The mean-and-nasty center of Golden State's universe was trying to get to the basket.

The last time Stephen Jackson was doing this, he humiliated Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavericks.

But with the stakes lowered and the Mavericks' backbone raised, Nowitzki finally got a smidge of payback Wednesday night.

Nowitzki threw two straight shots back into Jackson's face in the fourth quarter, then rebounded a third miss by Baron Davis. In one brief possession, Nowitzki sealed an emotionally charged 121-99 victory over the Warriors at American Airlines Center.

Jackson was suspended for the Mavericks' win at Golden State in early November. This time, the 6-8 forward who spent most of the playoff series last spring denying Dirk, was there again, trying to get in everybody's face the same way he did so successfully in the playoff upset of the Mavericks.

Not this time.

Nowitzki had 29 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three blocks, igniting perhaps the Mavericks' best all-around performance of the season. They passed the ball exquisitely, their 28 assists missing the season best by one. Their ball movement was exceeded by their rebounding, which was overwhelming (50-35).

And both of those were eclipsed by what Avery Johnson called some of the best defense the team has shown this season.

"We haven't been getting after it like that defensively," he said. "This team scores 110 or 115 points a game (108.5, actually). To keep them under 100 and shoot 41 percent, we'll take that."

And, of course, Nowitzki was "a monster," Johnson said.

"He gave it to them every way – inside, in between, 3-point line, he defended and he had three blocks."

The Mavericks never trailed, led by double figures much of the way and when things got dicey late in the third quarter, with the Warriors drawing within three points on several occasions, the Mavericks responded.

They scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter to go up, 100-85, and the Warriors never got closer than 12.

Davis was stuffed by the Mavericks, with Jerry Stackhouse doing much of the defensive work in the second half. The point guard came in averaging 22.3 points and 8.3 rebounds but left with just 10 and six, missing 12 of 14 shots.

Jackson got 25 points, but he needed 21 shots to get them.

And then there was Erick Dampier and Brandon Bass, who ran a tag-team at center and came away with a combined 25 points and 18 rebounds.

Johnson said this was another example of how Dampier's shoulder injury hurt the Mavericks in the playoff series.

And when Dampier came out, Bass played well, responding positively to Saturday's game, in which Johnson did not play him.

"Defense won the game for us," Nowitzki said. "We got some stops, tried to contest their shots and tried to scramble defensively and make them take tough shots."

In short, it worked wonderfully, unlike the results of the playoff series. Of course, all this win did was get the Mavericks to 21-11. The Warriors playoff win last year got them to the second round.

"We'll get back to practice [today]," Johnson said, "because I don't think they gave a trophy out tonight."