DALLAS – Ty Lawson and the Denver Nuggets started slowly against Dallas this time.
They beat the Mavericks again anyway.
Lawson had 19 points after a quiet first half, Nate Robinson scored 11 in a row for Denver in the fourth quarter, and the Nuggets pulled away from Dallas 110-96 on Monday night, their second win over the Mavericks in three days.
Robinson finished with 17 points, all but two in the second half, and Lawson had 14 after halftime and finished with a game-high 11 assists as the Nuggets handed Dallas its first home loss in eight games this season.
J.J. Hickson led Denver with 22 points – including 10 during a first-quarter run that put his team ahead for good – and Kenneth Faried added 10 points and 10 rebounds as the Nuggets won their second road game.
Monta Ellis led the Mavericks with 22 points, and Dirk Nowitzki passed Brooklyn’s Kevin Garnett for 14th on the NBA scoring list and finished with 18.
“It’s tough to beat any team back-to-back,” said Hickson, who was 8-of-11 from the field and had eight rebounds. “We knew they were 7-0 (at home), and we wanted to come in and give them their only loss.”
In Saturday’s meeting in Denver, the Nuggets took a big lead early and had to hold on late for the win after Dallas went in front. This time, they had to dig out of an early hole.
Denver fell behind by 11 less than 6 minutes in before going on a 21-6 run to take a 29-25 lead late in the first quarter. The Nuggets didn’t trail again.
After going up by as many as 12 in the second quarter, the Nuggets started the third with a 16-6 run powered by Lawson. He opened the second half with a jumper and finished the spurt with a 3-pointer for a 72-57 lead.
“They did to us what we want to do to them, come out third quarter and hit first and try to take the life out of them,” said the Mavericks Vince Carter, who had eight points on 3-of-13 shooting. “And it was the opposite.”
The Mavericks were within four early in the fourth quarter when Robinson scored 11 conecutive Denver points. Robinson hit consecutive 3-pointers to push Denver’s lead back to 10, then capped his run with another from long range for a 100-87 lead.
“Well, he can do that,” Nuggets’ head coach Brian Shaw said. “That’s why we brought him in, to give us some scoring punch off the bench and give us some energy off the bench. And when he gets hot like that, you ride him.”
The Nuggets finished at 55 percent from the field and were the third consecutive opponent to shoot at least 50 percent in Dallas. The Mavericks beat the first two – Houston (55 percent) and Utah (50 percent).
“I just think that with time we are only going to get better,” Robinson said. “We are just trying to stay under the radar and win as many games as we can.”
All five starters were in double figures for the Mavericks, but a bench that normally is their strength scored just 21 points on 8-of-27 shooting.
“We didn’t have much competitive energy (Monday night), and the guys on the bench are the guys that have got to give it to us,” Mavericks’ head coach Rick Carlisle said. “This is a coaching loss. I didn’t have these guys ready to play.”
Nowitzki moved ahead of Garnett with two free throws with 3 minutes, 3 seconds left in the second quarter. Garnett, who was idle Monday in Brooklyn, is at 25,352 points.
Kobe Bryant is the only active player ahead of Nowitzki, who has 25,361. The Los Angeles Lakers star, who still is recovering after tearing an Achilles tendon last April, is fourth all-time at 31,617 points.
Bryant signed a two-year extension on Monday with the Lakers, reportedly worth $48.5 million.
Nowitzki, an 11-time All-Star and the 2007 NBA MVP, has passed Jerry West, Reggie Miller and Garnett since Nov. 12.
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