Sefolosha's play helping Thunder raise defensive status

In their inaugural season in Oklahoma City, the Thunder gave Damien Wilkins, Earl Watson, Shaun Livingston and Kyle Weaver chances to start in the backcourt next to Russell Westbrook.

Once the Thunder landed Thabo Sefolosha in a mid-season deal with Chicago, though, the guess-the-starting-shooting-guard game became a lot less interesting.

Sefolosha, who has a permanent spot in the Thunder's starting five, is a key reason behind Oklahoma City's vast improvement.

In the first month of the season, marquee stars such as Dwyane Wade, Deron Williams, Kobe Bryant and Brandon Roy are among the players who have had their night disrupted by Sefolosha. While he's not among the league leaders in steals and doesn't have any true flashy stats to boast, Sefolosha has helped Oklahoma City emerge as a solid defensive team with his aggresive man-to-man defense and hustle.

The Thunder spent last season figuring out what shooting guard to play with Westbrook, Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. They struggled mightily on defense, ranking 20th in the league in defensive rating (109.4). This season Oklahoma City has jumped to fourth in the league in defensive rating (101.7) and is allowing just 94.8 ppg, seventh-best in the league.

Sefolosha, who played in Switzerland before playing for Chicago from 2006-08, credits his time overseas with his defensive prowess. As an 18-year-old, he played three seasons in France on a pro team that featured ex-NBAers Corey Benjamin, Stanley Jackson and Corey Crowder. Squaring off against much bigger (and more experienced players) forced Sefolosha to focus on defense first.

"I knew I had to be really good at one thing," Sefolosha told The Oklahoman. "Better at something than the players we already had. And I figured playing defense was one thing I could do. So I took it upon myself to be the best defender that I could."

It is Sefolosha who is called the "heart and soul" of the team by Durant, Oklahoma City's leader. It is Sefolosha who has emerged as a leader for the youthful Thunder as they try to keep pace in the crowded West. And it is Sefolosha who has helped make Thunder coach Scott Brooks' philosophy of "defense first" stick.

G. Jason Williams, Magic

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
19	24.5	7.2	1.8	4.8	0.9	0.0	.440	.407	.692

Last Week's Rank - N/A
So far, so good with Williams running the point in Orlando. Since he took over for the injured Jameer Nelson on Nov. 18, the Magic are 7-1 and staying in the race to be the East's top seed with Boston, Cleveland and Atlanta. Williams struggled in last week's win over Atlanta (0-for-3 FG, two assists), but luckily Anthony Johnson stepped in help to fuel the win. Williams is leading the NBA with a 5.75-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, a surprising stat considering Orlando is near the bottom of the NBA in assists per game (19.2 apg). Still, coach Stan Van Gundy is glad to have Williams (and Johnson) at his disposal. "These guys have played a long time, and people focus on their age, but with that age goes great experience," Van Gundy told the Orlando Sentinel. "There's not anything that's going to happen on an NBA court that they haven't seen hundreds of times. Those guys have both been starters. They've both been starters on good teams."

G. Thabo Sefolosha, Thunder

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
18	32.8	6.8	5.8	2.0	1.5	0.7	.414	.333	.700

Last Week's Rank - N/A
Sefolosha makes a second appearance in this space for another week of knockout performances on defense. In a much-hyped matchup between the Thunder and rookie darling Brandon Jennings and the Thunder, Sefolosha shined. He harassed Jennings into a 3-for-12, three-turnover night in a blowout win. Two nights later in a loss to Houston, Sefolosha kept Trevor Ariza from getting clean looks all night as Ariza went 7-for-23 from the field (and 1-for-9 from 3-point range). Though he's having a poor season shooting so far, Sefolosha has responded well of late. He's making 47 percent of his shots through his last five games.

C. Greg Oden, Blazers

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
20	24.9	11.7	8.8	0.9	0.4	2.4	.605	---	.766

Last Week's Rank - N/A
The Blazers have been in the midst of a mini-slump of late, but one bright spot has been Oden. In his last 10 games, Oden has upped his scoring average to 13.4 ppg and his rebounding is a steady 8.5 rpg. He's shown more consistency from game to game and although he's still awfully robotic when he's fed the ball in the post, he's finding ways to score by crashing the boards and providing the offensive presence that was often lacking when he got in the game. More than anything with Oden, it looks like the pressure from last season is off his shoulders. Instead of trying to live up to the hype as the No. 1 pick from 2007, Oden is finding a way to fit in with the Blazers. "His whole demeanor has changed from last year," general manager Kevin Pritchard told USA Today. "What I love about him is he's engaged. He's a big part of the team and he contributes to a good atmosphere. He's interested in winning and being a part of something here." Oden still has plenty of work to do, though: He's far and away the team leader in fouls (83) and that is what keeps him off the court most often.

F. Jason Thompson, Kings

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
17	34.5	14.5	9.4	2.1	0.5	1.2	.481	---	.807

Last Week's Rank - N/A
The Kings rank in the upper-half of the NBA in both shooting percentage (47.4, ninth in NBA) and rebounding (43.1 rpg, sixth) and not surprisingly tend to win more often when Thompson succeeds at both. Sacramento is 6-3 when Thompson shoots 50 percent and is 5-3 when he has 10 or more rebounds a game. After a mini-swoon in mid-November, Thompson is coming on strong again as he's averaging 16 ppg and nine rpg in his last four games (through Thursday). Attribute a good part of Thompson's rise to former NBA rebounding menace Truck Robinson, now an assistant with the Kings. He helped Thompson snap out of a Summer League rebounding funk with some techniques that have definitely helped the young big man. "He's just been showing different strategies to get certain positions," Thompson told the Sacramento bee. "It's not about if a guy can outjump a guy or a guy being the tallest guy. If you get certain positions and know how to use your forearm in the guy's chest and stuff like that, you can get good position to get rebounds."

