[MavsFanFinley]

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- The return of Dirk Nowitzki didn't help the Dallas Mavericks.

Tim Duncan scored 27 points and the San Antonio Spurs held the Mavericks to 3-for-17 shooting in the fourth quarter for a 94-80 victory Wednesday night.

The loss was the third straight for Dallas, which has been plagued by late-game scoring droughts. On Wednesday, the Mavs managed only 13 points in the final period.

Nowitzki, listed as doubtful after spraining his left ankle Sunday in Denver, scored 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 35 minutes. He went 3-for-9 in the second half and contributed only two free throws in the fourth.

``We scored 80 points and that's not enough to win against this team,'' said Nowitzki, who sat out Monday's loss at Minnesota. ``They played really good defense. Every shot seemed to be contested and we didn't really have a lot of ball movement.''

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said Nowitzki's presence made no difference in his team's game plan.

``It doesn't change who we are or how we play,'' he said. ``We'd rather the other team's players play because it shows us where we are.''

The Spurs, coming off two close losses on the road, won their 18th straight regular-season home game.

San Antonio, leading 74-67 after three quarters, went on a 14-4 run to open the final period. Rookie point guard Beno Udrih started the burst with a 3-pointer, and Duncan added two bank shots.

Dallas made just one field goal in the final seven minutes of the game.

``We are a defensive team,'' said Duncan. ``We had gotten away from that the past two games. That's not how we're going to win games.''

The Mavericks, averaging 100.6 points coming into San Antonio, has failed to score more than 82 points in its three straight losses. Dallas also hasn't surpassed 40 percent shooting in any of the losses -- on Wednesday, the Mavs shot 39 percent.

The Mavericks also had a season-low eight assists, 16 fewer than the Spurs recorded and one less than Tony Parker alone.

``Right now we're out of sync -- we had a hard time getting to our spots tonight,'' said Jerry Stackhouse, who scored 15 points. ``It was good to see Dirk back on the floor. That's a positive we can take out of this one.''

Parker scored 15 points while matching his season high in assists. Brent Barry added 12 points on 4-for-4 shooting. Duncan also had 13 rebounds.

Devin Harris added 12 points for Dallas.

Nowitzki made his first shot, a 3-pointer from the right wing, to give Dallas a 5-2 lead in the opening minutes. He missed his next three attempts, but still scored nine of the Mavericks' first 13 points.

The score stayed close for most of the first half, but the Spurs opened a 47-40 lead late in the second when Bruce Bowen and Barry hit corner jumpers. Dallas came back with two free throws by Stackhouse and a running bank shot by Jason Terry to cut the difference to 49-45 at the half.

Notes

San Antonio is 5-0 at home this season. ... The Mavericks are lagging in assists post-Steve Nash. They are averaging only 18 per game, and Terry leads the team with an average of 3.3. He had two assists Wednesday ... The Mavericks and Spurs play again next Tuesday in Dallas.