NBA: Dallas 99, New York 94

DALLAS, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Josh Howard picked up the slack for his cold-shooting teammates Thursday and rallied the Dallas Mavericks to a 99-94 win over New York.

Howard scored 19 points, helping the Mavericks win for the fifth time in six games.

New York owned an 11-point lead in the first period and still had a five-point advantage with 5 minutes to play in the third. Dallas, however, moved in front on James Singleton's jumper with 25 seconds to play in the third quarter and the Knicks could never catch up.

Jason Kidd contributed 16 points for Dallas and Antoine Wright had 13. Dirk Nowitzki made only three of his 13 field goal attempts and scored 10 points. Jason Terry took just 10 shots in 33 minutes of action and made only four of them.

Chris Duhon led New York with 24 points and Wilson Chandler had 20.

New York has lost in its last nine trips to Dallas. The Knicks' last win on the Mavericks' home court came 15 days before the turn of the century.