SEATTLE – Just when you think it cannot get much worse for the Seattle SuperSonics, it does.

Against the lowest team in the Western Conference, the cellar-dwelling Phoenix Suns, the Sonics dug themselves into a big early hole, battled back in the late minutes, then wilted down the stretch with an all-too-familiar pattern of missed shots and other miscues in a discouraging 104-99 setback Friday night at KeyArena.

The effort prompted voices of disapproval throughout the night, starting with a disgruntled gathering of 15,224 spectators who booed often during the game, and ending with lengthy and scathing remarks from Sonics coach Nate McMillan to his team in the postgame locker room.

Later, McMillan related some of what he expressed to his players.

“There’s no excuse for the effort we gave in the first half,” said McMillan, who still seemed emotional as he addressed the media. “You’ve got to come out and compete and play hard. You have to know you can’t try to flip a switch on and expect to beat anyone, but tonight we tried to do that.

“A sense of urgency has to come from everyone at the beginning of the game. Everyone who touches the floor. … When you put on that uniform and when you step out on the floor, it’s time to play basketball. There’s no reason to come out there and not lay it all out on the floor. To play the way we did in the first half, you can’t accept that.”

Though the NBA requires teams to open their locker rooms to the media 10 minutes after every game, McMillan did not emerge for almost 20 minutes.

“There were a lot of things I wanted to talk about,” he said, declining to elaborate further.

The loss was Seattle’s third straight and fifth in a six-game stretch since the recent All-Star break, including three of four at KeyArena. The slumping Sonics have won just seven of 24 games since being 19-15 on Jan. 9 and are now a season-low six games under .500.

Afterward, many of the players hurried from the locker room, some begging off requests for comment from media members. One of the few who spoke with reporters was guard Antonio Daniels, a first-year Sonic who seems stunned by the extent of apathy he has seen this season.

“We’re not playing with any sense of urgency and I think it’s evident,” he said. “It’s like the passion isn’t there right now. The heart is not there. It’s almost like we’re just out there playing because we have to. But to be a professional, you can’t do that. You have to come and compete night in and night out, and right now we’re not doing that.”

McMillan is “extremely frustrated, obviously,” Daniels added. “You could see it in his face and you could see it in his tone.”

Evidently, McMillan’s words failed to leave a huge impact on all the Sonics. With the Suns staying in Seattle tonight, Phoenix forward Shawn Marion showed up in the Sonics locker room after the game, looking for a friend to head out for a night on the town. When Marion asked why his friend wasn’t dressed, the Sonics player said: “Mac-10 (McMillan) had to give us a big speech.”

Then, laughing, he added, “Speech, speech.”

Seattle had its only lead in the game after scoring the game’s first basket. From there, the Suns eased in front.

The visitors closed the quarter with eight unanswered points for a 29-20 lead and the margin was in double digits for much of the second and third periods.

Trailing by 13 points with six minutes to play in the game, the Sonics ran off nine points in a row to prompt cheers of hope from those fans still in the seats – by then, many spectators had departed – but Seattle could never get closer than three points the rest of the way.

When it was over, there was no need to blame the officials as Seattle has been wont to do of late. Nope, the Sonics were their own worst enemies, no one else. They shot the ball poorly, were careless with their ball-handling, were porous defensively, and – bottom line – were simply outhustled by the Suns for much of the game.

In fact, the only thing keeping this game close was Phoenix’s woeful free throw shooting. The Suns were just 18-for-32 at the line (.563 percent), but made up for it by shooting 41-for-82 (.500) from the field. They shot well, though, because 29 their 41 field goals were either layins or baskets from inside the key – what the NBA calls points in the paint.

For the Sonics, there is hardly any relief in sight. Seattle leaves today for a rugged four-game road trip that begins Sunday in Houston and continues next week with stops in Dallas, San Antonio and Los Angeles against the Lakers, making the prospect of a seven-game losing streak real indeed by the time the slumping Sonics return home.

“We have (24) games left and we still have an opportunity to make the playoffs,” Daniels said. “But we haven’t played the type of basketball we’re capable of playing yet, and it’s frustrating because we’re so close. We’re capable of so many things and I don’t think we know it.”