The Thunder hosts the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night, and if the Thunder wins, it passes Dallas in the Western Conference standings and gets right on the heels of the Houston Rockets.
Dallas and Houston each is 28-17, with the Mavs holding the tiebreaker at this point. The Thunder is a game back at 28-19.
Getting into the top four of the West seems unlikely for any of the trio – fourth-place Denver is 32-14, 3-1/2 games ahead of the Rockets and Mavs.
And truthfully, the difference between 5-7 is not much, because we don’t know how the West standings will fall 2-4.