OKC Thunder-Dallas Mavericks Preview: Feb. 27

Stopping a streak is never easy, unless of course that streak is a winning one. Unfortunately for the Thunder, they are on a six-game losing streak heading into their matchup in Dallas Friday night.

The Thunder are coming off of a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in a game that was hardly ever in doubt. Among the bright spots for the Thunder were Kevin Durant's usual well rounded statistical night and Kyle Weaver's solid game.

However, the biggest impact might have been made by Thabo Sefolosha playing defense on Kobe Bryant. Bryant scored 36 despite stingy defense by Sefolosha.

Sefolosha was ferocious on D playing up on Bryant more than most defenders dare to. Bryant, being the all-world player he is, still made over 50 percent of his shots, despite many of them being acrobatic and contested jumpers.

In Friday's game Sefolosha and Jeff Green will be guarding the Mavericks hottest player in Josh Howard. Howard is averaging 23ppg his last five in comparison to his season average of 18 ppg.

He is coming off a dominant performance against Milwaukee (27pts, 7 reb, 5 stl, 3 blk, 62.5% FG) and will look thwart Sefolosha's defensive efforts as he is much more physical than Bryant.

Both teams are accustomed to outrebounding their opponents as of late as both teams sport a +6 or more rebounding margin in their last five games. Dallas has been doing so with a small lineup playing James Singleton much more than Erick Dampier.

The Thunder fit the mold of a "small" team by Dallas standards and should be able to matchup Collison or Smith with Singleton without too many problems.

The Thunder are a miserable 3-24 on the road this season while the Mavericks are 20-8 at home. All signs point to the Thunder extending their streak but with the right matchups and defensive intensity could upset the Mavericks Friday night.