The Thunder suffered a big misstep last week, looking completely discombobulated against the Wizards. They responded with renewed effort in both defense and rebounding, which had their lesser opponents on their heels from the get-go. OKC has some big games coming up, so they would do well to continue this early-game focus.
From Around the League:
| SOURCE | RANKING (last) | COMMENT |
| SB Nation | 5 (2) | Ziller pushes the Thunder down a few pegs after the Wizards disaster. |
| ESPN - Hollinger | 5 (1) | The offense has slipped a bit, but the team's defensive focus has risen to compensate. |
| ESPN - Stein | 4 (2) | The Thunder are one of the few teams who have done better than Denver since the 'Melo trade. |
| NBA.com | 2 (2) | Defense is winning the day for OKC. |
| Sports Illustrated | 2 (2) | A number of good observations by Robson, one of which is that the Thunder are a much better team in the 1st quarter than last season. |
| ProBasketballTalk | 3 (2) | Division nemesis Denver jumps ahead of OKC. |
| HoopSpeak | 3 (1) | Thunder clicking on all cylinders but need to avoid slip-ups against weaker teams. |
| Hoopsworld | 2 (2) | Thunder lock up Westbrook, look better than ever. |
| Behind the Basket | 6 (3) | Thunder slide all the way to 6, but it may be byproduct of the crazy schedule. |
| FoxSports | 2 (1) | Thunder getting the defensive stops, with that folding into an aggressive fast break. |
| Covers | 2 (2) | Thunder steadily improving and finally have a winning record ATS. |
| CBS Sports | 2 (2) | Hard to harp on defensive focus when the team is up by 25. |
| Bleacher Report | 3 (2) | Crowded at the top. |
Rankings updated when available. If you know of any rankings that we have missed, please let us know!
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