Seattle, WA (My Sportsbook) - The Seattle SuperSonics try to end a three-game slide when they welcome the Dallas Mavericks to KeyArena.

The Mavericks are coming off a 92-83 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, which snapped a four-game winning streak. Dirk Nowitzki scored 37 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, while Michael Finley scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

Dallas came back from an 18-point deficit to tie the game, but ran out of gas. The Mavs' bench only managed 12 points in the setback.

"It was a weird game," said Nowitzki, who has now scored 30-plus points in three straight games.

"At this point in the season, we should be sharp enough to get a better start," said Nick Van Exel.

Dallas remains the top seed in the Western Conference with a three-game lead on the San Antonio Spurs. The Mavs lead the Sacramento Kings by 3 1/2 games.

Seattle is coming off a 92-77 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Kevin Ollie scored 15 points and dished out 11 assists, while Ray Allen and Vladimir Radmanovic scored 14 points apiece.

Portland concentrated on defending Allen, and it prevented him from ever getting in a groove.

"They just kept bothering me all night," Allen said. "The looks I had, because I wanted it so bad, I started to press it. Tonight was a combination of no shots and them staying on us all night."

Seattle is 16-14 at home and has a 15-19 mark within the Western Conference.

The two teams split a pair of meetings thus far this season with the home team prevailing in each case. Dallas has won eight of the last 11 meetings between the teams.

Seattle leads the all-time series 56-41.