For three quarters of Thursday's game against the Houston Rockets at American Airlines Center, the Dallas Mavericks appeared to be in complete control.
Dallas (46-30) led their Interstate-45 rivals 55-47 at halftime and 83-77 after three quarters.
However, the Rockets (52-24) hung around long enough to outscore the Mavs 31-18 over the game's final 12 minutes to prevail 108-101 before a capacity crowd.
"That first three quarters, we would make a run and then we would give up a run," Rockets guard James Harden, who led all scorers with 24 points, said. "It just kept going back and forth. In the fourth quarter, we wanted to buckle down. We knew if we got stops, the game would go our way."
One night after dropping a career-high 51 points on the Sacramento Kings in a 115-111 win at Toyota Center, Harden went 6-of-15 from the field, 10-of-12 from the foul line and also had six assists and five rebounds.
"James (Harden) was attacking. Guys made shots," Rockets head coach Kevin McHale said postgame. "[Jason Terry] made a big right corner three. Earlier, [Pablo Prigoni] makes a big left slot three, so everybody played well for us. [Corey Brewer] gave us great energy. Josh (Smith) was really flying around out there."
Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle conceded in his postgame presser that once Harden finds his zone of playing aggressive and getting to the foul line, that can be a tough process to stop.
"Harden's a foul machine. He's a foul-creating machine. When he gets into that kind of a groove, he makes it hard," Carlisle said.
Trevor Ariza also scored 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting for the visitors while former Mav Jason Terry, who started against his former team, finished with 10 points, including a big three-pointer in the fourth quarter.
Houston, who was playing its fourth game in five nights, wins the season series 3-1 with Dallas. The Rockets also got a double-double from Josh Smith (15 points, 12 rebounds) and ex-Mav Corey Brewer chipped in 14 points.
Dallas was led by Dirk Nowitzki, who finished with 21. But the hot topic postgame with Carlisle postgame was the status of Chandler Parsons, who didn't play most of the second half due to right knee soreness.
"He tried to go in the second half. I'm not sure exactly when it happened but it was more noticeable after the game last night (in Oklahoma City)," Carlisle said. "He tried to go today. He gave it a real shot and just wasn't moving right and he was having some discomfort, so we pulled him."
One night after scoring 22 points in a huge road win over the Thunder, with 13 of those coming in the fourth quarter, Parsons finished with 11 points and played just under eight minutes in the second half before heading to the locker room.
"He got checked out at halftime. He wasn't having a lot of pain. He's just got some swelling. He wanted to give it a shot but then, we pulled the plug after five, six minutes, whatever it was," Carlisle said.
The Mavericks, who remain 3 ½ games behind the San Antonio Spurs for the sixth spot in the Western Conference and 3 ½ games clear of the Thunder for the eighth and final playoff spot, also got 19 points from Monta Ellis and 11 from Amar'e Stoudemire off the bench.
In that fateful fourth quarter, the Rockets shot 56 percent from the field (9-of-16) while the Mavs were shot just 26 percent (5-of-19).
The Rockets struggled at the foul line in the first quarter, going 3-for-8. However, over the final three quarters, Houston was 26-of-32 from the stripe over the final 36 minutes, taking 40 free throws compared to 27 by the Mavs.
But the other key number from this game was 14 as in the final edge on the glass the Rockets held (55-41). Houston corralled 17 caroms on the offensive glass compared to nine by the Mavs, a differential that definitely brought a smile to McHale's face.
"A lot of guys went in there and got them (offensive rebounds)," McHale said. "Josh (Smith) had some big ones for us. Dwight (Howard) is still limited in minutes, but he went through a period where he was going up in the crowd and getting them. Everybody, it was big. We needed every one of them."
McHale felt those two factors, his team's strong work on the offensive glass and their rather frequent trips to the foul line were ultimately what made the difference in what he called a "hell of a win".
"If you can get on the offensive glass and get 17 offensive rebounds and get to the line 40 times, you give yourself a good chance to win games," McHale said.
Dallas returns to the floor on Saturday night against the West-leading Golden State Warriors. The Mavs have six regular-season games remaining, with three of those being at home.
