Coming into focus

With the season’s halfway point right around the corner – Game No. 41 is Wednesday – the picture is beginning to come into focus. The Mavericks are essentially healthy, save for a couple minor aches, and settling into a rotation.

Dallas (26-12) began Friday tied with New Orleans atop of the Southwest Division. The recent seven-game winning streak, which ended Monday at Sacramento, gave coach Avery Johnson a glimpse of what could be.

“We had a snapshot of our team when we were whole,” Johnson said after practice. “When everybody was there, whether it was three games or five games, we had a snapshot of what I kind of envisioned. In the midst of that snapshot, we played some decent basketball and we won games in different ways.”

During the season-high winning streak, the Mavs won three games by at least 20 (only four all season) and outscored opponents by 14.3 points. Going back further, they’ve held 14 of the last 17 foes to less than 100 points, and only the Magic, Clippers and Kings exceeded their season scoring average.

Read the rest of this note, get Josh Howard’s thoughts on Kevin Durant, a look at the Sonics, and an injury update on Jerry Stackhouse and Eddie Jones in today’s notebook at mavs.com.