"Dirk Nowitzki finally rediscovered his shooting touch. Unfortunately for him, his Dallas Mavericks teammates are still looking for theirs.

Paul George scored a career-high 30 points as the Indiana Pacers beat the Mavs to the finish line, 98-87, Friday night before a crowd of 20,146 at American Airlines Center.

Coupled with Wednesday's loss to Oklahoma City, this is the second time this season the Mavs (14-10) have dropped consecutive games at home. The defending NBA champions opened the season with home losses to Miami and Denver.

About the only positive the Mavs can take from Friday's loss was that Nowitzki was able to find his shooting touch. The 10-time All-Star scored a season-high 30 points on 12 of 17 shooting in 33 minutes and looked strikingly similar to the player who led the Mavs to last year's NBA title.

"Every day he's moving better, so at some point this kind of game was going to be a reality and it was great to see, because he was doing everything," coach Rick Carlisle said. "He was shooting the ball, he was driving the ball, rebounding it, and I thought, overall, he was very active."

Nowitzki, who recently was nursing a sore right knee, hit his first six shots and scored 20 points by halftime. He was so hot that he made a wild circus shot in the fourth quarter even when he was being guarded closely by George."