Mon Mar 31 00:16:12 2008

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Ellis and Warriors upend reeling Mavs

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Oakland, CA (Sports Network) - Monta Ellis scored 30 points to go with five assists and four rebounds, and the Golden State Warriors took a hotly contested battle between two Western Conference playoff hopefuls, beating the Dallas Mavericks 114-104 at ORACLE Arena.

Ellis went 13-for-26 from the floor, and Baron Davis added 21 points and six boards to help the Warriors (45-28) pull even with the Mavs and Denver Nuggets. Denver, idle Sunday, owns a record identical to those of Golden State and Dallas, and the three teams will fight for two remaining playoff berths over the final nine games.

Josh Howard carried Dallas, scoring 36 points and grabbing nine boards, but the Mavs failed to take advantage of a quick start and dropped their fifth game in six tries. Jason Kidd went for 13 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds, narrowly missing another triple-double, while Brandon Bass scored a career-high 21 points to go with five rebounds.

The Mavs got as close as four points on multiple occasions during the fourth, but never could get over the hump, and Ellis ultimately put them away with one final flurry.

After a pair of free throws from Howard trimmed the Golden State lead to 105-100 with about 3 1/2 minutes to go, Andris Biedrins hit two from the line and Ellis found Kelenna Azubuike for a right-wing jumper and a nine-point Warriors advantage.

Howard dropped in a soft mid-range jumper, but Ellis answered, blowing past his defender and into the lane for a finger roll that pushed the lead to 111-102 with under two minutes remaining. After a pair of Kidd free throws with 1:08 to go, Ellis provided the one final bucket Golden State needed by knifing his way through the Dallas defense. The guard drew Biedrins' defender and dished to his big man for a punctuating dunk that all but ended it, 113-104, with under a minute left.

Biedrins finished with 16 points and 14 boards, hitting all six of his free- throw attempts, while Stephen Jackson totaled 16 points and Al Harrington 14 points and nine rebounds. Azubuike was also in double figures with 15 points to go with his seven rebounds.

Jason Terry had 15 points and five assists for the Mavs, while Malik Allen scored 12.

After Dallas controlled the better part of the first quarter, Ellis' jumper gave Golden State its first lead at 25-24 with a little more than a minute to go in the frame, capping a 16-3 run. The Warriors took a 27-26 edge to the second.

The lead was eight less than four minutes into the second when another Ellis bucket made it 40-32, and the Warriors took a 59-51 advantage into the halftime break.

Seven unanswered Warriors points stretched the margin to 69-55 around the eight-minute mark of the third, but Dallas responded with an 8-0 burst of its own to pull back within six.

The scoring see-sawed for the rest of the period, and all the spurting led to a Golden State lead of the same margin - eight - it had been at the half, as a pair of free throws from Bass had Dallas down, 84-76 going to the fourth.

Kidd drilled his third three of the night with 8:43 left to bring Dallas back within nine, 93-84, just as the Warriors had been threatening to blow it open.

Bass got a pair of free throws to drop, then hit a runner and drew a foul, and when he completed the three-point play, it was 95-91 with 6:26 to go. Just over a minute later, Davis buried a three for a little breathing room, 100-93, but Howard answered with a bucket inside, and the Mavs continued to hang close through the final five minutes.

Game Notes

Dallas is now 1-3 without last season's NBA MVP Dirk Nowitzki, who went down with a high ankle sprain last Sunday in a loss to San Antonio...Though he won both of this season's previous meetings, Dallas head coach Avery Johnson is just 6-11 in his career against Golden State - the only team against whom he owns a losing mark.