NBA Week 23 Power Ranking – Where National Scribes Rank OKC Thunder
What a week it was for the OKC Thunder or should I say Russell Westbrook. Unfortunately the OKC Thunder split the week 2-2, but were in every game.
This week the OKC Thunder experienced major highs with two come from behind wins versus Dallas and Orlando on the road. Following these two heady wins OKC returned to the friendly confines of home only to lose their next two games to the Spurs and Hornets. In fairness the Thunder held the Spurs in check for most of the game only succumbing in the closing minutes. And the Hornets are fired up trying to make late season surge to capture a playoff seed.
As much as there is disappointment over the loss to the Hornets I’ll point you to their 7-2 record in the past nine games. In fact since the Raptors lost to OKC their only loss since (8-1) is to the Hornets.
Russell Westbrook was spectacular this week posting a triple-double in every single game. He spearheaded both come from behind wins and incredibly shows no signs of slowing down.
With that, let’s see how the pundits ranked the OKC Thunder Thunder this week in their power rankings.
NBA.com – John Schuhmann
Schuhmann drops the Thunder for the second consecutive week down two spots from seventh to ninth.
"In the span of five days, the Thunder were a part of three of the wildest comebacks of the season. On Monday, they came back from 13 down with 3:30 left to beat the Mavs, with Russell Westbrook scoring 12 of their final 14 points. On Wednesday, they came back from 21 points down to win in Orlando, with Westbrook registering an unprecedented, 57-point triple-double. But on Friday, OKC blew its own 21-point lead against San Antonio, falling to 2-9 against the top three teams in the West. Sunday’s loss to Charlotte was their fourth straight game scoring less than a point per possession (even though Westbrook has averaged 41.5 points over the four games) and dropped them to 8-8 since March 1."
ESPN.com – Marc Stein
Marc Stein has been up and down all season on the OKC Thunder and doesn’t make fans feel much better with statements like getting 50 wins would have sewn up the MVP award for Russ. He drops them one spot this week from ninth to tenth.
One interesting stat making the rounds that Stein points out in his full full write up is no team has produced a triple-double against OKC (the only team to boast that claim).
"Winning 50 games would have pretty much clinched it. Had OKC been able to close with a 7-0 flourish, you might as well have handed the MVP trophy to Russell Westbrook, because there would no longer be a team-success case to make against his candidacy. But the 50-win plateau is out of reach now for the Thunder, after they followed those ridiculous Houdini-esque escapes that Westbrook & Co. pulled off in Dallas and Orlando with that home collapse against San Antonio from 21 points up in the third quarter, as well as Sunday’s humbling home defeat to Charlotte."
Sports Illustrated – Jeremy Woo
Jeremy Woo has the OKC Thunder falling one spot this week to eighth.
"I imagine watching Russell Westbrook slug out a seven–game series against the Spurs or Rockets will feel a lot like the ending of Logan, which is all I’ll say without spoiling the movie. This is going to be emotional for a lot of us."
CBS Sports – Matt Moore
More from Thunderous Intentions
- Stealing one player from every Southwest Division team for the OKC Thunder
- Should the OKC Thunder chase after a disgruntled hometown hero?
- 3 OKC Thunder players who can step up in Aleksej Pokusevski’s absence
- Aleksej Pokusevski sidelined approximately 6 weeks with ankle injury
- Damian Lillard does not fit with the OKC Thunder
Matt Moore also elects to keep the Thunder in the same position as last week at eighth. I wonder if Moore reads Thunderous Intentions as his question below is akin to the tweets I sent out and my recent article asking/answering the same question.
"The lingering Westbrook thought I have about his MVP candidacy is this: What season will you remember the most from this year? Because it will probably be Westbrook. You will never forget the most triple-doubles, or averaging one, or the highest-scoring triple-double in NBA history, which he pulled off last week. If you’re an NBA fan, you probably won’t forget any of the serious candidates’ years. But with Westbrook, it stands out across sports, and that should matter in the conversation."
This week the Oklahoma City Thunder will play 4 games again featuring a back-to-back set Tuesday and Wednesday versus the Bucks and Grizzlies. They’ll follow that up with road games Friday and Sunday against the Suns and Nuggets respectively.
Check back next week for what will be the next to last power ranking of the season.