The Dallas Mavericks won their first game of the season with a 119-112 win over the Phoenix Suns in Thursday night's slate of games in the National Basketball Association.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 35 points and teammate Jason Terry scored an additional 30. Leandro Barbosa scored 30 points to lead Phoenix, while teammates Shawn Marion scored 21 points and Steve Nash had an additional 20 points. The game was a rematch of last season's Western Conference finals, which Dallas won in six games. But both teams are struggling at the start of the season, having entered Thursday's contest with a combined record of 1-8.
Cleveland and Golden State were the NBA's other winners on Thursday.
Cleveland easily beat the Chicago Bulls 113-94. Drew Gooden led Cleveland with 20 points, while teammate LeBron James scored 19 points and dished out 12 assists. The young superstar had been criticized for walking off the floor in the waning seconds of the Cavaliers's overtime loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday.
Barron Davis scored 36 points to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 121-116 win over the New Orleans Hornets. Chris Paul scored a career-high 34 points and had 10 assists for New Orleans, which lost their first game of the year.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and AP .