Oklahoma City Thunder make a move in NBA Power Rankings; Bucks still No. 1

Last week: Won at New Orleans 130-119, lost at Utah 109-102, lost at Denver 113-104, lost at Portland 118-103

This week: Monday vs. Chicago, Friday vs. Philadelphia, Saturday at Milwaukee

The Orlando Magic started their four-game road trip well with a nice win at New Orleans last Sunday, but it ended with three consecutive losses, leaving the Magic with six defeats in their last seven games overall. Orlando’s offense is still sputtering with the 28th-ranked effective field goal percentage in the NBA at 49.0 percent, per Cleaning the Glass.

D.J. Augustin is settling in nicely to his new role as the second unit point guard, scoring 22 points in the loss at Utah. For the week, he put up 18.5 points, 5.3 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 27.2 minutes per game over the four games, shooting 51.2 percent overall and dropping in 9-of-19 from 3-point range.

Last week: Beat Chicago 109-106, beat Memphis 126-122, beat Phoenix 126-108

This week: Sunday vs. Clippers, Thursday vs. Memphis, Friday at Charlotte

Don’t look now, but here come the Oklahoma City Thunder beginning to solidify in the seventh spot in the Western Conference. With their blowout of the Suns on Friday, the Thunder are at .500 for the first time this season and got there with a pair of gigantic comebacks last week — coming from 26 points down to beat the Bulls and overcoming a 24-point deficit to beat the Grizzlies.

There have been some terrific performances for OKC this week, but Chris Paul continues to sparkle. Last week, he averaged 21.0 points, 6.7 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 31.4 minutes per game, shooting 66.7 percent overall and hitting 7-of-11 from deep. His 30-point, 10-rebound game against the Bulls was the highlight, but Paul has also played in all 28 games so far.