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Ellis leads Mavs over Wizards

Jan 2, 2014 - 6:05 AM Washington, DC (SportsNetwork.com) - Monta Ellis poured in a game-high 23 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks to an 87-78 win over the Washington Wizards on Wednesday.

Vince Carter added 13 points and Brandan Wright chipped in with 10 for the Mavericks, winners in three straight.

"He makes big plays for us all the time," said Dallas head coach Rick Carlisle about Ellis. "His string of free throws to end the game was the decisive factor. Everybody played hard and that's the important thing."

John Wall scored 22 points to go with seven rebounds and five assists and Trevor Booker scored 10 points and pulled down a career-high 19 rebounds with the Wizards, who had won five of their last six entering the contest.

"Sometimes you're just going to have one of those games and that was tonight," said Wall. "We just weren't making the shots and they did."

Washington led 61-59 at the start of the fourth quarter and pushed their spread to 74-70 after Gortat's step-back jumper at the 4:59 mark.

The Mavs used a 9-0 run to go up 79-74 with 2:14 remaining and the hosts never got closer than three the rest of the way.

Dallas led 25-20 after the first 12 minutes, but went into the break trailing 42-39.

The Wizards went up 51-43 just over four minutes into the third, but a 16-4 Dallas run, capped with a Carter trey, put the Mavs up 59-55 with 1:55 to play in the third. Washington, though, closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to take a two-point lead into the final frame.

Game Notes

Dallas shot just 38.5 percent (30-for-78) from the field, but went 21-for-23 from the free throw line ... Dallas' Shawn Marion had nine points and nine rebounds in the win ... The Wizards committed 19 turnovers ... Booker's previous career high was 17 rebounds.