Rudy Gay scored 25 points, Zach Randolph added 15 points and 11 rebounds, and the Memphis Grizzlies built a big early lead and held on to beat the Dallas Mavericks 94-89 on Saturday night.
Dirk Nowitzki led the Mavericks with 17 points and eight rebounds, and Brandan Wright added 16 points. Vince Carter had 14 points, while Shawn Marion finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds in the Mavericks' second straight loss.
Memphis led 29-10 after one quarter and moved two games ahead of Dallas for fifth place in the Western Conference, also claiming the head-to-head tiebreaker by winning the season series 2-1.
The Mavericks weathered an early 20-point Memphis advantage and pulled close midway through the third period. But the Grizzlies never let Dallas take the lead, although four free throws by Nowitzki down the stretch cut the Memphis lead to 92-89 with 21.5 seconds left.
Dallas missed 13 of its 14 shots, finishing 2 of 15 in the first quarter. Randolph's 3-pointer as the horn sounded at the end of the first frame gave Memphis a 29-10 lead, the 10 points matching Dallas' season-low for points in a quarter.
