Nowitzki a scored a season-high 35 points on 12-of-17 shooting and pulled down 12 rebounds and Nash added 29 and 10 assists to lead the Mavericks to their ninth straight victory, 113-97 over the Atlanta Hawks.
Nursing a strained left hamstring, Finley sat out, ending his consecutive games streak at 490. But Nowitzki and Nash more than picked up the slack.
"We got out and ran a little bit early and pushed the ball down the court," Nash said. "We were able to open it up a little bit."
 Dirk Nowitzki was flying by the Hawks on his way to a season high. Glenn James NBAE/Getty Images |
Nelson improved to 1,000-790 in his 24-year career, joining Toronto's Lenny Wilkens (1,241) and Miami's Pat Riley (1,054) as the only coaches with 1,000 wins.
"The best thing about the 1,000th win is that it happened very quickly and it's over," Nelson said. "We can stop talking about it. I am glad to get it behind me."
"It's unbelievable," Nash added. "That's a lot of games. That means he's been in the league a long time, and that's quite a legacy to be able to leave that kind of mark on the game."
Jacque Vaughn hit the first bucket of the fourth quarter to cut the Hawks' deficit lead to 88-82. But the Mavericks responded with a 17-3 run that was capped by Nash's 3-pointer with 6:44 left. Atlanta got no closer than 14 points thereafter.
"We didn't stop Nash and Nowitzki in the first half, and in the second half we traded buckets," Toni Kukoc said. "We made a run, but we couldn't sustain it in the fourth quarter."
Juwan Howard added 14 points and Eduardo Najera 10 for Dallas, which also stretched its winning streak against Atlanta to six games.
Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 21 points and 11 rebounds and Jason Terry scored 18 points for the Hawks, who have not won in Dallas since December 2, 1997.
"They withstood our run and made a run right back at us," Terry said. "We were hanging with them and battling, then they started beating us to loose balls. At one point, Nash and Nowitzki went 15-for-16. How do you deal with that? Nowitzki is an All-Star for real. He made me a believer tonight."
After Abdur-Rahim made a pair of free throws to get Atlanta within 44-39 with 7:06 left in the second quarter, the Mavs closed the half with a 22-8 run. Nowitzki made all six of his free-throw attempts during the burst and finished the half with 23 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
Nash was 8-of-8 in the first half and had 19 points at the break. Dallas shot 57 percent (24-of-42) through two quarters.
"They gave me the game ball, they messed my hair up, they thought I was (Milwaukee coach) George Karl," Nelson joked. "They couldn't wait to get their greasy hands in my hair. They are a great bunch of guys and it is a pleasure coaching them."
"We were just glad to be a part of it and get it for him tonight," Nowitzki said. "He is a special coach and hopefully, we can get a lot more wins for him."