Jerry Stackhouse scored 16 of his 23 points in the final quarter, and the Dallas Mavericks withstood a rally by the Miami Heat for a 99-93 win on Sunday in the first matchup between the teams since last season's NBA finals.

Josh Howard had 25 points and Dirk Nowitzki added 22 points and 11 rebounds for Dallas, which improved its NBA-best record to 34-8 and won for the 20th time in its last 21 games.

Dwyane Wade finished with 31 points, six rebounds and six assists for Miami, but missed a potential tying 3-pointer with 5.8 seconds left. Jason Williams had 17 points and Udonis Haslem _ who missed his first eight shots _ had 15 for the Heat.

The Heat were down by 13 early in the second half and their chances clearly didn't look good, especially with Shaquille O'Neal inactive for the 34th straight game because of his surgically repaired knee and Wade hobbling around after spraining his ankle by stepping on Nowitzki's foot late in the first quarter.

But Miami somehow pulled into a 90-all tie with 3{ minutes remaining. Spurs 99, 76ers 85=

At Philadelphia, Tim Duncan had 17 points and 15 rebounds, and Brent Barry scored 23 points as San Antonio never trailed and coasted to its sixth win in eight games.

Robert Horry and Manu Ginobili added 12 points apiece for the Spurs.

Andre Iguodala led Philadelphia with 20 points and Steven Hunter had 10 points and a career-high 15 rebounds. The Sixers dropped to 3-14 against Western Conference teams.<