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Nowitzki, Terry help Mavs beat Sixers

Nov 14, 2007 - 6:41 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Dirk Nowitzki flashed his all-around skills and Jason Terry dazzled off the bench as the Dallas Mavericks posted a 99-84 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday.

Nowitzki collected 21 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists to help the Mavericks extend their winning streak to four games in the series. He also had three blocks and two steals.

"Everybody kept saying at the end to get one or two more assists, but it's not PlayStation out there," Nowitzki said about his near triple-double. "It's not as easy, but I think we did a good job sharing the ball, making shots, cutting hard when they double-team me. That's what we've got to do is move it when someone is there and make shots."

"He did what he was supposed to do," Mavs coach Avery Johnson said. "We stretched him out pretty good that second half and he was amazing. Like I've been saying all along, Dirk is a stud. He draws a lot of attention, and the more we can get him to make those passes, the more that we can finish."

Terry was once again impressive as a reserve, scoring 25 points on 10-of-21 shooting. He has managed to reach the 20-point plateau in all but two games this season.

"My job is to come off the bench like a microwave, hot," Terry said. "I just wanted to be as aggressive as I could knowing that they would be double-teaming Dirk all game long, and he was doing a great job of finding open shooters as he had eight assists, just an outstanding job by him by accepting the double-team and getting the ball to the open shooter."

Dallas' bench, led by Terry, outscored Philadelphia, 48-23.

Trailing, 50-43, at intermission, Dallas opened the second half on a 16-2 surge to take the lead for good on Devin Harris' driving layup with 8:04 remaining. Terry poured in seven points during the stretch to help Dallas carry a 76-68 bugle heading into the final quarter.

"In the third quarter, we made a little run, got a push there," Nowitzki said. "(Terry) had some good looks in transition, and that's what we want to do a little bit more to speed the game up. We did a good job defensively, and it really got our offense going."

The Mavericks extended their lead to 86-72 with 8:15 left behind a 10-4 burst to begin the fourth and coasted thereafter.

Josh Howard poured in 18 points and DeSagana Diop pulled down 10 rebounds for Dallas, which shot 44 percent (37-of-83) from the field.

Samuel Dalembert scored 18 points and Andre Iguodala chipped in 15, 12 boards and eight assists for Philadelphia, which shot 40 percent (33-of-82) en route to their third straight loss.

"They were just a better team down the stretch," Iguodala said. "They had a little bit more depth and they had some guys that made some big shots. They just beat us."