Preview: Thunder travel to Dallas for series finale

After losing the previous two matchups against the Mavericks, the Oklahoma City Thunder head to Dallas on Wednesday with the goal of splitting the season series.

It’s been a week since Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said his team should tank. According to their statements to the media, at least, the players don’t seem to agree.

Even though the Mavericks made their opinions clear on tanking, they quickly are falling away from the Playoff bubble and further down the standings. Sitting at 12th place in the West with 19 wins, Dallas would have to make up 11 wins on 8th place Denver to sneak in. With a little over a month left in the season, that’s not happening.

Despite the Mavericks’ current downward trend and the Thunder feeling good about an all-around team win against Orlando, nothing is guaranteed. Especially to a Thunder team that has lost plenty of winnable games, including two of the first three against Dallas this season.

There were many positives for OKC last time out, but what matters most is being able to repeat that success. Seeing the bench players decrease the workload of Russell Westbrook and Paul George by scoring in limited minutes would be a great thing to see more of moving forward.

This upcoming game against Dallas is a good opportunity for the Thunder to keep building momentum. They just have to avoid the recurrent pitfalls and take what’s given to them.