Although the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat are nearly postseason-bound, they're still jockeying for position in tight conference races. The playoff picture will become much more clear on Monday after the Heat tip off against the visiting Thunder at 7:30 p.m. ET.

These teams met only two weeks ago, with the Thunder hanging on for a 105-99 victory. That decision was huge for Oklahoma City as it's currently one game ahead of ninth-place Denver in the West.

With the Thunder favored by 2.5 points, you need to hear what SportsLine's top NBA expert Larry Hartstein has to say. The veteran handicapper is on a sparkling 9-2 run on his last 11 Heat selections and has identified a major trend that determines which side of the spread you need to be all over.

Can the desperate Thunder pull out a tough victory on the road against a quality opponent, or do the Heat improve their playoff seeding with an important win? ... Join SportsLine here to see which side of Oklahoma City-Miami you should be all over Monday, and which huge trend determines what happens, all from the NBA analyst on a 9-2 stretch picking Heat games!