4. Dallas Mavericks
After a pretty inconsistent start to the season, the Dallas Mavericks appear to have found their footing of late. The team has won 11 of their last 13 games and the only two losses that Dallas has had in that stretch came against the Miami Heat in overtime (without Luka Doncic) and then against the Oklahoma City Thunder. That just goes to show you how well the Mavs have been playing over roughly the last month of the season. The question is, can the Mavs continue to remain on this hot streak?
The hope would be yes considering this team entered this season as one of the favorites to emerge out of the Western Conference. However, as we've learned, nothing is certain in the NBA and, to be quite honest, I'm still not loving the Klay Thompson fit. Hopefully, that begins to look better as we get deeper into the season but it's certainly something to keep a close eye on. If the Mavs are going to compete for a championship this season, Klay has to be better and appear as a more seamless fit on the team.
3. Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoma City Thunder have to be considered one of the most fascinating teams in the NBA. Even after suffering a huge injury to Chet Holmgren in the early portion of the season, it doesn't appear as if the loss has had a huge impact on the team. Much credit could go to the front office who decided to make the huge signing of Isaiah Hartenstein for this exact reason, but you have to give this team as a whole credit for figuring out a way to survive without Holmgren in the lineup for such an extended period of time.
I'd imagine there are many across the league that were expecting the Thunder to take a bit of a step back after the injury to Holmgren. At least so far, that hasn't happened. If anything, it should reinforce the idea that the Thunder are going to emerge as a real threat to win it all this season. The only question the Thunder may be facing is whether or not they have enough experience to come up big when it matters most. That may be the only thing plaguing this team.