NBA power rankings 2012: Rockets near the middle of the pack

Winners of four of their last five, the Houston Rockets have made some big moves up NBA power rankings from all over the web. In fact, their only loss in their last five games was to James Harden's former team, the Oklahoma City Thunder who currently trail the Memphis Grizzles by half a game for first place in the Western Conference.

Thanks to their big improvement, the Rockets have moved up four spots in Seth Rosenthal's SB Nation NBA power rankings. Rosenthal says one very encouraging thing is Jeremy Lin's continuing improvement when it comes to exploiting defenses as they focus on Harden.

Houston's improvement bought them an even bigger bump in the rankings from Matt Moore at CBS Sports, moving up six spots from 21 to 15. The most modest bump came from ESPN's Marc Stein, moving the Rockets from 17th to 15th and he think he has the key to the Rockets success nailed down.

James Harden averages 29.4 ppg on .528 shooting in Houston's wins ... and 18.9 ppg and .318 shooting in losses. Should also point out: Chandler Parsons, Patrick Patterson and Omer Asik are all exceeding expectations, while most of us fixate on Harden and Jeremy Lin.

The Rockets in-state rival, the San Antonio Spurs, top the power rankings at SB Nation and ESPN while the Miami Heat top the charts at CBS.