DALLAS — Down after one quarter, two and even three, the Los Angeles Lakers found themselves in an unfamiliar place.

Yet even with the Dallas Mavericks getting terrific games out of Jason Kidd and Erick Dampier, Kobe Bryant and friends found a way to pull out another one.

Trevor Ariza turned an offensive rebound into an emphatic, go-ahead dunk early in the fourth quarter and added an equally emphatic block in the final minute to help the Lakers pull out a 106-99 victory over the Mavericks last night. Los Angeles improved to 6-0, its best start since going 7-0 in 2001-02 — which also was the last time the Lakers won the championship.

"Nobody panicked," said Bryant, who scored nine of his 27 points in the fourth quarter. "We just kept at it."

Despite being without Josh Howard — their second-best scorer, co-leading rebounder and a top defender — the Mavs came out with the fire star Dirk Nowitzki criticized them for lacking in their previous game, a loss to the then-winless Clippers. This time, Dallas scored a season-best 35 points in the first quarter and a season-best 60 in the first half.

However, the Mavs scored only 39 points the rest of the way, with Nowitzki failing to score after the early minutes of the third quarter. That dropped them to 0-3 at home for the first time since the 1993-94 club that finished 13-69. That's not exactly the kind of change new coach Rick Carlisle was hired to make.

"You've got to be able to finish games and you've got to be able to win at home," Carlisle said. "We ran great in the first half. In the second half, they played better and we didn't get the same opportunities."

The Lakers went into the fourth quarter trailing for the first time all season. But they also were in the midst of a 30-9 spurt that would put them ahead for good.

Ariza scored a season-high 13 points and Lamar Odom added 12 for the Lakers.