DALLAS,  (Reuters) – The Dallas Mavericks shook off  the absence of injured starter Dirk Nowitzki to defeat the  Cleveland Cavaliers 102-95 in a meeting of division leaders on  Sunday.

Tim Thomas, who started for Nowitzki, scored 22 points and  Jason Terry had 19 for the Southwest Division-leading  Mavericks, who ended Cleveland’s five-game winning streak.

“It is a huge win,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle told  reporters. “Any time you can win without a guy like Dirk, it  just says a lot about the group of guys and the team.”

LeBron James, who top scored for the Cavaliers with 25  points, agreed.

“They have guys on that team that are All-Stars even  without Dirk,” James said. “Those guys stepped up.”

Nowitzki was rested after sustaining a cut on his right  elbow in Friday’s game against Houston.

“I was going to try to step up and actually try to go a  little bit and get a couple of jumpers up before the game, but  I just couldn’t get my elbow up, couldn’t extend my elbow out,  couldn’t really bend it,” Nowitzki said.

Thomas had seven points in the first four minutes of the  third period to help Dallas to a 12-point lead.

“We made some mistakes in the first half and we corrected  them at halftime,” Thomas said. “LeBron was doing most of the  scoring in the first half, so we just wanted to make the other  guys beat us.”

James scored 18 points in a rampant first half for the  Central Division-leading Cavaliers, but was checked late in the  game and had little support from guard Mo Williams, held to  eight points, and center Shaquille O’Neal, who managed just  five.

Delonte West picked up some of the slack scoring 18.