OKC Thunder Seeing Big Opportunity for Top Seed in Western Conference

The post-All-Star break poses a big opportunity for teams to secure the best possible playoff seeding. Players' legs are fresh and the team is geared up for a strong push to end the season. This has seemed to be the case for the Oklahoma City Thunder in its first two games out of the break. 

To start the backend of their schedule, the Thunder defeated the LA Clippers 129-107 in a game that saw the Thunder put a good team away in the fourth quarter. They followed this up by scoring 147 points in a 41-point win over the Washington Wizards on Friday night -- the second night of a back-to-back.

Currently, the Thunder is on a four-game win streak, which started two games before the All-Star break. Next up for the Thunder is two matchups against the Houston Rockets, followed by a matchup against the San Antonio Spurs.

The Thunder has played the Rockets one time -- losing 110-101 early in December. Now, the Thunder gets another stab at the matchup, and they're doing so by playing them twice in a row.

Evidently, defeating the 25-31 Rockets twice in a row will be a challenge, but the two games will be split with each team getting a home game apiece. The second game, being played in Oklahoma City, is a nationally televised game on TNT. 

It's hard to imagine the Thunder drops both of the games, but to see them win both of the matchups would come as no surprise. 

After those two matchups, which are favorable for the Thunder, the team takes on the Spurs in a game that will have plenty of Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama discourse. 

Still, the two times the teams met up, the Thunder dominated the Spurs, and that's likely to happen again as they're simply the more talented team. 

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