2012 NBA power rankings: Oklahoma City jumps Clippers, Knicks

The Oklahoma City Thunder moved to No. 3 in Seth Rosenthal's Week 5 SB Nation power rankings, and that was all despite a recent defensive slippage. Still, the Thunder won a big game against the Los Angeles Clippers and pulled out a tough victory at Philadelphia this past week.

According to Rosenthal:

You got a sense for how much Oklahoma City's bench relies on Kevin Martin to produce when his scoring suddenly dropped off in each of the last two games -- a loss to the Celtics and tough win over the Sixers. The Thunder need Martin and the reserve corps to maintain a pretty high level of offense, because their defense has faltered noticeably over the last five or six games.

The Thunder fell, 108-100, to the Boston Celtics in between the two victories this past week and sit at 9-4 on the year. The other three losses this year came against Memphis, San Antonio and Atlanta.

Martin is averaging 15.9 points per game this year, and he scored just three points against Boston and six against Philadelphia. His only other single-digit performance came in the loss to the Grizzlies, which comes as more proof of his importance to his new team.

While it is the second-highest scoring team in the NBA, Oklahoma City is in the middle of the league when it comes to points given up per game and defensive ratings.