Turning it on ... the road

The Mavericks hit the road knowing it’s time to right a wrong. Not that losing away from home is out of the ordinary – only eight of 30 teams having winning records in enemy gyms – but the Mavs have grown accustomed to success outside of the friendly confines.

Dallas posted just one losing record on the road (2003-04) in the previous seven seasons. In Avery Johnson’s two full regular seasons as head coach, the Mavs were 26-15 and 31-10 away from American Airlines Center.

“We know we can play well at home, but the great teams find ways to win on the road,” Dirk Nowitzki said. “We’ve got to see if we can get that [road killer instinct] back that we had last year. We just had that confidence walking into other arenas knowing that we can pretty much win anywhere. We got to get back to playing well on the road.”

Despite having the third-best record in the Western Conference and starting Thursday virtually tied with San Antonio atop the Southwest Division, the Mavs (24-11) are just 7-8 on the road. Beginning with Friday night’s visit to Seattle, five of the next six games are at NBA outposts beyond North Texas.

Read the rest of this note and more, plus get a look at the Sonics in today’s notebook at mavs.com.