NBA Power Rankings week 17: OKC Thunder and peers enter break

The OKC Thunder and peer’s eye the break with visions of R and R on the horizon, subsequently NBA Power Rankings Week 17 served up very few changes.

This last week before the All-Star break is marked as one of those segments of the season where teams have difficulty focusing. So many players are dealing with nagging injuries and the dog days of winter have taken a toll. Recently, the OKC Thunder finished one of the most difficult stretches of any team in the schedule. That factor coupled with the knowledge the break is so close can make it difficult for players to keep their focus on the task at hand.

Subsequently, revisiting games played in week 17 it won’t be surprising to find elite teams losing games they should win and lower-tier teams sneaking in to steal a match. In fact, the four games cited as the most difficult to play in the course of a campaign are the ones just before and after Christmas and the ones just before and after the All-Star break.

Still, in terms of seeding these games are extremely important, particularly at season end when one win can be the difference in making the postseason or the seed obtained via that extra win or loss.

For those who prefer to keep track on a week by week basis each is linked below:

• Week 1: click here
• Week 2:  click here
• Week 3: click here
• Week 4: click here
• Week 5: click here
• Week 6: click here
• Week 7: click here
• Week 8: click here
• Week 9: click here
• Week 10: click here
• Week 11: click here
• Week 12: click here
• Week 13: click here
• Week 14: click here 
• Week 15: click here
• Week 16: click here

And with that I give you my NBA Power Rankings for week 17 of action: