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  Thursday, Mar. 16 8:30pm ET
Strickland scores 26 for Dallas
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME FLOW

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The Dallas Mavericks are suddenly too hot to handle.

Erick Strickland scored 26 points and hit five of his team's 12 3-pointers as the Mavericks scorched the San Antonio Spurs 110-88 for their first win in the Alamodome since 1996.

Shawn Bradley
Dallas' Shawn Bradley dunks over the Spurs' Tim Duncan.

The Mavericks, only 27-37 and not close to postseason contention, have beaten playoff-bound Phoenix, Indiana and San Antonio in the last six days after losing six in a row. Those three teams are a combined 125-67.

"Dallas was active in every way, shape and form," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "Their aggression made a lot of things happen. We, on the other hand, were pitiful."

"Our ball movement was quick and clean," Dallas coach Don Nelson said. "When you move the ball like that, all you have to do is make the shots, and we did."

The Mavs shot 51.9 percent, but were even better from beyond the 3-point arc, where they were 12-of-23 (52.2 percent).

While Dallas sizzled offensively, San Antonio was lethargic in its first game since Tuesday night's emotional return of Sean Elliott from a kidney transplant.

"We got embarrassed," Spurs guard Antonio Daniels said. "The only good thing is that this is the NBA and we have another game around the corner."

Elliott started and played the first eight minutes, but he did not see action in the second half after his right groin tightened up. He had two points, hitting base-line jumper, and four rebounds.

"We didn't bring a lot of emotion defensively, didn't help when we needed to," Elliott said. "We just weren't focused on defense. That's the way I saw it."

Elliott said he felt fine, but it was a precautionary coaching decision not to play him in the second half.

"I felt better tonight," he said. "That's disappointing, because I really felt pretty good. The way it turned out, I just missed an opportunity to get a lot of minutes in the second half."

Michael Finley added 22 points for the Mavs, who had six players in double figures.

"I guess this is supposed to be surprising, as good as they are and us not being that good yet," Dallas center Shawn Bradley said. "We played with a lot of emotion and intensity, like we know we can."

David Robinson led San Antonio with 20 points, although neither he nor Tim Duncan played in the fourth quarter with the game out of hand. Duncan had just 10 points and did not return after drawing back-to-back offensive fouls in the third quarter.

San Antonio last led at 9-8 and never got closer than eight points in the last three quarters. Dallas built as much as a 30-point lead as a smattering of boos filtered through the cavernous arena.

The loss dropped San Antonio (41-24) three games behind Midwest-Division-leading Utah (43-20) going into the final month of the season. The Spurs have 17 games remaining and the Jazz have 19.

Game notes
The 110 points was the second most against the Spurs this season. San Antonio ranked first in scoring defense in the league, allowing just 90.0 points a game . . . With the return of Elliott and Malik Rose, the Spurs are getting healthier. But they have missed 203 games to injury compared to 99 last season. The only Spurs still on the injured list are guards Terry Porter and Steve Kerr. Porter has a left knee ligament strain and Kerr a swollen right knee. Neither is expected back in the neer future. Rose's return after missing six games with a sprained ankle against Atlanta went virtually unnoticed . . . Dallas has logged a league-high 281 games missed to injury, but forward Cedric Ceballos, the team's second-leading scorer, played despite having the flu.

 


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RECAPS
Washington 109
LA Lakers 102

Utah 107
Cleveland 86

Miami 92
Philadelphia 77

Milwaukee 106
Houston 96

Dallas 110
San Antonio 88

Minnesota 96
Portland 92

Seattle 117
Vancouver 103