F. Anderson Varejao, Cavs

G	MPG	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	FG%	3P%	FT%
16	29.8	7.3	8.2	1.2	1.2	1.1	.511	---	.611

Last Week's Rank - N/A
Varejao returned to the Cavs' lineup on Nov. 20, and not surprisingly, Cleveland's defense has picked up, too. A big part of that credit goes to having Shaquille O'Neal healthy again, but Varejao has been no slouch. He locked down Dirk Nowitzki in last week's blowout win over the Mavs and gave the Cavs some punch in the stat column, too, finishing with 15 points and nine rebounds. His board work has been crucial for the Cavs this season as Cleveland is 9-3 when he has seven rebounds or more. In the last week, Mike Brown has praised Varejao for his ability to hound defenders. Varejao and forward Jamario Moon comprise most of the Cavs' hustle component with their willingness to dive for loose balls, crash the boards and in general fill up the hustle board for the Cavs. We'll just leave it to LeBron James to describe Varejao's value: "Andy does one thing: Work hard," James told The News Herald. "It's not something you can coach."

The Next Five:

G: Sergio Rodriguez, Kings -- Rodriguez averaged roughly eight minutes a game early in the season and played a paltry 14 seconds in a 97-92 loss to the Hornets on Oct. 30. But my, how things have changed in the last five games for Rodriguez. He's averaging 20 minutes a game, shooting 56 percent from the field and had a breakout performance in Sacramento's blowout of New Orleans on Sunday. We've always been a big fan of the man nicknamed "Spanish Chocolate" since his days in Portland. His court sense and flair were often supressed with the Blazers and even though he's had trouble finding minutes, he's meshing well with coach Paul Westphal. "Sergio been a complete pro," Westphal told the Sacramento Bee. "He has kind of kicked the door down (toward earning minutes) with the way he played in practice ... and his stints get longer and longer." His play of late has also given the Kings a nice problem to have: three guards (he, Beno Udrih and rookie Tyreke Evans) who are all capable of playing major minutes down the stretch.

G: Nick Young, Wizards -- With Mike Miller out the next few weeks and usual starter DeShawn Stevenson alternating between DNP-CDs and 15-minute forays on the court, Young has filled in nicely. It was Young earlier in the season who was planted on the bench and racked up four DNPs from Nov. 8-20 and was rarely in the game. Since last week, Washington has gone a solid 3-1 and logged wins over playoff hopefuls Miami and Milwaukee. He's roughly doubled his scoring average to 15.8 ppg over the last five games and is doing a better job on defense. Last week, he held Andre Iguodala to 12 points on 2-for-10 shooting and helped limit Dwyane Wade to 18 points on 6-for-19 shooting. Young was also key in the Wizards' defense on Brandon Jennings, who was 7-for-21. Not surprisingly, Washington won all three of those games.

F: Al Thornton, Clippers -- Much like the Timberwolves' Al Jefferson, Thornton lost roughly 25 pounds before the season began. And much like that other Al, Thornton struggled to find his groove early in the season. He started out shooting 33 percent in his first four games, a stat that helped cost him his place in the Clippers' starting lineup. The Clippers looked for his scoring while Eric Gordon went out of the lineup on Nov. 10 with a groin injury and put him back into a re-configured starting lineup. But even since Gordon's return, Thornton has kept a grip on his starting spot and the Clippers have fared better when he scores (they're 5-2 this season when he has 15 points or more). Thornton said the rapid weight loss was to blame for his early season slump and that he had trouble adjusting to his newfound quickness. He's made up for it of late, finishing strong at the rim in games and has helped L.A. climb back into the thick of things for a lower playoff seed out West.

F: Ryan Gomes, Wolves -- Here are your season highlights for Minnesota so far: Thrilling last-second win over the Nets on opening night ... and last week's 15-game losing streak-ending upset of the Nuggets in Denver. As our Steve Aschburner noted in his Wolves season preview, most teams would love to have the always-solid Gomes on their bench as a sixth or seventh man. But Gomes played like a stud in last week's win over the Nuggets, posting 27 points to power a comeback win on a night that Al Jefferson struggled to find his rhythm. "Man, you don't know how much a weight is off our shoulders right now." Gomes said after the game. "It was tough for us but we had to battle. We knew it was going to break one day."

C: Marc Gasol, Grizzlies -- Poor Gasol. Were it not for the Grizzlies' up-and-down ways this season, he might find his way into the starting five of the Five on the Rise. But like last week, he stays down in this section. Still, we can't overlook him as his consistent play paid off with perhaps Memphis' best road win to date: Friday's victory over the Blazers in Portland. Gasol put up solid stats (19 points, 15 rebounds, five assists) and held his own against the Blazers' balleyhooed frontline of LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden. We've been impressed with Gasol's night-in, night-out efficency and he ranks among the league leaders in double-doubles (eight), something we couldn't say last season. Andrew Bynum, Gasol and Oden might be the most improved big men in the West this season.

NBA.com's Five on the Rise are just one man's opinion and are released every Thursday during the season. If you've got an issue with the names on this list, or have a question or comment for Jeff Case, send him an e-mail.