Oklahoma City Thunder: Who will be first-round foe?

The NBA regular season is a week away from completion, so while we don’t know in which slot the Thunder will finish, we can narrow it down. The Thunder will be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the West, which means a first-round matchup against one of five teams:Denver,Dallas,Phoenix,HoustonorUtah.

For the record, most pundits predict the following order of finish for those five teams:Dallas,Denver,Utah, then eitherPhoenixorHouston. That would pit the second-seeded Thunder againstDenver, or the top-seeded Thunder againstUtah.

But which team would the Thunder most like to face? Here is OKC’s results the last two years against those five teams.

Dallas: Thunder went 2-1 vs.Dallasthis season, though the Mavs had two home games. Last season, when the Mavs won the NBA title with a roster now void of Thunder killers Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea,Dallaswent 2-1 vs. the Thunder, with two games in OKC. Then the Mavs went 4-1 in the Western Conference Finals.

Denver: Thunder is 2-0 vs. the Nuggets this season, including that fabulous overtime game in February, plus the teams meet Wednesday night in OKC. Last season, the Thunder went 3-1 vs.Denverbefore the Thunder won a playoff series 4-1. The Nuggets retooled their team in February 2011, so the playoff Nuggets more closely resemble this season’s Nuggets.

Utah: Thunder is 2-1 vs. the Jazz, with two games inSalt Lake City. Thunder went 3-1 vs.Utahlast season. The Jazz was remade after the February 2011 trade of point guard Deron Williams.