The Dallas Mavericks defeated the Chicago Bulls 99 - 98 Tuesday at American Airlines Center. The Mavericks (14 - 27) held a comfortable seven - point lead heading into halftime before allowing superstar Jimmy Butler and the Bulls to come storming back and make it a competitive ball game. In the final minute of the game, Jimmy Butler's mid - range jumper broke a 96 - 96 tie and put Chicago up two, but then, a 25 - foot Wesley Matthews 3 - pointer gave Dallas back the lead. One last stop for the Mavericks gave them their third straight victory, as they are starting to hit their stride midway through January. The team was led by Harrison Barnes, who scored a team - high 20 points in the contest, but it was a total team effort Tuesday night, with six different Mavericks scoring in double figures. As for the Bulls (21 - 22), the loss puts them back under .500 after they had won two straight, and it also drops them to 0 - 2 against Dallas this season. Butler was once again impressive with a great all - around performance, posting 24 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds in 40 minutes. But the surprise performance came from Robin Lopez, who has remained rather quiet production - wise in his stint with the Bulls. Lopez finished Tuesday's contest with 21 points on 10 - of - 15 shooting from the field and five rebounds. It was by far the best performance of the season from the big man, the efforts of Butler and Lopez just were n't enough in the end. Up next, the Mavericks will look to keep things rolling in Miami on Thursday, while the Bulls will head to Atlanta on Friday to take on the Hawks.
["TeamStat(G,'Bulls') has 22 Losses ,has 98 Total points ,has 21 Wins ."
 "TeamStat(G,'Mavericks') has 27 Losses ,has 99 Total points ,has 14 Wins ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Wesley Matthews') has 2 Assists ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Harrison Barnes') has 20 Assists ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Jimmy Butler') has 12 Assists ,has 40 Field goals attempted ,has 2 Field goals made ,has 24 Minutes played ,has 9 Offensive rebounds ."
 "PlayerStat(G,'Robin Lopez') has 15 Assists ,has 10 Field goals attempted ,has 21 Field goals made ,has 5 Minutes played ."]