Oklahoma City @ New Orleans preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 2, 2018 ) New Orleans 114, Oklahoma City 100

Seven teams are vying for five playoff spots in the Western Conference and the Oklahoma City Thunder and New Orleans Pelicans - who meet Sunday in New Orleans - are right in the middle of the battle. Both teams are suffering through ill-timed three-game losing streaks and are separated by a half-game in the West, with the eighth-place Pelicans holding a two-game edge on the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets.

New Orleans saw superstar forward Anthony Davis struggle to 16 points on 6-of-19 shooting in a 107-102 loss at Cleveland on Friday. "I missed a lot of shots," Davis told reporters. "I have to play better. If I do make half of those shots that I missed, we probably wouldn't even be in that situation. It's on me." The Thunder saw their own stars struggle from the field in a 126-125 overtime loss to Denver at home on Friday, as Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony and Paul George combined to shoot 25-of-65. Oklahoma City hosts Golden State and then visits Houston after finishing up with the Pelicans.

TV: 6 p.m. ET, NBATV FS Oklahoma, FS New Orleans

ABOUT THE THUNDER (44-33): Oklahoma City's three straight losses have come by a combined eight points and all were against West playoff hopefuls, making for a frustrating slide. "We just have to finish them," Westbrook told reporters after Friday's loss. "We did a good job of locking in when we needed to get stops. We just need to put the ball in the hole." Westbrook had 33 points and 13 assists and Anthony scored 23 before sitting out the entire fourth quarter and returning in overtime.

ABOUT THE PELICANS (43-33): Jrue Holiday continued his stellar play and kept New Orleans close while Davis struggled at Cleveland, producing 25 points on 12-of-18 shooting after recording a triple-double against Portland on Tuesday. Rajon Rondo (wrist) returned from a two-game absence to hand out eight assists and Nikola Mirotic added 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting after producing a total of seven points on 2-of-13 over his previous two games. "You have to do the right things to be able to finish games and I thought we put ourselves in a really good situation and had an opportunity to maybe steal a game here, but you have to do the right things in order to finish it," coach Alvin Gentry told the media.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. New Orleans scored 114 points in each of the first two meetings - both wins.

2. Thunder SF Paul George shot 38.3 percent from the floor in 14 games in March.

3. Davis averages 29.6 points on 56.6 percent shooting at home.

PREDICTION: Pelicans 113, Thunder 110