Could Thunder's Showdown Versus Mavericks Be a Playoff Preview?

Oklahoma City's game against the Mavericks could be an early preview to the playoffs.

With 17 games left in the regular season, playoff seeding is starting to come into form. In a the Western Conference, though, the top three seeds seem to be interchanging quite often. Denver, Oklahoma City and Minnesota have been trading off the top seed like a game of hot potato and each team is within a single game.

The bottom of the play-in tournament is looking more clear, as Golden State and Los Angeles are locked into a 7-through-10 spot. That leaves the Mavericks, Suns, Kings and Pelicans to battle it out for the No. 5 and No. 6 seeds and avoid the play-in.

Coming into Thursday night, Dallas is 38-28 on the reason and has found a bit of success in its trade deadline acquisitions. Outside of Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving, who haven't been healthy at the same tie down the stretch, there could be a bit of a depth issue for the Mavericks.

Dallas is currently locked into the No. 8 seed, 2.5 games ahead of the Lakers and just 1.5 games out of fifth. Assuming the Pelicans continue trending upward, that would likely leave Dallas locked into the six, seven or eight seed. With the Thunder 3.5 games ahead of the Clippers, the one, two, or three seed is clearly the most likely outcome. The way this scenario shakes out, Thursday night's showdown in Oklahoma City between the Thunder and the Mavericks could be a first-round playoff preview.

Although Dallas is talented, and it's never a good sign seeing Doncic in the first round, it feels like the Thunder would rather take its chances against the Mavericks instead of the Lakers, Warriors or Suns. All three of those teams have competed deep into the playoffs over the last three years and each team has multiple Hall of Fame shoe-ins.

The season series is tied 1-1 between the two Western Conference squads, with Dallas taking the last game by way of a blowout. Oklahoma City won the first contest 126-120 on Dec. 3.

A playoff series between the Thunder and Mavs would bring back a little bit of fire into the old rivalry, too. These two teams are familiar with one another in the postseason. Oklahoma City and Dallas squared off in the 2011 Playoffs, the 2012 Playoffs, and the 2016 Playoffs. Dallas beat the Thunder 4-1 in 2011 and would go on to win the NBA Finals. Since then, it has been postseason domination for OKC. The Thunder won the next two series by a total of 8-1.

After Thursday night's game, the Thunder and Mavericks will play once more on April 14. The two teams could be very familiar with one another by the time May rolls around.

---

Want to join the discussion? Like Inside the Thunder on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Thunder news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.