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Mavs, Cavs tangle in matinee at the Q

Jan 20, 2014 - 3:10 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Dallas Mavericks will kick off a three-game road trip Monday afternoon against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena.

The Mavericks will visit the Cavs on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and have stops in Toronto and Brooklyn on the schedule. They are 10-11 away from home this season and have lost two of three games, including Saturday's 127-111 setback versus the Portland Trail Blazers.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 18 points, Monta Ellis added 15 and both DeJuan Blair and Jae Crowder netted 13 points for Dallas, which shot 46.7 percent for the game and welcomed back Devin Harris. Harris was recovering from foot surgery and recorded six points on 2-of-4 shooting in about 18 minutes of play.

"It's good to be back out there," Harris said. "Obviously I would have liked a better result, but I was just getting within a game rhythm. It felt a lot better in the second half. In the first half I was just kind of going through the motions and feeling my way out there. Everything felt good. Just got quality minutes and something to build upon."

The Cavaliers will play their next five games at home versus Dallas, Chicago, Milwaukee, Phoenix and New Orleans, and are 10-8 as the host.

Cleveland has alternated results over its last five games and won for the fourth time in six tries with Friday's 117-109 victory at Denver in the finale of a five-game western road trip (3-2). Kyrie Irving scored 23 points to go along with six assists and Tristan Thompson added 20 points and 10 rebounds for his third straight double-double.

C.J. Miles and Luol Deng scored 19 and 18 points, respectively, for the Cavs.

"Our guys did a nice job of just staying the course," Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown said. "I'm glad of our guys for doing that."

Anderson Varejao finished with seven points, 16 rebounds, and a season-high seven assists in the win. The Cavaliers averaged 105.2 points per game during the western trek.

The Cavaliers and Mavericks are meeting for the first time since Dallas took both matchups a season ago. The Mavs have won five of the last six games in this series. Irving has scored 20 or more points in eight of his last nine games at Quicken Loans Arena.