It seems like just yesterday that the Washington Wizards were a disaster on wheels, failing to live up to their considerable potential again and lilting toward a forgettable, useless season. Six weeks ago, Washington was 9-14, losing ground on the Eastern playoff race. Since then, the Wizards have gone 16-6, launching themselves into a legitimate fight for the No. 3 seed in the East.

There are two questions here: are the Wizards’ earlier problems (namely, a remarkable lack of depth) fixed, and is Washington playing over its head? The answers aren’t entirely encouraging.

Back in early December, I wrote about the Wizards’ offensive problems. John Wall was showing out, Bradley Beal was healthy and scoring well, and Otto Porter was much improved in all facets. But Markieff Morris was shooting a horrible percentage while taking a heavy share of shots.

That has changed: Morris is still taking a lot of shots, but his effective field goal percentage is a respectable .482 on the season. (When we last checked in with the Wiz, it was .438, one of the worst in the league. It’s now just in the bottom fifth among frequent shooters, per NBA.com.)

Perhaps the most interesting change the Wizards have experienced has been the demotion of Marcus Thornton, who has fallen completely out of the rotation. Tuesday marked his 11th straight DNP-CD. Scott Brooks is riding his starters harder and giving the limited extra minutes at two-guard to a combination of rookies Sheldon McClellan and Tomas Satoransky, along with veteran Trey Burke. For his part, Satoransky, has been playing much better in spot minutes.

Marcin Gortat was never the problem, and he’s continued to play solid two-way ball as Ian Mahinmi remains unavailable. Brooks is opting to go small when Gortat sits in most cases. (The other options — Andrew Nicholson and Jason Smith — are not tenable, though Smith has played better of late.)

In addition to Morris finding his stroke and Thornton disappearing, Kelly Oubre’s development has been a huge boost to the Wizards’ offense. He’s shooting 46 percent from the field and 41 percent on threes in January, per Basketball Reference. For the first time in his career, he’s a positive force on the court. For a shallow team, that’s huge.

All of that combined with continued excellence from Wall, Beal, and Porter has turned the Wizards into a much stronger offensive team. Since December 13, the Wizards are averaging 111 points per 100 possessions according to NBA.com, the fourth-highest mark over that span. The defense hasn’t improved — it remains middle of the pack — but the offensive surge has pushed Washington into the playoff bracket. The Wizards are rolling.

So back to that second question: is Washington playing over its head?

The schedule has been somewhat soft. The Wizards have gone 9-2 in their last 11, with an average opponent winning percentage of .480. Only three of those games (a split against Boston, plus Memphis at home) have been against truly good teams. Another handful have come against squads bouncing around .500. But the Wizards are winning those games, something they certainly didn’t do in November. So in that sense, the improvement is real.

The lack of defensive improvement is a concern. The Wizards are largely winning due to offense, despite a roster built to stop opponents (at least for the starting lineup). The turn to small ball might be causing that, but that doesn’t erase the problem. When you look ahead and try to imagine the Wizards slowing the Raptors’ vicious scoring attack in the playoffs, it’s not pretty.

But this is much better than what Washington faced six weeks ago. A tough path in the playoffs is much more exciting than a 35-win washout.

And now, this week’s NBA Power Rankings according to Rating +.

SBNation.com NBA Power Rankings — Jan. 25, 2017 Rank Team W L Win% OffRtg DefRtg Rating + Rank Team W L Win% OffRtg DefRtg Rating + 1 Golden State Warriors 38 7 0.844 113.2 101 0 2 San Antonio Spurs 36 9 0.800 111.5 101.7 2.4 3 Toronto Raptors 28 17 0.622 112.2 105.8 5.8 4 Houston Rockets 34 14 0.708 112 105.8 6 5 LA Clippers 30 17 0.638 109.3 104 6.9 6 Utah Jazz 29 18 0.617 106.5 101.4 7.1 7 Cleveland Cavaliers 30 13 0.698 109.3 105.9 8.8 8 Boston Celtics 26 18 0.591 108.7 106.7 10.2 9 Charlotte Hornets 23 22 0.511 105.8 103.8 10.2 10 Milwaukee Bucks 21 23 0.477 107.3 106.1 11 11 Washington Wizards 25 20 0.556 107 105.9 11.1 12 Oklahoma City Thunder 26 19 0.578 104.7 104.4 11.9 13 Atlanta Hawks 26 19 0.578 102.9 102.7 12 14 Memphis Grizzlies 26 20 0.565 102.5 102.3 12 15 Chicago Bulls 23 23 0.500 103.8 104.4 12.8 16 Indiana Pacers 22 22 0.500 104.5 105.7 13.4 17 Minnesota Timberwolves 17 28 0.378 106.3 107.5 13.4 18 Detroit Pistons 21 25 0.457 103.3 105 13.9 19 Denver Nuggets 19 25 0.432 107.7 109.7 14.2 20 New Orleans Pelicans 18 27 0.400 102.1 104.1 14.2 21 Portland Trail Blazers 19 27 0.413 106.3 108.9 14.8 22 New York Knicks 20 26 0.435 105.2 108.1 15.1 23 Dallas Mavericks 15 29 0.341 103 106.3 15.5 24 Miami Heat 15 30 0.333 101.2 104.5 15.5 25 Sacramento Kings 17 27 0.386 104.6 108.6 16.2 26 Phoenix Suns 15 30 0.333 103.6 107.9 16.5 27 Orlando Magic 18 29 0.383 100.9 106.4 17.7 28 Philadelphia 76ers 16 27 0.372 98.8 104.5 17.9 29 Los Angeles Lakers 16 32 0.333 103.5 110.5 19.2 30 Brooklyn Nets 9 35 0.205 101.3 109.6 20.5

THE ISLAND OF MISMATCH TEAMS

The crawl for the No. 8 seed in the West (I refuse to call it a race) features some really unbalanced teams. Over the past 15 games, the Pelicans, Blazers, and Timberwolves have been excellent defenders with awful offenses. The Nuggets have had a smoking offense with a horrific defense. The Kings have just been completely mediocre with spurts of decent play.

The Wolves might actually be the best team of this bunch. But they lost so many close games early in the season that their win-loss record just doesn’t match their Rating +, where they are marginally better than the Pelicans, Nuggets, and Blazers.

New Orleans built a defense-first squad around Anthony Davis this summer, and that’s paid off. But losing Ryan Anderson and Eric Gordon has made the Pels unable to score effectively — there’s too much offensive responsibility on Davis, who is playing out of his mind nonetheless. With the right addition, New Orleans could run stagger off with the playoff spot.

Defense is much tougher to fix with one player, so I remain skeptical of the Nuggets’ chances to clean up that end. Given all that, Portland looks like the actual best bet to grab No. 8. Their defense has been cleaned up significantly since Al-Farouq Aminu returned, and while the offense now lags, having Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum is a boon.

IT IS ABSURD THAT A TEAM AS BAD AS THE KINGS ARE STILL IN A PLAYOFF RACE

Sacramento is only two games out at 17-27. I cannot get over this.

THE WARRIORS ARE PERFECT

It’s true: the Warriors have a Rating + of 0, which means that they have the No. 1 offense and the No. 1 defense in the league. Those blowout wins over good opponents suggested that while they won’t win 73, Golden State is every bit as powerful as last year’s squad. If the defense holds up with Kevin Durant handling so much paint duty, I’ll be fully convinced.