Miami tripped up out West and the Bulls ran over them on the way to the top of PBT’s weekly power rankings. Meanwhile, jump on the Sixers bandwagon while you can.
1. Bulls (12-2, last week ranked No. 2). Five wins in a row and their next five games are against teams under .500, so the streak will keep going… well, if Derrick Rose and Rip Hamilton get healthy.
2. Thunder (11-2, LW 4). They keep winning — six in a row now — but there should be concerns about their defense. They are 24th in the league in defensive efficiency, giving up 102.2 points per 100 possessions (the league average is 100). It was better against the Knicks Saturday. Monday night Kendrick Perkins returns to the Gah-den for the first time since the trade.
3. 76ers (9-3, LW 9). Beat the Pacers and while they lost to the Knicks at the Garden that was the third night of a back-to-back-to-back. They still have the best point differential (per 100 possessions) in the league. They look legit but have played the softest schedule in the NBA so far. If you’re not sold, well, we will learn more about Philly this week with the Nuggets, Hawks and Heat on the schedule.
4. Spurs (9-4, LW 7). Manu who? They are 9-0 at home and 0-4 on the road, which means the Miami/Orlando back-to-back road games this week may not work out for them.
5. Pacers (9-3, LW 5). Lost a key game to Philadelphia Monday but turned around with wins over Atlanta and Boston. Still questions about if they can consistently beat quality teams, but for now they are beating the teams on the schedule, which is all you can ask. Eventually (like starting next Sunday) the schedule gets tough.
6. Clippers (6-3, LW 10). The question has always been “how well will they defend?” At home right now, pretty well. Just ask the Heat and Lakers. They have played fewer games than any NBA team, a very old-schedule start to the season, but that is about to change.
7. Nuggets (8-5, LW 8). Beat Miami handily and came back on the Knicks in the Garden —they looked legit in those games, then Paul Millsap abused the Nuggets front line late on Sunday and we wonder.
8. Heat (8-4, LW 1). Three straight losses on a West Coast swing is shrugged off for most teams but a sudden crises for the Heat. Well, maybe not in the locker room. Little first hand note: after loosing to the Clippers last Wednesday the Heat’s locker room was surprisingly unconcerned — they thought they played aggressive but the shots just didn’t fall. Next five games are at home.
9. Hawks (9-4, LW 6). The Al Horford injury is devastating for this team (although they earned a couple nice wins this week without him), and they have a lot of road game coming up the second half of the month. Bad combo.
10. Lakers (9-5, LW 11). Winners of five straight until they lost to the Clippers Saturday. The Lakers have won these games with great defense and average offense, despite Kobe scoring 40+ in four straight (Lakers fans, go look at the numbers before you curse my name). Brutal schedule this week: Dallas, Miami and Orlando back-to-back, then the upstarts in Indiana.
11. Magic (8-3, LW 12). Went 3-0 on a West Coast swing — and may we never have to see a full game of hack-a-Howard again — but they haven’t played the toughest schedule yet (save Portland). That changes this week with the Knicks, Lakers and Spurs on the schedule.
12. Blazers (7-5, LW 3). They beat the Clippers Tuesday but went 1-3 on the week against a tough schedule — the Blazers statistically have had the second toughest schedule in the league so far, only Houston is worse. That schedule masks how good this team is.
13. Jazz (8-4, LW 16). Went 2-1 last week and the only loss was to the Lakers in OT. They are playing well and look like a team that could hold on to a playoff spot in the West, but there is not a lot of margin for error.
14. Mavericks (8-5, LW 15). Beat Boston on Wednesday and blew out some bad teams. The Mavericks are starting to get it together but that will be tested on the road this week. By the way, Jason Kidd hit his first two-point basket of the season in the Mavs 13th game.
15. Knicks (6-6, LW 14). They beat Philly on Wednesday but here’s what should concern Knicks fans — this team is .500 against the second softest schedule in the NBA (via ESPN’s strength of schedule tracker). Things are going to get tougher.
16. Cavaliers (6-6, LW 18). Kyrie Irving is playing well and that is why this team is .500. They have got a piece to build with in him. Tough stretch coming up with Chicago, Atlanta and Miami.
17. Celtics (4-7, LW 13). Things are bleak — they went 0-3 against Dallas, Chicago and Indiana. Good teams all, but a good Celtics team would win at least one of those. The Celtics wins are against the Nets, Pistons and Wizards (twice). Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce have been average.
18. Grizzlies (5-6, LW 19). Credit them for showing some grit without Zach Randolph and getting some wins. Not sure they can keep it up, but they deserve the props.
19. Rockets (5-7, LW 22). Another team that may be a little better than their record indicates, and they went 3-1 last week including a nice win in Portland. If Samuel Dalembert can give them more on defense the playoffs are not out of the question.
20. Suns (4-8, LW 17). On a four-game losing streak and they are out on the road for four this week. Steve Nash is good but these are the same old Suns who need jumpers to fall to win, and that will always be inconsistent.
21. Timberwolves (4-8, LW 20). I want to rank them higher. I do. They are fun to watch and they have the point differential of a .500 team. But they keep losing (1-3 last week). I’m not moving a team up because of style or stats, you still got to win games.
22. Bucks (4-7, LW 21). They are 4-0 at home, 0-7 on the road. I suppose the good news is they have more home games coming up, but if they are serious about the playoffs they have to start winning away from the Bradley Center.
23. Warriors (3-7, LW 24). In the middle of a stretch of games against the East, but they did get a quality win against the Heat. That shows the potential, and they have gotten good play from Monta Ellis and David Lee. But the defense still stinks.
24. Hornets (3-9, LW 26). Nice win against Denver this week, but the Hornets started 2-0 and have been a mess ever since.
25. Kings (4-9, LW 25). Their point differential should have them in the bottom five, but they beat the Raptors this week so they get to hold their spot. That 60-point game against Dallas was UGLY.
26. Raptors (4-9, LW 23). They gave the Wizards their only win, which leads to a fall down the rankings in these parts. Give coach Dwane Casey credit for turning the Raptors into an average defensive team — that’s an accomplishment with the roster he was given.
27. Pistons (3-9, LW 28). There is a bright spot in Detroit (and not just the sweet new locker room) — Greg Monroe is playing well at center. For a rebuilding team finding a guy in the middle is a huge boost.
28. Nets (3-10, LW 29). Deron Williams is playing better and MarShon Brooks has provided some nice scoring (14.2 per game). That’s about it for bright spots here. If they can’t get Dwight Howard in a trade then it really gets ugly.
29 Bobcats (2-10, LW 27). Kemba Walker got a start and is at least a little spark, but right now this team needs big games from Byron Mullens to win. Enough said.
30. Wizards (1-11, LW 30). It’s never too early to start dreaming about what Anthony Davis looks like in place of Andray Blatche in the starting lineup for the Wizards next year.
