+3
A weak April and an injury to James Harden have the Thunder checking in at the No. 4 spot.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are on shaky ground after a weak April and an injury to James Harden. Once thought to be the top team in the NBA, the Thunder now sit fourth in Tom Ziller's power rankings for SB Nation.
As the great John Schuhmann noted on Sunday, the Thunder are 0-6 against playoff teams since beating the Bulls on April 1. Did OKC peak too early? So long as they get James Harden back in short order, I'm of the mind that the Thunder will be game to fight through to the conference finals for the second straight year, though a second-round firefight with the Lakers could prove problematic.
The up-and-down finish to the season has Oklahoma City likely headed for the second seed in the West, and as deep as the conference is, they'll have to be on upset alert with a potential matchup against the defending champion Dallas Mavericks on the horizon.
For more on this game Thunder fans should check out Welcome To Loud City. For more news and notes from around the NBA head over to SB Nation's NBA Basketball page.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are still 18-5 and in control of a top playoff spot in the Western Conference. But you wouldn’t know that based on the negative chatter surrounding the team that has the Oklahoman questioning their ability to win consistently and ESPN’s latest Power Rankings. The latter shows that the Thunder are now at No. 7 overall in the NBA despite the best record in the West.
Marc Stein writes, “Chicago and Indiana have passed the Thunder in the race for most road wins, but OKC has bigger worries. Specifically: Perk has nine techs in 23 games. Which means he’s on pace for 26 in this shortened season. Which computes to seven one-game suspensions. Which is far, far worse than getting Mozgoved by Blake.”
There’s no doubting their ability and the youth on the team should serve them well in a hectic NBA season affected by the lockout. They were No. 2 last week and were passed by some questionable teams (Spurs? Pacers?). Perhaps this gives the team a bit of a wake up call to address any core concerns despite their record. Then again, perhaps it’s just some media overanalysis for a team that’s bound to lose here and there in such a packed schedule.
1- Miami Heat (18-6) Heat is back at a very familiar spot. This past week featured another Heat victory over the ‘Sixers. The Heat still has issues trying to figure out the Milwaukee Bucks riddle. Thankfully, they only play them one more time this season.
2- Chicago Bulls (20-6) The road warrior Bulls dropped one game this week to a good ‘Sixers team. Apparently Coach Thibodeau is the only person who is not worried about playing his guys too many minutes in meaningless games. Derrick Rose missed another free throw late in the game. Looks like teams know who to foul on the Bulls late in the game.
3- Philadelphia 76ers (17-7) The ‘Sixers kept a bad team losing (Magic) and beat a really good team at home (Bulls) then finished the week beating another good team (Hawks) on the road. The ‘Sixers have yet to slay their white whale though (Heat).
4- Oklahoma Thunder (18-5) We get our first appearance from a Western Conference team here. The Thunder defense is leaving a lot, A LOT, to be desired right now. And now they need to replace their best post defender since Blake Griffin ended Kendrick Perkins’ life. Thunder need to figure out their defense in a hurry because the other teams in the West are closing in fast.
5- San Antonio Spurs (16-9) One of those teams closing in on the top spot in the West are the Spurs. They were 4-0 this week with one of those wins coming against the Thunder.
6- Los Angeles Clippers (14-7) Clippers are starting to shape up to a dangerous post-season team. They are more than just dunks by Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan. You can spend an hour talking about the impact of Chris Paul on this team and you would still not do enough justice to how well CP3 has played.
7- Indiana Pacers (16-7) Pacers have played the Magic three times in two weeks and are 1-2 against them. But they had a win over defending champion Mavericks and one over the tricky T-Wolves.
8- Denver Nuggets (15-9) I was ready to jump all over the Nuggets bandwagon, then they go 1-3 this week. They were very impressive in the win over the Clippers but then lost the next two games of the back-to-back-to-back set.
9- Boston Celtics (13-10) Celtics are a hot team right now. Granted, their last four games were against Cleveland, Toronto, New York, and Memphis. But beggars can’t be choosers right?
10- Utah Jazz (13-9) Jazz beat out the Hawks for the last spot on the rankings simply because they beat better teams this week. Jazz have issues at the point guard position and that could come back to bite them.
Player of the Week:
LeBron James SF, Heat
This award is getting ready to be renamed the LeBron James Player of the Week Award. Averaged 27.75 pts, 10 reb, 5.75 ast. Just another week in the life of LBJ.
Best Game of the Week:
Jazz at Pacers (Tuesday 6:00 pm CST):
Two teams trying to prove they have staying power in their respective conference.
Worst Game of the Week:
This one has "Only if you really love Tyreke Evans" written all over it.
NBA Power Rankings: Thunder Falls To No. 4 In ESPN's Latest
The Oklahoma City Thunder were already falling at the wrong time, and now comes the injury to James Harden courtesy of Ron Artest/Metta World Peace. In short, there’s a slight cause for concern in Oklahoma City these days due to Kevin Durant and company failing to win key games late in the season. It’s the sort of slump that has them falling in Marc Stein’s latest NBA Power Rankings at ESPN.
Stein writes, “NBA.com’s one-man rankings committee (John Schumann) tweeted Sunday night that the Thunder are 0-6 against playoff teams since their April 1 home win over Chicago. There’s worse news: OKC might very well have to beat the Mavericks, Lakers and Spurs, in order, just to make it to its maiden NBA Finals.”
The Thunder are obviously still talented and young enough to bounce back to the level of dominance they exhibited for most of the season. This is the type of trial that will test a young team like this, so Scott Brooks has a major task before him as the team’s head coach. Still it will come down to Durant and Russell Westbrook to shoulder the bulk of the burden to turn things around.
For more on this game Thunder fans should check out Welcome To Loud City. For more news and notes from around the NBA head over to SB Nation's NBA Basketball page.
Apr 23 12:18p by Matt Conner