OKC Thunder on the road tonight to take on the Dallas Mavericks. Thunder enter at 40-16 and losers of two straight trying to avoid losing three straight for the second time this season. First time was back in November when OKC lost three straight to the Rockets, Bulls, and Raptors. Without looking it up, I can’t remember many times in the Durant-Westbrook era this has happened in the same season when both were healthy for most of the season.
Dallas (30-27) is a so-so team which I originally picked as the No. 8 seed in the West before the season started. Nothing Dallas has shown me to date makes me feel wrong abut this assessment especially considering the way Portland is climbing the standings of late.
One thing of note we need to start watching is the gap between OKC and the Clippers for the No. 3 seed in the West. It was earlier a given this wouldn’t be an issue with all the Blake Griffin distractions surrounding the Clips, but slowly and surely it’s not beyond the realm of possibility this could become a close race for third in the West given how tough OKC’s schedule is the remainder of the season.
Andre Roberson expected to be back in the starting lineup for the Thunder tonight.
OKC listed by Vegas as a 4.5 point road favorite tonight in Dallas.