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Nowitzki had 29 points and 12 rebounds and Jerry Stackhouse added 21 points off the bench as the Mavericks won their seventh straight game, a 104-97 triumph over the Seattle SuperSonics.
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"We were fortunate enough get some stops and play some tough, hard-nosed defense," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. "This is the fifth win on a five-game road trip. We have been on the road eleven or twelve days and we played some pretty good defense against a team scoring 150, 120 and 115 points, so I am awfully proud of our guys."
"Our mindset was just one game at a time," Dallas guard Jason Terry said. "We've got to get better as a team. We didn't look at it as a trip. Just one game at a time. They were all winnable games."
Averaging 26 points and 8.5 rebounds, Nowitzki made 8-of-22 shots from the floor and 11-of-12 free throws for his third double-double in 13 January games.
"Dirk is playing tough," Johnson said. "We had a stretch there where we kind of reverted back to our old selves and got jump-shot happy for six or seven possessions and I really got on them about that. But I will take this win any way we can get it."
Coming off Wednesday's win at Golden State, Dallas trailed by 17 points late in the first quarter before using a 24-3 run to take a 41-37 lead with 6:48 left in the half. Stackhouse scored seven straight points and Nowitzki made two 3-pointers during the burst.
"They had a great start to the game," Johnson said. "They came out and really tried to throw a knockout punch on us. Fortunately, we were able to withstand it, come back and get our defense set and play some pretty good defense against a high-scoring team in the second, third and fourth quarters."
Terry nailed a pair of shots from the arc and Nowitzki scored 10 points in a 20-9 spurt as the Mavericks took a 73-62 edge with 4:26 left in the third quarter.
"Give credit to the bench," Terry said. "They came to play tonight and got us back into the game and we fed off their energy."
Mikki Moore made a hook shot with 4:43 to play to draw Seattle within 90-89 before Nowitzki converted a three-point play and Terry had a fast-break dunk to rebuild a six-point edge with 3:39 to play.
Rashard Lewis made a pair of free throws and Moore hit a driving layup to cut the deficit to 95-93 with 2:47 on the clock before Stackhouse made a three-point play 26 seconds later.
Terry scored 20 points for the Mavericks, who committed just nine turnovers and defeated the SuperSonics for the ninth time in 11 meetings.
Lewis made 10-of-15 shots, including all four from the arc, and was 12-of-12 from the foul line, collecting 36 points and 10 rebounds. Ray Allen added 25 points for Seattle, which lost for the fifth time in seven games.
"It was a see-saw," Allen said. "It seems like it's been a see-saw for us all year. They didn't want us to run and they tried to keep us from pushing the ball up the court in transition and they did a good job of it. They started pressuring us and slowing us down a little bit and we kind of let them do it."
Failing to win their third straight game for the first time since Nov. 30-Dec. 4, the SuperSonics played without starters Vladimir Radmanovic (sprained right foot) and Luke Ridnour (sprained left knee).
"I thought under the circumstances with so many guys out, we did a terrific job of keeping ourselves in the game with a chance to win," Seattle coach Bob Hill said. "This game shows how much we miss Luke, especially the way he's playing now. He's just playing great. We really missed him."
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