Nenad Krstic had 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Nets, who led by as many as 25 points. Kidd had nine assists.

The Mavs missed 13 of their first 14 shots while the Nets quickly seized control. They had a double-digit lead a little more than halfway through the quarter, and it ballooned to 22-6 when Kidd set up Jefferson for an alley-oop dunk on the break with 2:25 remaining.

The lead grew to 21 on Jefferson's jumper with 45 seconds left and the Nets were up 29-10 at the end of the quarter. Dallas shot 4-for-22 (18 percent) in the period, with Nowitzki going 1-of-8 for his two points.

"We slept through it. They came out on fire and we couldn't hit anything," Nowitzki said. That's where we lost the game."

The Mavericks are struggling with early starts. They had to rally from 24 points down to beat Toronto on Feb. 25.

"We have to do something about our bad starts because it's not the first time it's happened to us all year," Nowitzki said. "Maybe we should get up at 6 o'clock and run around the block."

Midway through the second quarter, the Mavs had more turnovers (seven) than field goals (six) and trailed 41-18. The Nets settled for a 53-32 lead at halftime, with Jefferson going 7-of-8 for his 17 points.

"Maybe the 1 o'clock start helped us," Jefferson said. "Dirk and those guys didn't wake up until the second half."

Johnson shook things up by starting reserves Jerry Stackhouse and Erick Dampier in the third quarter. Nowitzki scored 19 points in the period, but the closest the Mavs got during the quarter was 14 points on his 3-pointer with 4:12 remaining.