a strained right calf, Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle announced before the game...San Antonio had won four straight regular season games against Dallas...The Spurs made 9-of-13 three-pointers in the second half.