Making the Oklahoma City Thunder's case as a top-6 NBA playoff seed

As of Wednesday morning in late January, three games separatefifth place and 13th place in the Western Conference standings.We're more than halfway through the regular season and most of theWest playoff spots are still completely wide-open.

Only one of those teams has put together a clean, inspiringmonth.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are 8-3 in 2023, and though they'retied for 10th in the conference at 23-24, they still sit just onegame back of the sixth-place Dallas Mavericks. The Thunder join theDenver Nuggets as one of two teams with top-fiveoffensive and defensive ratings (121.9/112.1) this month, perCleaning the Glass, and they're up to the ninth-ranked DRTG (113.2)on the whole season.