SEATTLE - The Mavericks played Friday night like they could get used to being at the top of the standings.

Mid-season doldrums in San Antonio, coupled with the Mavericks' upswing, have put them into the Southwest Division lead, and they looked the part in a thorough, defensive-minded 90-70 thumping of the Seattle SuperSonics at Key Arena.

The Mavericks overcame miserable early shooting for their sixth consecutive win. Seattle may be one of the NBA's teams of the future, but its present-tense version has been ugly as Kevin Durant and Co. lost their sixth in a row.

"You never know what you're going to get with a team like that," said Jerry Stackhouse of the Sonics. "They can play above their heads and come out and hit you with a haymaker. Or we could jump on them."

The latter was the operative option.

The Mavericks rode their front line in this one. Josh Howard, Dirk Nowitzki and Erick Dampier led a powerful night of rebounding and defense to start a three-game road trip off on the right track.

The Mavericks improved to 8-8 on the road and face a challenging back-to-back tonight in Los Angeles against the Clippers.

The Mavericks made up for a horrible opening with a strong run in the third quarter, when they opened a 20-point advantage and rendered the fourth quarter moot.

Their best asset was holding the Sonics to 35.4 percent shooting.

"We wanted to give ourselves a chance with our defense," coach Avery Johnson said. "Our offense wasn't very good. We were stuck on zero for a while."

Still, they came alive with solid second and third quarters, and that was enough against the Sonics. Howard finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Nowitzki had 20 points, and Dampier matched Howard's rebound total.

It was enough to pull them into a tie with Phoenix for the best record in the Western Conference and kept them a game up on the Spurs in the Southwest Division.

Never mind that beating the Sonics is no great feat these days. They are adrift with a young team.

After the Mavericks held the Sonics to 48 points through three quarters, the biggest question was whether they would be limited to the lowest total in Mavericks' history. Dallas held Minnesota to 65 points last season.

Seattle finally inched past the futility mark when Nick Collison nailed a 20-footer to make it 84-67 with just over three minutes left.

Basically, the Mavericks treated the Sonics like elite teams are supposed to treat bad ones. And after so many fitful moments in November and December, the Mavericks are looking quite content in January, when they still haven't lost.

Howard was particularly sharp, which he was glad to see.

"I've been in kind of a slump lately, and my teammates told me to just stay aggressive, so that's what I tried to do," Howard said. "This is a good start to the road trip against a good, young team."

Durant, the Sonics' 19-year-old rookie from the University of Texas, has been a strong offensive threat early in his NBA career, averaging nearly 20 points per game.

But in the first half, he was more of a facilitator, dishing out five assists.

The amazing part of that statistic was that the Sonics actually made five baskets.

Both offenses were frosty at the start. The Mavericks missed 14 of their first 17 shots - and were still tied.

The Mavericks finally got a boost from Seattle native Jason Terry. Among those in the Key Arena crowd was Detroit Lions and fellow local Jon Kitna, who was on hand to visit with Terry after the game.

During the game, the Mavericks maintained a workmanlike attitude throughout and they were able to rest Nowitzki throughout the fourth quarter as the Sonics never made a threatening move. Durant and Wally Szczerbiak were the only relatively consistent threats for the Sonics. And even they struggled as the Sonics were stuck below 35 percent shooting until a final flurry late in the fourth quarter.