Western Conference – The Oklahoma City Thunder have made some headway in putting some between themselves and their nearest competitors in the West with a leading record of 41-12.

The Thunder had a reasonable week, starting with a 86-77 triumph over the Memphis Grizzlies (27-22) as Kevin Durant scored 31 points to go with his 8 assists and 8 rebounds. An unexpected setback was suffered on Thursday night as they went down 103-102 to a strong team effort from the Orlando Magic. They bounced back strongly however, seeing off the New York Knicks 112-100 on Sunday.

In a possible finals match-up come postseason, third-ranked Portland Trailblazers (36-15) were involved in an overtime thriller with Eastern pacesetters the Indiana Pacers. George Hill had 37 points, nine assists and 8 rebounds to help a Lance Stephenson-less Indiana outlast the Blazers 118-113 in overtime.

Memphis meanwhile, find themselves out of the play-off spots as the Dallas Mavericks (30-21) hold down eighth spot for the time being. Incidentally, amid a four-game winning run heading into a Sunday’s match-up with Boston Celtics, the Mavericks also saw off the Grizzlies with Dirk Nowitzki scoring 26 to help the Texans to a 110-96 win.

Fellow Texans, the San Antonio Spurs (37-14) recovering from Thurday’s loss to the Brooklyn Nets, held off the Charlotte Bobcats 104-100.

Blake Griffin continued his brilliant play as of late, scoring 30-plus points in three consecutive games. That included a 36-point, 8-rebound game to inspire the LA Clippers (35-18) to a 118-105 win over the Toronto Raptors.

Knicks fighting back

Eastern Conference – For a team that was doing woefully not so long ago, the New York Knicks (20-31) have done well to pull themselves up to within two games of the play-off spots, although still showing a worrying capacity to capitulate to average teams.

They had no such problems on Saturday however, as Carmelo Anthony scored 31 points to help a 117-90 rout of the Denver Nuggets.

It is the same old story for the big guns of the East however, as Indiana holds top spot with a record of 39-10, closely followed by the Miami Heat and their 35-14 record. The Heat, however, suffered a shocking 94-89 defeat to the woeful Utah Jazz as Lebron James had an uncharacteristically poor 13-point game. This was an the low of their week, which followed the high of beating the LA Clippers 116-112. James had an impressive 31 points and 12 assists in that game, and Ray Allen came through in the clutch with 11 fourth-quarter points to seal the win.

The Toronto Raptors (26-24) and the Atlanta Hawks (25-24) remain the only other two teams above .500 percentage with the Washington Wizards and the Chicago Bulls hovering in and around the mark.