With Josh Howard rolling and the Mavericks showing uncommon grit and attention to detail, they withstood outrageous showings from Parker and Tim Duncan for a 99-90 victory over the San Antonio Spurs at American Airlines Center.

By protecting their home court, the Mavericks went ahead, 3-1, in the best-of-7 series. They can close out the Spurs and move on to the second round for the first time since 2006 with a win Tuesday at San Antonio.

It did not come easily, but things worth savoring seldom do.

If this had been a playground game of two-on-two, the Mavericks might be stuck in a 2-2 playoff series. Parker had a career playoff-high 43 points but had only 12 in the second half, when the Mavericks gained the advantage. Duncan had 25 points. The rest of the Spurs had 22.

This being a five-man game in the NBA playoffs, the Mavs used a diverse attack led by Howard and Jason Kidd to overcome a hideous second quarter and yet another game in which the Spurs refused to let Dirk Nowitzki or Jason Terry beat them.

quot;It was a collective effort,quot; said Howard, who had a Mavericks' series-high 28 points. quot;We know what San Antonio wants to do with Dirk and Jet, so we're doing different things to get the ball in the basket.quot;

Like getting to the free throw line. The Mavericks attacked the basket and were rewarded with 39 trips to the line, where they outscored the Spurs by 11.

quot;I'm really pleased we won, because it was a gut-check the way they finished the first half,quot; Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. quot;A 3-1 lead is great, but it doesn't guarantee anything. They are by no means out of the series.quot;

But the Mavericks, who in each of the last two playoffs have been down 3-1 in the first round and went on to lose, will gladly take this spot.

Nowitzki failed to score more than 20 points for the fourth straight game. The Mavericks were 6-14 in the regular season when he scored 20 or fewer.

They have found other ways to score when the Spurs look to stop Nowitzki and Terry, who had 12 and 10 points, respectively. Terry was 3-of-17 from the field and was 0-of-10 in the last three quarters. The Mavs shot 38.4 percent, including 25 percent in the fourth.

Yet they won by controlling the boards and keeping all the Spurs not named Parker and Duncan under wraps.

They also got great support from Ryan Hollins, who had three crowd-pleasing blocks and a wicked dunk that put the Mavericks up, 92-86, with 4:20 to go.

When Parker missed a couple of free throws with 3:47 left, it cost the Spurs dearly. They got a 3-pointer from George Hill to make it 93-90, but Howard nailed two free throws with 2:06 left.

The Spurs missed five 3-pointers on their last five possessions.

That leaves the Mavericks on the verge of handing Duncan a first-round loss for the first time in his career.

quot;The old cliche is that the elimination game is the toughest, always,quot; Carlisle said. quot;Both teams have been down this road before. Nobody's taking anything for granted, I can assure you of that.quot;

&t;Chart_Head12_p&t;Coming back strong

&t;/Chart_Head12_p&t;How the Mavericks and Spurs compared in the second and third quarters.

Team/player 2nd qtr. points. 2nd qtr. shooting 3rd qtr. points 3rd qtr. shooting

Spurs 26 8-14 16 5-19

Mavs 19 4-17 29 9-18

Tony Parker 18 7-9 4 2-6

Josh Howard 0 0-1 14 4-7