DALLAS -- After a rough three-game road trip, the Dallas Mavericks returned to the perfect homecoming: the Brooklyn Nets.

The Mavericks jumped out to an 18-point lead in the second quarter and were never really challenged in an 91-79 victory over the struggling Nets on Friday night at American Airlines Center.

Brooklyn (12-35) tried to make a game of it with a brief run in the second quarter to get to halftime down 51-39 and then came out hustling in the third quarter to get to as close as seven at 58-51 with 5:04 to go.

But that was all the Nets could muster. They quickly fell behind by double digits and headed into the fourth quarter trailing by 16 points.

For Dallas (27-22), the Nets were the perfect remedy for a lingering hangover after getting blasted by 20 points at Golden State to finish a 1-2 road trip that was dangerously close to 0-3 if not for a Dirk Nowitzki game-winning fallaway jumper with a few seconds left in regulation.

No such heroics were needed from Nowitzki on Friday or from former Nets guard Deron Williams, who faced his former team for the first time since being traded to Dallas last offseason.

Williams had a night he probably would rather forget with eight points on 3-of-13 shooting from the floor. Nowitzki finished with 12 points and eight rebounds.

Forward Chandler Parsons led Dallas with 19 points, 10 rebounds and three assists. Center Zaza Pachulia had his 22nd double-double of the season with 16 points and 12 rebounds in his return from missing three games with a sore Achilles tendon. Reserve guard J.J. Barea added 13 points.

"We understood the importance of this one coming off of a tough road trip against the best teams in the league," Parsons said. "This was a must-win for us. We've got to protect home court.

"Brooklyn doesn't have the best record, but they are talented and just beat OKC recently. They can definitely win some games and we needed to get this win. It wasn't pretty all the way through, but we got it and now we have to focus on Phoenix Sunday."

The Nets shot just 35.9 percent from the floor as a team and were terrible from beyond the arc, making just 4 of 20. Center Brook Lopez was one of the few positives with 28 points on 10-of-21 shooting from the field and 12 rebounds.

"Lopez has averaged a bundle of points here; he's averaged 28 the last four times he's played here, and he's had two 38-point games," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said. "He's a load. I thought we fought hard on Johnson and made it tough on him. Young got the ball in the basket some. We grinded through the game and did what we had to do."

Otherwise, it was pretty slim pickings. Guard Donald Sloan reached 13 points late in the fourth quarter and guard Wayne Ellington also had his 12 points late in the fourth.

Forward had Joe Johnson scored 13 points and Thaddeus Young finished with 11 points. Young and Johnson were a combined 7 of 21 from the floor.

"You have to be aggressive in there and make the most of your minutes," Johnson said. "Like I said, when they are mostly playing zone, you cannot just swing the ball side to side if nobody is going to try to make a play. It's tough playing against a zone if nobody is going to shoot."

The Nets' bench produced two points on 1 of 14 shooting.

"Well, first off, when I looked at the stat sheet I see the Mavericks only have 91 points -- you figure you might have a chance to win the game," Nets coach Tony Brown said. "We didn't do a good job with our offense.

"Obviously, we have our starters playing pretty good together, but we have to find some other guys to kind of get in the fray."

Dallas has an excellent chance to close out an 18-game January schedule with consecutive wins for only the second time since the first week of the new year and end the month with a .500 record against struggling Phoenix on Sunday.

NOTES: Mavericks C Zaza Pachulia returned to the starting lineup after missing three games because of a sore right Achilles tendon. ... Owner Mark Cuban tweeted Thursday night his dissatisfaction that F Dirk Nowitkzi was not selected for a 14th All-Star Game appearance. Coach Rick Carlisle said Nowitzki was deserving but cited depth and star power in the Western Conference for his exclusion. ... G Deron Williams faced the Nets for the first time since being traded to the Mavericks during the offseason. He missed the season's first meeting in Brooklyn because of an injury. Williams downplayed the meeting, saying he only wants to win the game. ... Mavericks G Devin Harris missed his third straight game with a great big toe injury. ... Dallas played the 17th of 18 January games ... Nets G Donald Sloan grew up in Dallas and played collegiately at Texas A&M. ... Brooklyn wraps up its road trip on Saturday at New Orleans. ... Nets G/F Bojan Bogdanovic was named to the World Team for the NBA Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star weekend in Toronto.