I wanted to take a closer look at Seattle's shooting woes and what a few of the problems might be. Using NBA.coms Hotspots, here’s a comparison showing the Sonics shot selection during the last five games of the team's losing streak, compared with Seattle’s shot selection during perhaps their best offensive performance of the season in a home win over the Toronto Raptors in December.

Sonics shot selection the last five games

During the last five games the Sonics are shooting 42.5 percent from the field, and just 30.4 percent from beyond the arc. Seattle primarily suffers offensively two different ways – poor ball and player movement that creates an inability to get good looks inside, and poor shooting from the perimeter.

Sonics shot selection in Toronto win.

In the Toronto game, Seattle got baskets inside by pushing the ball in transition, and moving the ball in their half-court sets, allowing them to get easy buckets inside. With a solid interior game, Seattle then got clean looks from the perimeter and finally knocked down some 3-point shots.

Against Toronto Seattle shot 47-of-84 (56 percent) from the floor, 10-of-17 (58.8 percent) from beyond the arc, and 19-21 (90.5 percent) from the free-throw line.

Part of the problem has been Seattle’s woeful shooting from beyond the arc. The Sonics are 18th in 3-point shooting in the league (35 percent) and 26th overall in shooting percentage from the floor (43.5).

Defensively, Seattle allows its opponents to shoot 38.3 percent from the 3-point line, second-worst in the league.

Three-point shots are a premium in the NBA because they are momentum-changing buckets that teams use to increase leads during the flow of games, or stop spurts by other teams. Seattle’s inability to guard beyond the arc, along with its cold shooting from the 3-point line has created a decided advantage for their opponents in the flow of momentum during a game.

Of course, Seattle is struggling in other areas as well, most notably stopping penetration defensively, defensive transition and turnovers.

But ultimately you have to put the ball in the basket in order to win consistently in this league.