Thunderous Intentions
Fansided

NBA Power Rankings week 14: OKC Thunder among the ‘road warriors’

By Tamberlyn Richardson

JANUARY 20: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder handles the ball during the game against the Houston Rockets (Photo by Cato Cataldo/NBAE via Getty Images)
JANUARY 20: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander #2 of the Oklahoma City Thunder handles the ball during the game against the Houston Rockets (Photo by Cato Cataldo/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
27 of 31
Next
OKC Thunder, NBA Power Rankings Week 14
OKC Thunder, NBA Power Rankings Week 14: Joe Ingles #2 of the Utah Jazz in action during a game against the Dallas Mavericks. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images) /

Previous: 4th. Utah Jazz. 5. team. 118. . 32-13

Utah Jazz:

Offense: (111.7) 7th
Defense: (106.2) 7th
Net: (plus +5.6) 7th

Results Week 14: (3-0): Mon vs. Pacers: 118-88, Warriors 129-96, Mavericks: 112-107
Games Week 15: (4 games) Mon vs, Rockets | Weds at Spurs | Thurs at Nuggets | Sat at  Blazers
 

Utah continues to feast having moved up onto the second ladder rung via their recent winning prowess and for that, they’ll likely earn two All-Star reserve spots for Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell.

Lucky seven’s abound for the club as they rank seventh across the board in all key categories. While it’s been a talking point that the Jazz schedule has helped to benefit the clubs standing they answered some of those questions this week by defeating the Pacers and Mavericks.

The Indiana game, in particular, was quite astounding given the Pacers don’t often lose in blow-out fashion.

For the moment Joe Ingles has remained in the starting rotation while Mike Conley continues to come off the bench. The concerning part of that dynamic is can the Jazz afford to keep Conley as a reserve when they are paying him $32.5 million this season and he’s contracted to make $34.5M next season although there is an early team termination option.

The other fact to note is Conley has yet to play 20 minutes since returning four games ago and it’s something to keep an eye on.

Moving forward the Jazz will be tested as through their next 13 games the club will face nine seeded teams and the other four matches are all against teams vying to get on the ladder (Spurs, Suns and two versus the Blazers).

So while Utah put up a solid showing in week 14 their success through the next 13 will be telling.

Home/Thunder News