Focused in Seattle

The Sonics have lost five straight and are ahead of just Minnesota in the Western Conference. Taking struggling teams lightly has been an issue at times (see: Miami), but the Mavs did dispose of the Timberwolves pretty handily earlier this week.

“That’s the thing,” Avery Johnson said minutes ago. “As long as we can come out and be focused, the uniforms change every night, but we’ve got to have consistent effort on defense and be focused. I thought we were awfully focused the last couple games.”

Other signs of focus, Johnson added, include not getting into it with officials, communicating on the floor and sticking to the gameplan.

“Right now we just want to get better at closing out, get better at making contact and physicality, getting better at assists and reading defenses,” Johnson said. “That’s all we want to do, just keep getting better.”