Mavs win season finale against the Rockets earning 6th playoff seed

The Mavericks were 14-points behind in the third quarter, but came back behind Dirk Nowitzki's 30 points and 15 rebounds, Jason Terry's 23 points and Jason Kidd's 103 career triple-double (11 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds).

It was a hard-fought win.

Through the second quarter and much of the third, the Mavericks were having trouble scoring and just couldn’t get any shots to fall.

They got just 21 points from the start of the second period until the six-minute mark of the third quarter, when they were down 61-47.

Josh Howard, then started the Mavs come back by driving to the basket and hitting six free throws. Dirk Nowitzki had a pair of jumpers, the last of which cut the deficit to 63-57.

By the end of the 3^rd quarter the Mavs where down 65-70 and had a slow start but by the 9:03 mark, they had tied it up at 70-70. 

The Rockets were held to just 4 points in the final 5 mins of the 4^th quarter while Dallas would go on a 18-4 run to end the game thanks to the defensive efforts of Brandon Bass and Hollins on Yao Ming who had a strong first half but was shut out in the last half.

"He's a foot shorter than Yao," Carlisle said of Bass, "but he did it with his legs and his body and his heart. He really, really worked out there, and he made Yao work."

Carlisle also said that “this is not a perfect team, but a fighting team, who stuck with it the whole season and feels like they have good momentum going into the playoffs.”

Now the Mavs will face San Antonio in the first round of the playoffs.