With Tim Duncan out with injury, the San Antonio Spurs were led by Manu Ginobili to a 97-95 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night to keep their home record intact.

Spurs’ coach Greg Popovic said that the Argentinean was one of the best competitors in the NBA whenever he had the chance and against the Mavericks Ginobili proved that once more. He scored a season-high 37 points as he had a 50 per cent field goal percentage and six assists. Frenchman Tony Parker, who helped with his 23 points, and Michael Finley, who finished with 14 points, were the only other Spurs to finished in double figures.

All-Star forward Duncan watched from the bench with a bruised right knee and ankle sprain suffered on Sunday against Portland how Ginobili took full advantage of his first start of the season despite having bruised left index finger on his shooting hand

"I woke up feeling pretty good," Ginobili said. "After I saw I could dribble and shoot pretty well, I had no doubt in my mind that I was going to try and help the guys."

The defending league champion improved to 16-3 overall and 11-0 at AT&T Centre following their fourth overall victory.

For the Mavericks (12-7), Josh Howard scored 22 points and Jason Terry had 20. Dallas had won the previous four encounters in the Texas rivalry.

"They're still a good team without Duncan," Terry said. "They have good solid veterans, and give credit to Ginobili. He was the hot man, and everything we threw at him he took advantage of."

the spurs held off a late run from the Mavericks to win it 97-95 in the end. With 1:13 left, the Spurs were up 97-89 on a jump shot from Ginobili. But Dallas fought back through Terry, who made two free throws and then stole the inbounds pass for a dunk and a hit driving lay-up to bring them close with 34 seconds left.

San Antonio's veteran, Bruce Bowen, missed a wide-open three-point try at the next play, thus allowing Howard to grab the rebound and call timeout with 7.5 seconds remaining.

After Terry’s lay-up attempt was denied by Francisco Elson, the reigning league MVP Dirk Nowitzki (15 points and nine rebounds) launched a potential-game winning three-pointer from the right corner that missed badly at the buzzer.