Jan. 5, 2017, could be remembered as the day the MVP race changed.

It initially looked like a change in James Harden's favor. He won the battle against Russell Westbrook. The Thunder lost by two in Houston, with Harden taking the lead in the MVP chase by closing out OKC after Westbrook missed a go-ahead 3-point attempt.

After that night in Houston, something happened: The Thunder went from a team that played a lot of close games to a team that starting winning a majority of them.

Nearly two months after the road loss to Harden and the Rockets, no team in the NBA has been better in a tight game with five minutes left than the Thunder. No player has been bigger in those final minutes than Russell Westbrook.