A rematch of one of the best games of the season so far, the game looked to open the same way as Dirk opened with 3-6 shooting from the field and converted on his 4 free-throw attempts. Carmelo opened with 4-4 shooting but the Mavericks finally found an answer as Carmelo was constantly swarmed by double teams and found himself missing on his next 9 attempts including a last second attempt that was rejected by Ian Mahinmi. Kenyon Martin went out early, replaced by Shelden Williams who managed 4 points and 5 rebounds but allowed Dirk to tear into the Nuggets defense. But when the defense started to close on him, found Caron Butler and Jason Terry on what seemt to be just about every possession. Ty Lawson went and lead a Nuggets comeback, breathing life into the Nuggets' offense with a 6-0 run, but the quarter still ended with the Mavericks up by 6.
The Mavericks opened strong in the 2nd, with Brendan Haywood scoring the first 4. But turnovers and a failure to execute on the offensive end put the Mavericks on the spot as J.R. Smith knocked down shot after shot to put the Nuggets up by three as the quarter ended. Anthony missed his only shot and scored his only point of the quarter off a free-throw. The absence of Dirk seemed to have put the Mavericks offense in shambles as they forced shot after shot.
The Nuggets maintained a the small lead, but a Caron Butler Dunk and and-one on consecutive possesions put the Mavs ahead by 5. But Carmelo finally came to life as he made scored 10 in the Quarter. Although finally finding a rhythm in the offensive side, the Mavericks continued to make bad decisions, letting Turnovers keep the game close. A three pointer with 9 seconds remaining from Jason Terry went off the side of the rim as the Mavs ended the quarter up by one.
The last quarter had the lead being traded for every moment till the last two minutes. But Dirk showed why he was the Mavericks' cornerstone and scored 7 in a row, followed by a dish to Caron Butler who knocked down an 18-foot jumper to put the Mavs ahead by 4. Brendan Haywood also helped temper the Nuggets' attempts to break the game open as he recorded the final two of his 8 blocks as he flirted with a triple double recording 6 points and 16 rebounds. Carmelo couldn't keep up with Dirk as he finished 12-31, blowing several attempts to put the Nuggets ahead. Dirk sealed the game with a fade-away with 33 seconds on the clock as the Mavericks beat the Nuggets 99-95.
