Thunderous Intentions
Fansided

NBA Power Rankings week 12: injury fallout, OKC Thunder highs and lows

By Tamberlyn Richardson

OKC Thunder, Power rankings week 12: Chris Paul #3 of the OKC Thunder reacts to play against the Houston Rockets (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
OKC Thunder, Power rankings week 12: Chris Paul #3 of the OKC Thunder reacts to play against the Houston Rockets (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
18 of 31
Next
OKC Thunder, Power rankings week 12
OKC Thunder, Power rankings week 12: Ja Morant #12 of the Memphis Grizzlies and Grayson Allen #3 of the Memphis Grizzlies warms up before the game against the San Antonio Spurs on January 10, (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images) /

211. . 18-22. Previous: 16th. Memphis Grizzlies. 14. team

Memphis Grizzlies:

Offense: (109.0) 16th
Defense: (111.5) 22nd
Net: (minus -2.4) 20th

Games Week 12 (3-0): Won vs. Wolves: 119-112, Spurs: 134-121, Warriors: 122-102
Games Week 13 (2 games): Tues vs. Rockets | Fri vs. Cavaliers

Remember a few weeks ago when I added the Grizzlies to the chase pack for the bottom playoff seeds? Suddenly that’s not an outlier anymore as this young team is one of the hottest in the Association and as of Saturday overtook the Spurs for the eighth seed!

Two things to pull from this are:

  1. The fact all the teams in the chase pack are pivoting back and forth to claim that eighth seed is allowing the OKC Thunder to pad the distance between them and the pack. They sit with a 5.5 game lead over the Grizzlies and Spurs and are only one game back of the Mavericks to overtake sixth place (again as of Saturday).
  2. A winning streak can catapult any of the chase pack into the bottom berth as each of the Blazers, Spurs, and Grizzlies have occupied time in this final seed over the past few weeks.

The Grizzlies have climbed up the ladder in the key categories as well and continue to improve on a weekly basis. Heading into this week they boasted the third best offense through the last 10 games and second best through the last five.

Add to that the fact they’re slowing shaving off points and the defensive rating is also improving (11th ranked through last five games). Granted they have a ways to go on defense and don’t demonstrate the same consistency on that end of the floor but show glimpses of a capable defensive unit.

Home/Thunder News