NBA 2018-19: 3 Things to watch out for as the Dallas Mavericks host the Oklahoma City Thunder

The Dallas Mavericks host the Oklahoma City Thunder at the American Airlines Center in a match up of the two Western Conference rivals. The Mavericks have lost seven of their last eight games and have dropped out of the Playoff standings. As a result, they'll be desperate for a victory against a Thunder side flying high in the West.

Sunday's hosts have a 16-18 record and find themselves in 12th position in the Western Conference. Meanwhile, the Thunder have a 22-12 record and are the West's third-ranked side.

The Mavericks' record at home is an impressive 14-3, so they'll not be pushovers. After this encounter, they will begin a four-game road trip. The Mavericks had won the earlier game against the Thunder on November 10 behind a great performance from their rookie Luka Doncic and will be hoping for a similar return in this match. So with all of that in mind, here are three things to watch out for in this fixture:

#3 Rebounding advantage for the Thunder

Steven Adams has been dominant in the paint

The Thunder are the second-ranked rebounding team in the NBA. They are ranked number one when it comes to offensive rebounding and clearly have the advantage on the boards against the Mavs, who are a league average in that same regard.

Dominance on the boards can be attributed to starting center Steven Adams, who has caused some serious problems in the paint for his opponents. Russell Westbrook is probably the best rebounder across the league at his position and despite shooting struggles, is again having a triple-double season, displaying great effort and intensity on the glass as usual.

The Mavs will rely on DeAndre Jordan to clean up the glass. Jordan lies in the top five in rebounds per game across the league. So naturally, it's important they apply extra effort on the glass to nullify the Thunder's advantage in this area.

#2 Absence of Paul George and Russell Westbrook's contribution

Westbrook is averaging a triple-double for the season, but will be without Paul George again through injury

Paul George leads the Thunder in scoring with 26.3 points per game for the season. But he missed their recent 118-102 win over the Suns with a quad injury. Currently listed as day-to-day, he's also expected to miss this encounter against the Mavs.

Westbrook took over the scoring mantle in George's mantle, scoring 40 points, grabbing 12 rebounds and dishing out eight assists. He did everything to ensure a routine Thunder victory.

This is the third consecutive season where Westbrook is averaging a triple double. He has an average of 21 points, 10.8 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game for the campaign to date, even while struggling to shoot the basketball well. He's averaging only 60.7% from the free-throw line and 25.8% from the 3PT line.

As usual though, the Thunder will rely majorly on Westbrook's contribution to take them home in this match.

#1 Luka Doncic show

The Dallas Mavericks will be looking for another strong performance from Luka

The Mavericks rookie has become a must-watch show this season. Doncic has comfortably been the Mavs' best player and is displaying elite potential with each passing game.

Doncic had a career-scoring night in his early NBA career during their last-gasp defeat against the New Orleans Pelicans. He scored 34 points in the match while becoming the youngest player to hit seven three-pointers in a single game. Luka also fell just one rebound shy of a triple-double, which would have made more history too.

Unsurprisingly, Luka is the early Rookie of the Year favourite. He's averaging 19.5 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5 assists per game for the season and has transitioned seamlessly from the Euro league to the NBA. In the month of December, Luka joined LeBron James and Stephen Curry as the only players to average 20 points, 6 assists and 6 rebounds in one calendar month during their rookie seasons.