TORONTO (Ticker) -- Without Steve Nash, the Dallas Mavericks had to put their fortunes in the not-so-sure hands of Dirk Nowitzki.
After collecting 23 points in the first half, Nowitzki scored just four the rest of the way and dropped a key pass as the Mavericks were beaten by the Toronto Raptors, 77-71.
Dallas trailed, 74-71, with 21 seconds left when Toronto's Vince Carter missed a pair of free throws. The Mavericks called timeout to advance the ball to half-court, but Nowitzki could not handle the inbounds pass from Tony Delk and Carter redeemed himself by splitting two from the line.
"I wasn't ready for the ball and I just didn't catch it," Nowitzki said. "The whole offense had no rhythm tonight."
Part of the reason the Dallas offense sputtered was the absence of Nash, who sat out with a strained shoulder suffered in Wednesday's loss at Washington.
"To me, he is our MVP," Nowitzki said. "He gets us fired up and gets our running game going every night. Of course, you miss your starting point guard, but we have to find a way to win without him."
The Mavericks shot just 35 percent from the field (29-of-82) and committed 19 turnovers compared to 20 assists.
"Our play was terrible," Dallas coach Don Nelson said. "All the turnovers that we made and the missed shots right around the basket, you hope you can make those."
Morris Peterson sealed the game with two free throws with 11 seconds left.
Carter and Peterson connected on a brilliant play with 38 seconds left that put Toronto up by three points. Carter was on the right side of the foul line and threw a perfect bounce pass to Peterson, who never broke stride as he cut along the baseline for a reverse layup.
Carter, who led the Raptors with 19 points, made it 70-67 on a follow dunk off Milt Palacio's miss with 4:27 left.
"The one thing I try to do is let the game come to me," Peterson said. "Down the stretch, I thought we made some big plays. And that was the outcome of the game."
"We just hung around long enough to give ourselves a chance to win," Raptors coach Kevin O'Neill said. "I thought our guys, at the end, did a good job."
The Raptors went the next 3:14 without scoring, but the Mavericks shot just 20 percent (4-of-20) in the fourth quarter, making one basket after Delk's layup gave them a 65-60 lead with 10:27 to play.
Antoine Walker picked up some of the slack for Nash, coming within three assists of a triple-double with 14 points and 17 rebounds. But it was obvious the Mavericks missed their floor leader.
"(Nash) knows the offense in and out," Carter said. "He runs it for 48 minutes."
Walker missed badly on two 3-pointers in the final 24 seconds, one of which could have forged a 74-74 tie.
Nowitzki led all scorers with 27 points on 11-of-20 shooting. But the rest of the Mavericks shot just 29 percent (18-of-62). They also attempted just 11 free throws, making nine.
Palacio chipped in 11 points and seven assists for the Raptors, who shot 40 percent (29-of-73) and were 15-of-20 from the line.
