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The Bobcats played a strong first half en route to a 10-point halftime lead, but their offense stalled in the second half as they lost to the Mavericks 89-84 on Monday at Time Warner Cable Arena®.

Charlotte (28-30) ended the first half on a 13-2 run, and had Gerald Wallace (10), Stephen Jackson (11) and Tyrus Thomas (12) all in double figures to go with a 53-43 lead.

Dallas (40-21) found a way to shut down the Bobcats offense after the break though, holding Charlotte to just 31 second-half points and 26 percent shooting.

The Mavericks trio of Dirk Nowitzki, Caron Butler and Jason Terry fueled the second-half surge with a combined 39 points on 55 percent shooting (17-of-31). Nowitzki led all scorers with 27 points and 13 rebounds, while Butler added 22 points and Terry chipped in 20.

“I think I did a bad job,” said Bobcats Head Coach Larry Brown. “I was looking out there and I didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t pass the ball, we didn’t recognize who was open, we didn’t use screens, we didn’t set screens. That’s on me. It didn’t look like we had any organization at all.

“I’m so disappointed,” he added. “That’s a winnable game.”

“We got beat by a better team,” said Jackson. “They played better, they ran the plays they needed to run. They did everything right.”

Jackson led the Bobcats in scoring with 20 points to go with seven rebounds. Thomas finished the game with 16 points, 12 rebounds and two blocks.

The Bobcats will head to Boston for a game against the Celtics (36-21) Wednesday night as they try to get back on the winning track.

“It’s a big game,” said Bobcats guard Raymond Felton of the trip to Boston. “It’s going to be a tough one against a good team in their building. At the same time, we’ve won there before, so we’ve got to go and get another one.”