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Terry helps Dallas inch closer to home-court advantage

Apr 8, 2007 - 6:38 AM DALLAS (Ticker) -- Jason Terry and the Dallas Mavericks got back on track by beating a team they have dominated in recent years, and in the process got some players some rest.

Terry scored 29 points and Devin Harris added 18 as the Mavericks posted an 86-74 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Dallas, which lost in Denver, 75-71, on Friday, beat Portland for the 13th straight time dating to the 2003 season playing without Josh Howard (ankle) and Jerry Stackhouse.

"That was the plan I had coming in," Dallas coach Avery Johnson said. "But you don't know how it's going to work out. We should be able to space out our minutes and still play well no matter who's in uniform."

The Mavericks' magic number to clinch their first Southwest Division title and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs is one.

Dallas got 24 points from its bench and did not need Howard or Dirk Nowitzki, who scored 10 of his 11 points in the first quarter and played only 26 minutes.

Instead the Mavericks leaned on Terry, who helped put away the Blazers, as he scored 19 in the first half to help Dallas to a 51-33 lead at the break. The Mavericks improved to 23-3 when the veteran point guard scores 20 or more points.

Dallas went on a 19-2 run that started with 9:31 and ended with 1:08 remaining in the second quarter. Dallas, which outscored Portland 25-12 in the second period, shot 50.7 percent (34-of-67) from the floor for the game.

"Tonight we got off to a good start," said Johnson. "(We) came out focused and had a pretty good first half; had a really good second quarter, offensively and defensively. We made a higher percentage of our shots than we did last night and pretty much kept control of the game."

The Mavericks took made three more free throws (16-of-28) and attempted nine more than the Blazers (13-of-19) and outscored them 44-22 in the paint.

"We tried to push the ball tonight to get out transition game back," Harris said. "(We were) really attacking and trying to get to the free-throw line and (get) points in the paint."

Jarrett Jack scored 18 points for Portland, which was without rookies Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge.

"They are a really good team and did a good job of jumping on us early," Jack said. "I thought our guys did a good job on not quitting, they showed some fight and made the score respectable."

The Blazers were shorthanded and only had nine players available

Roy sat out with a sore knee and Aldridge was taken to the hospital with dizzy spells. Team also lost leading scorer and rebounder Zach Randolph for the year with a broken hand on March 30.

"It's tough," Jack said. "Brandon went down and Zach is hurt which took the bulk of our scorers and other playmakers out of the game."

Kevin Willis played one minute in his first appearance of the season for Dallas after being signed to a 10-day contract on April 2.