Mavericks Put Rockets Down

With a chance to finally pull ahead in their first-round playoff series, the Dallas Mavericks refused to let anything stop them.

Not even the boundaries of the court.

The Mavericks hustled at both ends of the floor to protect a shrinking lead in the fourth quarter of a 103-100 victory over the Houston Rockets on Monday night, and in one key instance they got away with Michael Finley making a play from beyond the baseline.

Replays showed that Finley clearly had both feet out of bounds when he jarred a rebound from Houston’s Jon Barry with just under a minute left. Officials didn’t see that -- but they did see Barry foul Jerry Stackhouse after he grabbed the loose ball. He made both free throws to help Dallas pad a lead that wasn’t secured until Tracy McGrady missed a long jumper at the buzzer.

Maybe it was just the home-court advantage finally paying off, as this was the first time this series that the home fans went home happy. It came at a perfect time for Dallas, which has a 3-2 series lead and two chances to join the 1969 Lakers and ’94 Rockets as the only teams to win a seven-game series after dropping the first two at home.

“It’s tough,” said McGrady, who struggled with his shot for the first time this series, shooting seven for 22 and scoring 25 points, 6.5 less than he’d been averaging. He also had nine rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocks.

“It’s always something down the stretch,” he said. “We do a good job of fighting back and getting ourselves into the ballgame. We just can’t get over that hump.”

Game 6 is Thursday night at Houston.

Yao Ming scored 15 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter, making six of seven shots but he was only three for eight from the free-throw line in the quarter.

“Maybe it was a little bit of exhaustion,” he said of the missed foul shots.

The Mavericks never trailed in the second half and their biggest deficit was one. But they allowed an 8-0 run that ended with a three-pointer by Barry with 3:22 left that made it interesting to the end.

Nowitzki, stuck in a series-long shooting funk, made nine of 22 shots and led Dallas with 23 points, including an important dunk off a miss by Jason Terry with 20.2 seconds left. He also had 13 rebounds and four steals.

Terry, coming off a 32-point game, scored nine of his 13 in the final period.