NBA Power Rangking week 6
12.21| 1 (2) | Mavericks | 16-4 | It'll be fascinating to see what The Streakbusters can do with their six straight home games. I'd buy into Hollinger's idea that they can stretch this thing to 15 ... except that the Mavs lose focus at home so often. | |
| 2 (3) | Celtics | 16-4 | The Rondo Effect: Folks are starting to ask on a regular basis whether RR can really pull a Stockton and average 14 dimes for the season. The KG Effect: Boston has started a brisk 16-4 for the fourth consecutive season. | |
| 3 (1) | Spurs | 17-3 | They've won four games Utah-style after trailing by at least 15. Humbled the Hornets on back-to-back Sundays. And they've matched the best 20-game start in team history. So, do we forgive that road L to the Clips? | |
| 4 (6) | Jazz | 15-6 | On top of all its double-digit comebacks, Team Living Dangerously is also 5-0 in games decided by six or fewer points. So maybe we were premature with the panic about Utah's ability to survive without Okur's floor spacing. | |
| 5 (4) | Magic | 15-5 | That had to be some stomach bug to knock Dwight out for two games. You take for granted how durable the big man is; Howard has played in 507 of Orlando's 512 regular-season games since the start of the '04-05 season. | |
| 6 (5) | Lakers | 14-6 | The annual Kobe Shot Watch has begun after the champs snoozed to four straight L's. As ESPN Stats & Info informs: L.A. is 8-0 when Kobe takes fewer than 20 shots, 4-3 when it's 20-24 and 2-3 when it's 25 or more. | |
| 7 (10) | Nuggets | 13-6 | Denver probably can't decide what's more pleasing. Stretching its win streak to a surprising seven? Or temporarily handing the speculation baton back to the Hornets thanks to the chaos surrounding their sale and CP3? | |
| 8 (9) | Thunder | 14-7 | Prof Hollinger sums up what I've been trying to say since the season's first rankings: "Fans and media alike got way ahead of themselves" when the "ages of [OKC's] top eight players are 21, 21, 22, 22, 23, 24, 26 and 27." | |
| 9 (13) | Heat | 13-8 | A handful of Heat fans are asking why the Lakers aren't subjected to the same crisis talk as Miami when the champs have also lost in Memphis and at home to Indy. Simple answer: Rings almost always get you pardoned. | |
| 10 (8) | Bulls | 10-8 | The Bulls are one of three teams with winning records, along with OKC and Phoenix, sporting a nightly point-differential margin of less than one. Not yet a cause for concern, though, when we've seen so little of Boozer. | |
| 11 (7) | Hornets | 13-7 | Severing ties with Shinn -- aka Donald Sterling of the South -- has to be a good thing in the grand scheme. Not that anyone in New Orleans is going to party amid a 2-6 skid and so much fresh uncertainty about the future. | |
| 12 (16) | Knicks | 12-9 | Love the way, as usual, that our man Hojo Beck wrote it in the NYT: The caveat to the caveat -- how Knicks foes have the league's lowest combined winning percentage at .415 -- is the fact the Knicks are 9-4 on the road. | |
| 13 (11) | Pacers | 9-9 | Losses at Utah and Phoenix won't discourage Indy deeply. Not after the Pacers began the trip with wins over the Lakers and Kings ... and with memories of an 0-8 mark on last season's two long West trips still fresh. | |
| 14 (14) | Suns | 11-9 | I will pretend later that I never even suggested this if the statement proves to be ridiculously premature, but are the top eight we see in the West right now -- with Phoenix at No. 8 -- the same eight bound for the playoffs? | |
| 15 (15) | Hawks | 13-8 | The Hawks are coping OK so far with life minus Joe Johnson (elbow) ... except for the fact that winning without him only revs up those who believe JJ doesn't make enough of a difference to warrant that $123 million. | |
| 16 (12) | Trail Blazers | 9-11 | Don't think even the most fervent Blazermaniacs would deny now, with B-Roy clearly operating at less-than-full capacity and Oden down again, that Portland has slipped out of West's Biggest Threat To L.A. contention. | |
| 17 (20) | Rockets | 7-13 | The weight of carrying the offense was wearing on Scola and Kevin Martin, who aren't being smothered quite as resolutely by opposing defenses now that Lowry and Brad Miller have returned to shoulder some of the load. | |
| 18 (18) | Bucks | 7-12 | Would have meant more, obviously, had Dwight Howard been playing. But Bogut didn't just return from injury Saturday night. That was last season's Bogut, rumbling for 31 and 18 and looking like the East's No. 2 center. | |
| 19 (17) | Grizzlies | 8-13 | Following up on the Phoenix comment: Who in the West's bottom seven is most likely to make us look bad in the next 3/4 of the season? Would still have to favor Portland or Houston, even with all their injuries. | |
| 20 (23) | Raptors | 8-12 | More surprised that seven of the teams occupying the East's eight playoff spots as of Monday morning sported records of .500 or better? Or that the Bosh-less Raps were No. 8 at a pretty respectable 8-12? Raps for me. | |
| 21 (22) | Bobcats | 7-13 | Updating the pertinent numbers in Charlotte: 6-4 against teams with losing records, 1-9 against teams with winning records and six technical fouls already for Stephen Jackson, just one shy of Melo's league-leading seven. | |
| 22 (21) | Warriors | 8-12 | Here's why long-suffering Golden State wouldn't apologize about how cushy its early schedule was: After Spurs/Suns/Thunder last week, its next four opponents are Mavs/Spurs/Heat/Jazz. With only Miami at home. | |
| 23 (26) | 76ers | 6-14 | As stated via Twitter on a very sad Friday night, Phil Jasner of the Philly Daily News was as synonymous with the Sixers as Dr. J, Iverson, you name it. So please, Sixers: Sew something onto your unis to pay tribute to him. | |
| 24 (25) | Pistons | 7-14 | Sunday's visit from the cowering Cavs was certainly welcome, but I wonder whether Detroiters would be happier if the rumors were true about the rich Qataris who won the 2022 World Cup bid wanting to buy the Pistons. | |
| 25 (28) | Clippers | 4-17 | Did Gordon's ongoing struggles from 3 and the Clips' hideous start lead to a too-harsh snub in the Weekend Dime? I still say he can't be higher than sixth on that five-man list ... but I feel shame for not mentioning him. | |
| 26 (29) | Timberwolves | 5-15 | Poor Sota. The young Wolves are only a month from having to face San Antonio twice in a span of three days (Jan. 9 and 11) after the Spurs just wiped out double-digit deficits on them twice in a span of nine days. | |
| 27 (24) | Nets | 6-15 | After the week the Nets just endured -- heavy L's to the hated Knicks and Celts sandwiched around two OT defeats and more Lopez inconsistency -- they surely wish we'd kept the focus on Humphries and Kardashian. | |
| 28 (27) | Wizards | 6-13 | Our man Michael Lee of The Washington Post checks in from the Wizards' ongoing road woes (0-10) with a point we wish we'd made in the Weekend Dime: JaVale McGee improved a bunch just by trying out for Team USA. | |
| 29 (19) | Cavaliers | 7-13 | A 34-point beatdown in Minnesota after the total laydown in LeBron's return in Cleveland with the world watching? The worst week in franchise history was unquestionably July 5-11, 2010 ... but you just witnessed No. 2. | |
| 30 (30) | Kings | 4-14 | Remember how fun and scrappy they were with last season's 13-14 start? Now chew on this: The Kings are 15-55 since Geoff Petrie's contract extension was announced in December 2009 when they were at 14-16. |
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