"It was a big game, probably my best game of my career," Richardson said.

Nowitzki went 16-for-24 from the field, made 16 of 17 free throw attempts and had nine rebounds. Terry added 29 points.

But Nowitzki found little consolation in his stat line.

"The numbers don't mean anything in a loss," Nowitzki said. "Whether I score five points or 60, a loss is still a loss."

The Mavericks were perfect on their first 31 trips to the foul line, then missed three free throws in the final 30 seconds that proved costly.

"We're disappointed with the way we finished the game," Mavericks coach Avery Johnson said. "Our defense wasn't very good tonight. We gave up 65 points in the second half. We had a lot of things go wrong defensively."

Dallas rallied from a five-point deficit early in the fourth quarter and seemed to have a safe lead at 117-112 with 28 seconds left after Nowitzki made one of two free throws.

Mike Dunleavy's three-point play with 18 seconds left pulled Golden State within 117-115. Dallas' Darrell Armstrong hit one of two free throws with 16 seconds left to extend Dallas' lead to three.

Armstrong fouled Richardson, who converted two from the foul line to make it 118-117.

Jerry Stackhouse made two free throws for Dallas with 7.8 seconds remaining, then Derek Fisher hit two from the foul line for Golden State to make it 120-119 and set the stage for Richardson's big shot.

Dallas (53-16) wasted a chance to move past San Antonio and take the lead in the Southwest Division.

Dunleavy had 21 points and Fisher added 17 for Golden State.