The Dallas Mavericks withstood a late charge by the Milwaukee Bucks to hang on for a 108-107 victory on Tuesday. Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points as the Mavericks were subjected to a late Milwaukee run led by their forward Carlos Delfino, who made two successive three-pointers to cut the lead to one before missing the potential game-winner as time expired.
"We have a veteran ball club and when it comes down to crunch time, we don't have any jitters and we welcome the challenge," the Dallas guard Jason Terry said. Delfino finished with 22 points while Andrew Bogut had a career-high 32 and nine rebounds for the Bucks (18-25). The Mavericks, with Jason Kidd and Erick Dampier returning to the line up, built a six-point half-time lead and held on to sweep the season series between the teams.
Similar to the last time these two faced off, a 115-113 overtime victory for the Mavericks on November 16, this one went right down to the wire. Dallas led by eight early in the fourth but could not shake off Milwaukee as both teams traded mini runs before Delfino had a chance to win it. The Bucks stole the ball from Nowitzki with four seconds left and Delfino had a 10-foot attempt but missed it. "It came down to a scramble on that last play," the Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "It's an escape... happy to win"
* Reuters
