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NBA power rankings week 13: Halfway mark, OKC Thunder hold steady

By Tamberlyn Richardson

OKC Thunder Power Ranking W13 Chris Paul #3 of the Oklahoma City Thunder handles the ball during the game against the Toronto Raptors (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images)
OKC Thunder Power Ranking W13 Chris Paul #3 of the Oklahoma City Thunder handles the ball during the game against the Toronto Raptors (Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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OKC Thunder Power Rankings Week 13
OKC Thunder Power Rankings Week 13: Marc Gasol #33 and Kyle Lowry #7 of the Toronto Raptors hi-five during the game (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images) /

Toronto Raptors. 6. team. 81. . 28-14. Previous: 8th

Toronto Raptors:

Offense: (110.0) 12th
Defense: (104.1) 2nd
Net: (plus +5.9)  6th

Games Week 13 (3-0): Won vs. Thunder: 130-121, Wizards: 140-111, Wolves: 122-112
Games Week 14 (4 games): Mon at Hawks | Weds vs. 76ers | Fri at Knicks | Sun at Spurs

By week’s end when Fred VanVleet returned to the lineup it marked the first time since the seventh game of the season that the Raptors had all their players healthy.

What made the next 33 games so difficult is in 30 of them Nick Nurse was missing two or three of Kyle Lowry, Pascal Siakam, Marc Gasol, Serge Ibaka, Norman Powell, and Fred VanVleet. That’s six of the team’s top seven players with only OG Anunoby avoiding the curse.

In addition, the next two players on the depth list (Patrick McCaw and Matt Thomas) missed 21 games each.

That the Raptors maintained the second best defense while navigating all these injuries is remarkable. And for anyone who’ll point to the offensive drop off it’s important to consider the period where Siakam, Powell, Gasol, Thomas (and for a portion of that period VanVleet) were all out at once.

Anyone questioning the loss of all those players at once needs only witness the 130 points Toronto dropped on the OKC Thunder or 140 on the Wizards or 122 on the Wolves!

That’s an average of 130.7 points – and they did it efficiently shooting 56.6 percent from the field and 47.6 percent from deep. In one week the Raptors jumped from 18th to 12th in offensive rating. It’s not inconceivable they’ll be top 10 by the time week 14 is completed and gradually work back into the top five.

Finally healthy and having played a tough opening schedule the Raptors enter a segment where they’ll play 17 sub .500 teams over the next 24 games. Granted, the Nets with a healthy Kyrie Irving are two of those games and half are on the road but unlike the 76ers, Heat, and Celtics the Raptors boast the second-best (13-7) road record in the East.

Entering week 14 – with the Celtics in a funk, the Raptors overtook them for third and sit one game back of Miami.

Let’s put it this way – no one should be surprised if the Raptors are sitting in second before the end of February.

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