As Christmas nears, the entire league has collectively past the first quarter mark of the 2023-24 regular season.
Teams have reached the point in their schedules where teams are starting to separate themselves from the rest of the pack.
The contenders are slowly starting to make themselves known with a variety of teams we’ve grown accustomed to — like the Denver Nuggets and Milwaukee Bucks — while simultaneously seeing a new crop of teams pry open their window — like the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder.
At the bottom of the league, it’s a historic race for lottery balls as three teams have won less than five games midway through December.
Let’s look at this week’s edition of Thunder Wire’s NBA power rankings, capping off the week of Dec. 11 to Dec. 17: