With the number one seed in the conference standings locked up, the OKC Thunder are serving as mere spectators during this year's Play-In Tournament as they await a final verdict on who their first-round opponent might be.
Following these first two nights of the festivities, heading into Friday's "win and you're in" finale, the candidates to claim the final playoff spot out West are the eighth-seeded Grizzlies and the ninth-seeded Mavericks.
Though Memphis' candidacy for a postseason berth should be far from surprising, as they regularly revolved in and out of a top-five spot in the standings all year (just two wins behind the two-seeded Lakers at 48-34), considering their widespread injury woes, Dallas still being in the hunt certainly is.
However, after seeing how they absolutely manhandled the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday, eliminating them by a final score of 120-106 while on the road, no one, not even the top-ranked Thunder, should be counting out the Mavs.
Frankly, because of this, coach Mark Daigneault and company may even already be considering the idea of running with a somewhat underutilized rotation during their forthcoming quarterfinal matchup, especially if Dallas winds up advancing.
Thunder may need to put full faith in double-big lineup if Mavs advance
While there were several reasons why the Mavericks were able to bounce Sacramento in such a seamless fashion (Klay Thompson reverting to his All-Star form, the team shooting 50.0 percent from deep, etc.), one of the most noteworthy aspects of their Play-In scheme was their usage of a towering lineup.
In the starting five alone, Dallas rolled out two 7-footers in Anthony Davis and Dereck Lively II, while their smallest player of the bunch was 6-foot-5 Klay Thompson.
As P.J. Washington (6-foot-7) put it during his post-game media interview, the unorthodox, brute-force approach was a real "advantage" for them against the Kings.
Should they wind up making it past the Grizzlies, as witnessed during last year's semifinal matchup, such a unit could also be troublesome for the Thunder to go up against.
That is, unless they fully commit to the double-big starting lineup with Chet Holmgren at the four and Isaiah Hartenstein at the five.
After being bested by the Mavs in six games during the second round of last year's playoff run, OKC GM Sam Presti made it a top priority during the summer to add more size and physicality to their frontcourt.
As a result of this agenda, they signed the 7-foot, 249-pound Hartenstein to a three-year, $87 million deal early in free agency to address this need and have him serve as a menacing presence alongside Holmgren.
To the delight of Thunder fans, the 26-year-old's debut campaign in the Sooner State has been quite a success, as he posted easily his best season to date with averages of 11.2 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 1.1 blocks while shooting 58.1 percent from deep.
Unfortunately, however, the goal of having him and Chet be a trusty big man tandem has yet to be fully realized.
As a result of nagging injuries to both bigs throughout the year, the duo has logged just 316 total minutes together.
While there have been positive signs of elite-level impact with the two sharing the floor -- this lineup has outscored opponents by 96 points, sports an offensive rating of 122.9 and a defensive rating of 109.4 --, they have come at far too small of a sample size for coach Daigneault to be truly comfortable with committing to this starting-five approach on a regular basis.
In fact, even during the final weeks of regular season action, the Thunder were found to be noncommittal to such a lineup, as the headman was still experimenting with I-Hart being used as a bench contributor rather than a starter.
However, despite the fact that they may not be fully convinced that the duo of Holmgren and Hartenstein is ready to share the floor as full-time starters, considering how things ended for them last season and with the way Wednesday's bout against the Kings turned out, should the Mavericks wind up being OKC's first-round matchup they may be forced to use this wildcard lineup anyway.
Round one may end up being the ultimate test for the Thunder's towering tandem.