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SACRAMENTO (NBA.com exclusive) -- The Mavericks final assist of the night was dished out in the Mavericks locker room.

Towering over a crowd of media after the game, a reporter asked Dirk Nowitzki if he would have any time to rest before the playoffs.

Sitting off to the side in his locker, Dallas guard Jason Terry poked his head up and delivered the one-liner: "We got all summer to rest."

There won't be any rest for the Mavericks to end the regular season as Dallas hopes to secure the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference.

Dallas gave itself a bit of breathing room in the standings on Saturday night as Nowitzki scored 29 points in the Mavericks' 126-108 victory against host Sacramento.

The Mavericks (53-27) are now a full game ahead of the Nuggets (52-28), who fell to the Spurs on Saturday night. The idle Utah Jazz (52-28) are now also one game back of Dallas in the standings, tied for the No. 3 spot with Denver.

"Obviously we would love to get the No. 2 seed and get homecourt advantage as long as we can," said Nowitzki, who also added seven rebounds. "But I think we showed this season that we can get big games on the road when we really focus in like we did (Friday)."

The Mavericks clinched the Southwest Division with a victory on the road at Portland on Friday night.

"We talked about this morning sometimes after a big emotional win like last night sometimes you have a little letdown," Nowitzki said. "We definitely wanted to focus on that and come out strong."

Jason Kidd recorded a triple-double of the season with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists. It was the 37-year-old's second triple-double of the season and the 105th of his career.

"It always starts with our leadership and that's Kidd," Nowitzki said.

"He is a phenomenal passer. When your leadership is playing unselfish that sets the tone for everyone else."

Not counting his postgame assist, Terry finished with six dimes in the game. The Mavericks were sharing the ball all night, finishing with 27 assists.

After dropping two straight at home against Orlando and Oklahoma City to start April, the Mavericks have now won three consecutive games and are looking to build momentum for the postseason.

"We're taking some steps, we're not there yet," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "Each game has critical meaning in terms of the seeding and all that. Our guys our focused in on what we need to do."

The Mavericks finish their current three-game road trip against the Clippers on Monday and conclude the regular season at home against the Spurs on Wednesday.

The Nuggets finish the regular season at home versus Memphis on Monday and at Phoenix on Tuesday. Utah finishes at Golden State on Tuesday and at Phoenix on Wednesday.

Nowitzki made 13 of 13 free throws on the night and broke his own record now having made 68 consecutive free throws. The streak began on March 29 versus Denver and is a new franchise record, breaking his own previous mark of 60 consecutive free throws from the 2005-06 season.

Dallas led throughout the game and held its largest lead at 25 points in the third quarter. The Mavericks shot 60 percent in the first quarter to jump out to a 35-24 lead and led 65-53 at the half.

Shawn Marion missed his third straight game with a strained left oblique (abdominal) muscle.

Kings rookie Tyreke Evans finished with 27 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Evans is looking to become the fourth player in NBA history to average at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in his rookie season, joining LeBron James, Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson as the only players to ever do so.
He entered Saturday night needing just 51 more points in the final three games to reach the mark. With 27 points against Dallas, Evans now needs just 24 points in the Kings final two games. The rookie has already clinched the total number of assists and rebounds needed.

Sacramento finishes its home schedule on Monday night against the Rockets before ending the season at the Clippers.

Carl Landry, who has averaged 17.8 points and 6.7 rebounds and has started all 25 games since being traded to Sacramento from Houston on Feb. 18, tied his biggest scoring output with his new team with 30 points. He also had 30 on March 26 at Boston. His season-high was 31 points at Phoenix on Jan. 6 when Landry was still with Houston.

Landry talked after Saturday night's loss about the difficulties of matching up against Nowitzki.

"We just let him have easy shots," Landry said. "We were not contesting any of the shots.
"Dirk just kept throwing daggers at us."

http://www.nba.com/games/20100410/DA...t2hp0020901193