As the NBA season nears the mid-way point, the Oklahoma City Thunder enjoy the best record in the league. In racing out to that great start, the team has been buoyed by the leagues third best scorer (Kevin Durant), third best ball thief (Russell Westbrook), third best shot blocker (Serge Ibaka), and the consensus best bench player (James Harden). They have won when it was close (winning 4 out of 5 games decided by 3 points or less), they have won in blowouts (11-4 in games decided by ten points or more), they have beaten good teams (12-4 against teams that have better than .500 winning percentages), and most importantly, they've just won (22-6, 2 1/2 games better than anyone else in the Western Conference).
Yet for some reason, the national analysts are not impressed by the team. ESPN.com's John Hollinger has the Thunder ranked sixth on his power rankings. Among the five teams with worse records than OKC he has in front of OKC is Portland whose record would not even get them in the playoffs if those started today. Similarly, the website's Marc Stein only ranks Thunder as a fringe top-5. TNT's Charles Barkley consistently downplays Oklahoma City's legitimacy as a title contender by suggesting the team relies too much on only three scorers (Durant, Westbrook, and Harden score 65.6% of the teams points). Meanwhile, Barkley has no qualms about the Miami Heat's chances despite their three stars accounting for 66.9% of their points.