The Oklahoma City Thunder will try to stop their first losing streak of the season and win their 11th straight at home on Thursday night when they take on the Dallas Mavericks at 8:00 pm ET.
After winning 12 consecutive games -- the franchise's longest streak since 1995-96 -- Oklahoma City (21-6) dropped consecutive road contests against Minnesota on Dec. 20 and Miami on Tuesday.
The Thunder suffered their first defeat in five games following a loss and haven't lost three in a row since April 2-6.
While Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined to score 54 points -- more than any set of teammates had against the Heat -- both missed potential game-tying 3-pointers in Miami.
Meanwhile, the return of former MVP Dirk Nowitzki wasn't enough to prevent the Mavericks (12-16) from losing for the sixth time in seven games, as they fell 129-91 at San Antonio on Sunday.
Dallas trailed by as many as 46 before losing its ninth game by 15 points or more.
The blowout loss spoiled the long-awaited return of Nowitzki, the team's leading scorer every season since 1999-00. He scored eight points in 20 minutes off the bench after missing the first 27 games following knee surgery in October.
The Thunder have won six straight against the Mavericks, including a sweep in the first round of the 2011-12 playoffs.
Watch Dallas Mavericks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder live stream, click here.
(**Sports World Report does not endorse the live streaming of the games of the sites it has linked to. It has no control over the content of the website and thus does not warrant that it is error or virus free or free of other harmful components.)
