Behind 31 points from All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks improved to 12-2 with Johnson as head coach after a 95-90 win over the Seattle SuperSonics Wednesday night. It was Dallas' fifth straight victory.

"He preaches defense 24 hours a day," Dallas guard Jason Terry said. "We want to be a defensive team. It's a work in progress and we're not there yet."

Since Johnson took over, Dallas (54-24) has been holding teams to just 91 points per game. Seattle shot just 40 percent, and leading scorer Ray Allen was harassed into a 7-for-20 shooting performance.

It was Seattle's sixth straight loss and kept the SuperSonics (50-28) from clinching the Northwest Division title. Seattle needs one win or a loss by Denver for its first division title since 1998.

Seattle has not won since beating Portland on April 1.

Nowitzki was tough late as Dallas held off one final Seattle charge. He made two free throws with 1:14 left to break an 87-87 tie. Allen made one free throw for Seattle with 58 seconds left and Terry followed with a baseline jumper to give the Mavericks a 91-88 lead.

Seattle's Antonio Daniels missed a jumper with 39 seconds left and Nowitzki hit a 16-footer from the baseline with 17 seconds remaining to put the game away. He added two free throws in the final seconds as Dallas improved to 20-2 when Nowitzki scores at least 30 points.