Dallas, TX (Sports Network) – Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry both finished with 18 points, and the Dallas Mavericks cruised to a 106-91 victory over the Phoenix Suns at American Airlines Center.
Caron Butler added 17 and Shawn Marion supplied 15 for Dallas, which has won six straight at home over Phoenix.
Hakim Warrick led the Suns with 15 points and 14 rebounds and Goran Dragic supplied 14 points and a career-high 10 assists, replacing Steve Nash in the game’s opening minutes.
Nash left the contest with 7:17 left in the first quarter after suffering a “stinger” to his neck when he collided with the thigh of Dallas’ Tyson Chandler while going for a loose ball. He fell to the floor and immediately called for the Suns’ medical team and did not return to the game.
Jason Richardson scored 12 and Channing Frye grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds to go along with eight points for the Suns, who began a three-game road trip with their fourth loss in five games.
The Suns held a 25-22 lead after a back-and-forth first quarter. Marion and Terry scored 13 apiece in the second and capitalized on a 36.8 percent shooting effort for Phoenix to take a 54-42 lead into halftime.
The Suns shot a dismal 29.2 percent from the field in the third, and the Mavericks widened the gap to as much as 24 in the final minutes of the quarter en route to a 80-59 advantage entering the final stanza.
The Mavs’ lead never dipped below 12 points in the fourth quarter.
Game Notes
The Suns shot 16-of-22 from the free throw line; 20-of-31 for Dallas…Dallas converted on 9-of-10 fastbreak opportunities…Dallas’ Brendan Haywood finished with six points and 10 rebounds…Jason Kidd led the Mavericks with eight assists, and Tyson Chandler recorded 12 rebounds and three blocks.