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Final Score: New Orleans 87 - Dallas 97

Dallas, TX (Sports Network) - Dirk Nowitzki had an MVP-type performance with 32 points, 19 rebounds and six assists, leading Dallas to a 97-87 win over New Orleans in Game 3 of their Western Conference quarterfinal series.

Jason Terry added 22 points for the Mavericks, who still trail the best-of- seven set, 2-1, and can even the series by winning Game 4 Sunday night in Dallas. Jason Kidd chipped in eight points and 11 rebounds.

Josh Howard, who admitted on a radio station earlier in the day his offseason use of marijuana, tallied 19 points on just 5-of-16 shooting for Dallas.

Jannero Pargo scored a playoff career-best 30 off the bench for the Hornets, while Chris Paul struggled from the field on the way to 16 points. Paul, who also had 10 assists, made just 4-of-18 shots.

"We want to make him take tough shots and then on the other end we try to make him work a little bit too," Kidd said of Paul. "We're just trying to take some of that energy away from him and make him work on both ends of the floor."

David West had 14 points and Peja Stojakovic added 13 points and 10 boards in defeat.

"It was pretty much like we expected," Hornets coach Byron Scott said. "They came out with Game 7 type mentality. Our thought our guys came out with just Game 3 mentality and they were very aggressive and played pretty well on both ends of the floor."

After losing by a combined 36 points in the two games in New Orleans, the Mavericks pulled away in the third quarter.

Paul's three-pointer less than a minute into the second half had the Hornets within 49-43, but Dallas was quick to widen the lead. Howard had six points during an ensuing 9-2 run, which was broken by a Pargo three-pointer.

New Orleans pulled within six later in the period, but the Mavs continued to pressure Paul and moved in front 72-59 thanks to a Brandon Bass jam with 2:13 remaining in the quarter.

"For us it's been the third quarter in this series," Kidd said. "No matter if we've had the lead or not, we've come out kind of flat and tonight we were aggressive, took the ball strong to the basket and trying to get to the line and we did that tonight."

It was 74-63 heading to the fourth, and Terry nailed a jumper followed a three from Nowitzki.

Dallas then had to hold off a late run, as Tyson Chandler's alley-oop jam off a feed from Paul had the Hornets within 90-83 with 2:03 remaining. Terry then hit a shot from beyond the arc, and jumpers later from Nowitzki and Howard sealed the victory.

Terry's three-point shot extended the Mavs to a 15-4 lead midway through the first quarter, but Dallas' lead stood only at 23-16 after 12 minutes.

The Hornets came back to grab a 28-27 edge following a dunk from Julian Wright.

Dallas used an 18-8 run over the last 6:57 of the second quarter to secure a 47-40 lead going into halftime. The Mavericks established the lead during the spurt and never relinquished it.