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While Mavs' defense has improved, Avery says it must get better

There's no quicker way to put the Mavericks on the defensive than to ask about defense.

It's good. Or, at least, it's getting better. Honest.

"It's a whole lot better than it was earlier in the year," Josh Howard said Thursday. "We're still giving up a lot of points, which we shouldn't be doing, but for the most part, we're playing better D."

Johnson was asked where the Mavericks would stand now if they had started the season at 1 with a goal of reaching 100 on defense.

"I would say we're probably at 75," he said. "It has been improving. But we know a 75 is not where we need to be."

As with every aspect of the team, the hard part on defense starts now. After hosting Seattle on Saturday, the Mavericks (26-12) will hit the midpoint of the season on an upcoming trip to Washington and Charlotte. This is when contending teams try to tighten things up.

Last season, it was in February and March when the Mavericks started to show flaws. They took shortcuts and it came back to haunt them.

This season, the goal is to keep the progression going.

So the Mavericks want to get their defense up several notches in the second half of the season.

"I wouldn't say it's easy to go from 1 to 75, but it's harder to go from 75 to 90 or 95," Johnson said. "The thing for us is that we don't want to be at an 85 now and three weeks from now be back at 70.

"We have to get to a point where we get to the high 80s or 90s, because sometimes even with great defense, great NBA players find a way to make that defense play. We've got to get to that next 10 to 15 percent better before the end of the season, and that's the hard part."

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