 Dirk Nowitzki has been a force, despite a troublesome left ankle. 56k | 300k |
"This was a good start for us on a tough road trip," Mavericks coach Don Nelson said. "We knew it wasn't going to be an easy game, and it wasn't until we broke it open in the fourth quarter."
Nowitzki, who sat out much of the first and second quarters with a sprained left ankle, scored five of his 10 third-quarter points in the final 35 seconds to give Dallas an 84-70 lead. Cleveland got no closer than Jumaine Jones' windmill dunk at the final buzzer.
"(My ankle injury) wasn't bad," Nowitzki said. "I put ice on it and retaped it up. I ran up and down the hallway. It felt all right, so I decided to go out there. It was a little sore to begin with, but when I ran up and down a couple of times, it felt good."
The Cavaliers (2-7) have lost their first four home games for the first time since the 1985-86 season.
"We had another tough team at home," Cleveland coach John Lucas said. "They had too many inside points early in the game and that's too much for us right now."
Dallas (6-2), which had a three-game winning streak snapped Saturday by Philadelphia, never trailed after tying the game at 39 midway through the second quarter.
The Mavericks shot better than 55 percent (46-of-83) from the field and outscored the Cavaliers in the paint, 54-22.
"We wanted to be a little more conservative defensively and take a little more pride in stopping our man," said Dallas point guard Steve Nash, who finished with 11 points and 12 assists. "We ran our offense through Nowitzki, and he drew some double-teams and we kind of got what we wanted."
Jones scored 20 points and Lamond Murray and Michael Doleac added 17 apiece for Cleveland, which had won five in a row from Dallas at Gund Arena.
Cavaliers point guard Andre Miller had 16 assists but was held to seven points.
"Our game was to control the tempo, but we weren't able to get the rebounds and get out on the fast breaks," Miller said. "I did what a point guard was supposed to do -- I made passes to other people and let them make the shots. I can't be too selfish on the court when they got two or three guys take you away from scoring."
Bradley's nine first-quarter points on 4-of-5 shooting helped the Mavericks to a 30-22 lead.
Six points from Wesley Person fueled a 13-2 run over the first 4 1/2 minutes of the second quarter that gave Cleveland a 35-32 lead. But Finley scored 10 of his 14 first-half points over the last 6 1/2 minutes to give Dallas a 56-51 advantage at the break.
Dallas has been outrebounded by an average of five boards per game this season, including by 16 against Philadelphia on Saturday. But it won the battle of the boards with Cleveland, 36-34.
"I didn't think it would be an easy game, and I told the team that they'd have to beat them," Nelson said. "I didn't think Cleveland would beat themselves, and that's exactly how it turned out. We were very good tonight and actually won the game."