Washington, D.C—

Call it close, but close is not enough in this league and tonight the Wizards went right down to the wire with one of the best teams in the NBA in the Dallas Mavericks, but it was one shot that was blocked that send the Mavs home victorious, 94-93 and the Wizards short of that three game winning streak they have been looking for since 2008.

After an amazing serious of plays that included a three pointer by   Mike Miller, Shawn Marion blocked Caron Butler's shot with 1.9 seconds to play Wednesday night, and the Mavericks opened the second half of their season by avenging a loss from opening night, topping the Wizards 94-93.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points leading the way for the Mavericks, Jason Terry added 21, and Jason Kidd had 15 assists for the Mavericks.

"Winning on a defensive possession, you wouldn't say that in the past about the Mavericks," Jason Kidd said. "It would be us trying to get a basket on the other end. This year, we've really focused on playing defense. We looked at the last champions and said, 'Hey, they all played defense.' So that's what we're focused on right now, and Shawn really made a great play on Caron at the end."

The Wizards nearly pulled off an impressive last-minute comeback. While they have had a couple close games this season, this one of the ones you wanted to stay around for. The Mavericks led 94-87 with 1:12 to play after Erick Dampier stuffed home a strong dunk, but Washington rallied with back-to-back 3-pointers from Randy Foye and Mike Miller to make the score 94-93 with 27 seconds left.

“We were relentless out there.  We stayed aggressive and that’s what got us back into the game.  We stayed positive and kept moving the ball and had a chance at the end of the game, said Butler.”