Best N.B.A. Games of the Week Off the Dribble will highlight three essential games to watch each week, featuring hot teams, winning and losing streaks, and intriguing matchups in the N.B.A. (All times Eastern.) Oklahoma City at Knicks, 8 p.m. Thursday Oklahoma City has been playing a lot of big-name teams recently. After a tough loss against the Nuggets and a tough win against the Clippers, they play the Lakers at home on Tuesday before they head to New York two days later. It should be mentioned that the Lakers will be playing with a chance to get over .500 for the first time since they beat the Nets on November 20th. It seems as the Lakers are always playing for some landmark, but we gave them the nod last week and we'd prefer to see a tough one in the Garden than another Laker loss at a superior rival's arena. The Knicks are also in one of their busiest stretches of the season. The game against the Thunder will be the fourth they've played since Sunday and it will be telling to see how they hold up under the pressure of such a grueling schedule. They've looked good recently, winning close games against the Sixers and the Warriors, avenging an embarrassing loss to the Wizards and keeping things close with the Heat, but it will be difficult to keep up the pace, with an aging Jason Kidd and two discombobulated veterans in Kenyon Martin and Marcus Camby. The Thunder should have no problem keeping up the blistering pace they've shown all season. They're the fifth-youngest team in the N.B.A. and they have the second best offensive efficiency, right behind Miami and right ahead of the Knicks. If the Knicks are going to play well against the Thunder, they're going to need help from Raymond Felton, who looked as if he had started to regain his stride against the Wizards with 23 points, 4 assists and 6 rebounds, but only managed 9 points and 2 rebounds against Miami. Memphis at Cleveland, 7:30 p.m. Friday The Cavs aren't going to make the playoffs. But as April creeps closer, we needed an excuse to squeeze Kyrie Irving into this series before Cleveland becomes totally irrelevant. And Friday night is as good a time as any to watch the most thrilling point guard in the N.B.A. Though Irving has sat out the past three games with a hyper-extended knee, he is expected to play tonight against the Knicks and should be back to full strength come Friday. Full strength, as this clip of highlights suggests, means extreme lateral quickness, magnificent ball control and the ability to score in a variety of ways, all equally exciting. Irving has the highest Player Efficiency Rating in his sophomore class at 22.69. His true shooting percentage ranks only slightly below Kobe Bryant's. And despite a lack of capable teammates, he still manages to average more than five assists a game, evidence of a balanced skill-set that won't be truly realized until the Cavaliers upgrade their personnel. Meanwhile, Memphis still looks great, despite losing to the Heat in marquee game last Friday. The Grizzlies impressed in the loss, holding Lebron James to his worst shooting night of the year and making a Heat team that's currently on a fourteen game win streak look vulnerable. The Grizzlies had won eight in a row themselves, and unless Irving comes through with some heroics, they're likely to win again in Cleveland. Game of the Week: Houston at Golden State, 10:30 p.m. Stephen Curry has been playing absurdly well recently. You may have caught his 54-point performance in Madison Square Garden but that wasn't a one-game outburst: Curry is averaging 36.8 points in his last four games. His field goal percentage has risen significantly in the past 10 games, which is impressive, considering he's playing an enormous amount of minutes. After playing all 48 against the Knicks, he only sat out six minutes of his next two contests against the Celtics and the Sixers. And despite all that, Golden State can't buy a win. They've lost four in a row, and have gone 4-10 since the beginning of February. They're only three games ahead of the Lakers, and are very much in danger of being passed in the standings by both Utah and Houston, which makes their Friday night matchup with ­­­the Rockets all the more significant. Golden State is suffering on the defensive end. They have allowed more points per possession than any team in the league over their last 19 games. And going up against the Houston Rockets, who use more possessions per game than any other team, they'll have an especially difficult time limiting scoring. The Rockets have a tough schedule this month with two games against Golden State, as well as games against the Spurs, Pacers, Grizzlies and Clippers all piled on at the end of March. But Houston is looking confident recently. The Rockets destroyed the Mavericks on Sunday, ending a nine-game losing streak to their Texas rivals. Chandler Parsons, who continues to improve, scored a career-high 32 points in that game, while Jeremy Lin and James Harden showcased their newfound chemistry, each of them scoring 21. This is the kind of balanced offensive attack that should have the Warriors feeling a little bit queasy, especially when they look at the standings and their upcoming schedule.