DALLAS - Dirk Nowitzki scored seven of his 32 points in overtime, leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 128-119 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night.
Nowitzki also had 10 rebounds and six assists. In Dallas’ loss to Brooklyn on Sunday, he was 2 for 12 from the field in his worst shooting performance of the season.
Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 43 points. He has scored at least 25 in 36 consecutive games in the longest such streak since Michael Jordan’s 40-game run during the 1986-87 season.
Dallas had seven players score in double figures. Jose Calderon went 6 for 8 from three-point range and finished with 22 points.
Russell Westbrook scored 23 for Oklahoma City. All of his points came in regulation, when he played 31:50. He added another minute in overtime.
Westbrook is limited to 30 to 32 minutes per game because of his oft-injured right knee.
The Mavericks scored the first five points of the extra period on two free throws by Nowitzki and a three-pointer by Calderon. They never trailed again.
The victory pushed Dallas into eighth place in the Western Conference, a half game ahead of idle Phoenix. The Mavericks improved to 3-2 on a franchise-long, eight-game home stand, with three of the games going to overtime. They began the home stand in seventh place,1½ ahead of the ninth-place Suns.
CAVALIERS 102, RAPTORS 100
CLEVELAND - Dion Waiters scored 24 points and Luol Deng added 19 as the Cleveland Cavaliers prevented Toronto from getting closer to a playoff spot with a victory over the Raptors.
The Cavs blew a 21-point lead, but made just enough plays down the stretch to snap a five-game losing streak at home.
They did it without All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving, who missed his fifth consecutive game with a strained biceps tendon.
Kyle Lowry scored 22 for the Raptors, who had a chance to tie it in the final seconds but guard Greivis Vasquez lost his footing and committed a turnover with 1.9 seconds left.
Toronto led 95-94 with 6:45 remaining, but went just 1 of 9 from the floor and scored five points the rest of the way.
The Raptors fought back from a big deficit, but fell apart with the game on the line.
Toronto missed three free throws in the final 4:26, but still had a chance to force overtime or steal their 40th victory after forcing a Cleveland turnover on an errant inbounds pass with 7.8 seconds to go.
But Vasquez, who finished with 16 points, drove the left side and slipped about 10 feet from the basket. As he fell, Vasquez flung the ball in desperation and it was intercepted on the right side by Deng. Vasquez remained on the floor for a few seconds grabbing his ankle before he limped off the court.
MAGIC 95, TRAIL BLAZERS 85
ORLANDO, Fla. - Tobias Harris had 25 points and 11 rebounds, and the Orlando Magic beat the Portland Trail Blazers to stop a nine-game losing streak.
Nik Vucevic added 22 points and 10 boards for the Magic, who led by just eight at the half but used scoring spurts in the third and fourth quarters to put the game away.
Robin Lopez led Portland with 20 points and 13 rebounds.
The Magic closed the third quarter on an 11-2 run and increased their lead to 19 in the opening minutes of the fourth.
Harris was the most active for Orlando in the final quarter, scoring eight points. The Blazers were finally able to string together some baskets and cut the lead down to 11 points on a three-pointer by Wesley Matthews with 2:31 to play.
But the Magic were able to close out the game from the foul line.
Sports, Pages 23 on 03/26/2014