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Pacers pick up rare win in Dallas

Feb 4, 2012 - 5:14 AM Dallas, TX (Sports Network) - Paul George drained seven three-pointers en route to a career-high 30 points to go with nine rebounds and five assists, leading the Indiana Pacers to a 98-87 victory over the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center.

"We played a lot of zone tonight, we lost him on some screens and he made the shots," Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle said of George's performance. "He's a good player."

David West finished with 20 points and six boards, while Danny Granger added 16 points and five rebounds for the Pacers, who won in Dallas for the first time since January 9, 2004 -- a seven game skid. Darren Collison donated 13 points and six assists in the victory.

Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 30 points and seven rebounds, while Vince Carter contributed 14 points and five assists. Jason Terry added 10 points off the bench for the defending champs, who have lost two straight.

The Mavs shot 11-of-18 in the second quarter and held a 53-52 edge at the break, but went ice cold in the third quarter, shooting just 5-of-17 to allow the Pacers to seize control of the game.

Indiana came out on fire in the third quarter, ripping off a 19-6 run over the first seven-plus minutes of the quarter to take a comfortable 71-59 lead with 4:40 to play.

The Pacers led by seven heading into the final quarter, 76-69, and Terry nailed a trey 27 seconds into the fourth to cut the deficit to four.

But the Pacers came back with a back-breaking 16-3 run to go ahead 92-75 with 6:11 to play in regulation.

The Pacers led by double-digits the rest of the way.

"Obviously really excited about the win; a team effort indicative of 25 assists on 37 made buckets," Pacers head coach Frank Vogel said. "Stellar defense, in particular in the second half, and in that first half, too; they were hitting a lot of tough shots."

With the game tied at 13 early. Indiana ripped off seven straight points to grab a 20-13 advantage with 7:20 to play in the opening quarter.

The Mavs responded with a 11-5 push to get within one, but a driving layup by Lance Stephenson stopped the run and put the Pacers back up three. The Pacers held a 29-28 edge after one quarter of play.

Dallas opened the second quarter with an 8-0 run to take a 36-28 advantage less than three minutes into the frame, but Indiana scored the next six points to cut the deficit to one.

The game went back-and-forth the rest of the frame and Granger sank a layup with 6.9 seconds to play to get the Pacers within 53-52.

Game Notes

Friday marked the first meeting of the season between the teams. They split two meetings last year...Nowitzki's 30 points were a season-high...Indiana shot 42.5 percent from the floor and 12-of-25 from three-point range, while Dallas shot 42.2 percent from the field and 6-for-16 from beyond the arc...Indiana outrebounded Dallas, 48-42.