Dallas, TX (Sports Network) - Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard scored 26 points apiece and the Dallas Mavericks held off the Los Angeles Lakers, 112-105, at American Airlines Center.

Both Nowitzki and Howard grabbed 10 rebounds, and the duo shot a combined 18- for-21 from the free-throw line. Devin Harris had 18 points and four assists for Dallas, which has won 10 of its last 12.

Kobe Bryant went for a game-high 40 points while grabbing 10 rebounds, and Jordan Farmar added 18, but the Lakers couldn't recover from a 17-point third- quarter deficit. LA has now dropped three of four on the heels of a seven-game win streak that kicked off the New Year.

Bryant hit a pair of free throws and then sliced inside for a finger roll to trim the Mavs lead to 106-101 with 1:18 to go in the game, but Harris came up with a bucket on a drive and drew a foul on Ronny Turiaf. He then hit the free throw to push the Dallas edge back to eight points.

Bryant knocked down a fadeaway on the ensuing possession to make it 109-103 with 49.8 seconds left, but Jason Terry put the Lakers to bed when he buried a left-wing three off a dish from Harris to make it 112-103 with less than 30 ticks remaining.

"We had some early transition opportunities," said Harris. "(We were) able to get some easy transition baskets and really just push the ball. (We were) able to get stops. In the first half, we kind of struggled to get stops and we weren't rebounding too well, but we did a better job in the second half."

Terry finished with 15 points, while Brandon Bass had 10 and five rebounds off the bench for Dallas, which forced 16 Lakers turnovers.

Derek Fisher had 11 points for LA and Kwame Brown added 10, but Lakers coach Phil Jackson employed neither of those two nor Lamar Odom or Luke Walton down the stretch. Bryant was on the floor with Farmar, Turiaf, Sasha Vujacic and D.J. Mbenga for the majority of the final period, with only Odom returning in the final two minutes.

"We had too many turnovers," Jackson said. "It was a big part of the game. That little run they made in the third quarter put some distance between us, and it was tough to make that up again. They hit some big threes and got to the foul line a little more than we did the second half."

LA led 31-28 after a back-and-forth first quarter, and pushed the lead to 35-30 early in the second on a Turiaf jumper. Dallas stayed close though, and Trenton Hassell's turnaround jumper with 15 seconds to go gave the Mavs a 56-55 lead at the half.

An 11-0 push to start the second half gave Dallas a 67-55 edge, and they extended that cushion to 17 by the end of third. Howard's three-point play capped the period's scoring and gave the Mavs their largest lead to that point, at 91-74.

Farmar hit consecutive threes to pull the Lakers back within 93-82, and Turiaf threw down a dunk to make it 95-86 with just over seven minutes to go.

Eddie Jones was called for a clear-path foul on Bryant with 4:46 to go, and after Bryant hit both free throws and a bank shot on the ensuing possession, LA was within five, at 97-92.