ESPN.com
Monday,November 18
You might find it harsh to see that there's a new No. 1 in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings when the Indiana Pacers have only one loss on their ledger.
While it's true that Indiana just suffered its first defeat of the new season -- on the second night of a back-to-back, too -- it's a tough world out there. So tough that the San Antonio Spurs, whose 9-1 record matches Indy's, have capitalized on the Pacers' solitary slipup to emerge as our new No. 1.
Since San Antonio's loss to the scorching-in-their-own-right Portland Trail Blazers on Nov. 2, the Spurs have won seven in a row, even with Tim Duncan averaging a career-low 12 points per game on career-worst 39.4 percent shooting. Not a bad start for a group of 30-somethings who have been telling us since training camp opened in late September that they're still nowhere close to getting over what happened in the NBA Finals last June.
When you combine the Spurs' strong statement out of the gate in the face of that depressing hangover with the fact that we expected Indiana -- fairly or unfairly -- to scarcely even feel the effects of a back-to-back against hated Chicago on Saturday night after beating undermanned Milwaukee ... boom. That's the combination that prompted your faithful committee (of one) to bump the Spurs up a slot and drop the Pacers to No. 2 after the 110-94 shellacking they absorbed from the Bulls.
The Blazers are the other big newsmakers in this week's top 10, riding a six-game winning streak to move to a season-high No. 7 and add another P team to Philadelphia and Phoenix on the list of franchises that have surprised us at this early juncture.
The latest rankings, as always, were compiled by the committee with the ever-helpful dishing that comes from ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau. You can click here to rank the teams yourself until we return next Monday with a fresh 1-to-30 pulse take of the league.
| 2013-14 Power Rankings: Week 3 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 | 1 Last Week: 2 | Any doubt that the Spurs, before they get to the stuff that really matters, are going to win at least 50 games for the 15th consecutive season? In this purportedly mopey state after what happened in the Finals -- and with Tim Duncan producing at unrecognizable levels -- they're only on a 74-8 pace. | ||
| 2 | 1 Last Week: 1 | Fun footnote about Indy's 9-0 start: It was the league's longest unbeaten run to open the season since the Mavericks went 14-0 in 2002-03 ... before finally losing at Indiana. Mark your calendars: Exactly one month to go until Dec. 18 ... when the Pacers go to Miami for the first time this season. | ||
| 3 | 2 Last Week: 5 | Some decent trivia to occupy Heat-minded folks out there while waiting to see how long it takes the two-time reigning champs to get serious and lock in defensively: D-Wade is two just swats away from passing Dennis Johnson (675) as the best shot-blocker in league history at 6-4 and under. | ||
| 4 |
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Last Week: 4 | History awaits for Chris Paul if he reaches the 10-point and 10-assist plateaus in Monday's home date with Memphis. CP3 hit those benchmarks in all 10 games so far and will tie Magic Johnson's all-time record of 11 in a row to start the season (set in 1990-91) if he can do it one more time. | ||
| 5 | 2 Last Week: 3 | The two Kevins -- Love and Martin -- have formed the league's highest-scoring duo in the season's opening month. And the Wolves' D, essentially spearheaded by zero shot-blockers, ranks as a top-six defense at this admittedly early juncture. If those trends and the good health lasts ... | ||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 7 | Maybe this is a myopic way to look at last week's big anniversary in the Bay Area, but give the Dubs this as they commemorate three years of Joe Lacob's ownership: They're definitely not the Power Rankings punching bags they used to be. Golden State leads the league with six double-digit wins so far. | ||
| 7 | 5 Last Week: 12 | Beating the Spurs early on, as they often do at home, failed to cause much of a stir, but I'd say that the Blazers and their fortified bench have everyone's attention now after six straight wins and four of them outside of Portland from the gang that closed out 2012-13 on a 4-19 slide in road games. | ||
| 8 | 2 Last Week: 6 | How do you move past being on the wrong end of Andre Iguodala sinking the first Golden State buzzer-beater in the regular season since Monta Ellis in January 2007? Watching tape of Westbrook's sharpness in the last two games -- after he shot 34.8 percent from the field in his first five -- is a good start. | ||
| 9 | 5 Last Week: 14 | Normally you'd presume that playing six games in the first 17 days of the season would be a problem in the eyes of hard-driving Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. Yet it would appear that easing into things was a good thing for Derrick Rose judging by the six 3s he just tossed in to slay Indiana. | ||
| 10 | 1 Last Week: 9 | Among the reasons why the Dwight Howard/Omer Asik tandem hasn't worked: Houston looks better offensively when it plays faster and can up the tempo with Omri Casspi or Terrence Jones at the 4. Newsy development overshadowed by all the Asik stuff: Jeremy Lin's shooting appears to have improved dramatically. | ||
| 11 |
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Last Week: 11 | The sleeve on Dirk Nowitzki has the locals almost as jittery as the up-and-down Cowboys, but leave it to my man @BallinWithBryan to do the math and compute that No. 41 is shooting .512 from the field (22-for-43), .563 on 3s (9-for-16) and averaging 21.7 PPG since slipping it over his left knee. | ||
| 12 | 2 Last Week: 10 | Whether he's trying to jump-start an underproducing starting five or feeling a hint of pressure already -- or both -- rookie coach Dave Joerger is playing those starters even more now. The Griz do appear to have responded, though, with Z-Bo in particular off to a gaudy start on Memphis' trip to Cali. | ||
| 13 | 5 Last Week: 8 | Interesting theory volunteered last week by ex-Sun Marcin Gortat, who says the new defensive coordinator in Phoenix -- Mike Longabardi -- is as much of an impact newcomer in the desert as Eric Bledsoe or boss Jeff Hornacek. All four losses by just 13 points combined for the Cinderella Suns so far. | ||
| 14 | 8 Last Week: 22 | Brett Brown has rightly earned many kudos for the early returns on his leap to head coaching off of Gregg Popovich's bench. Just don't ignore Mike Budenholzer's solid start in Atlanta, where Pop's longest-serving disciple has Horford and Millsap clicking and the Hawks scoring the ball freely. | ||
| 15 | 3 Last Week: 18 | For all the justifiable raves about the big steps Anthony Davis has taken, there's really only one guy on the Pels' roster who can loosen up the D and make The Unibrow's life easier. You saw it Saturday night when Ryan Anderson made his floor-spacing return from a broken toe with six quick 3s against Philly. | ||
| 16 |
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Last Week: 16 | When the Sixers lose, it's often ugly. They've already absorbed losses by 20, 24 and, most recently, 37 points. Of course there's only one loss at the moment that troubles your (no misprint) Atlantic Division leaders: Early ROY leader MCW has missed three straight games with a foot injury. | ||
| 17 | 2 Last Week: 19 | Offsetting promising Kobe news is this from our pal @ArashMarkazi (with sobs coming exclusively from your bummed-out committee): Hard-luck Steve Nash has missed 37 games in a season and change in L.A. ... after injuries cost him just 37 games over the previous eight seasons with the Suns. | ||
| 18 | 10 Last Week: 28 | Pains me to say it, as an admitted JaVale McGee enthusiast (see last week's comment), but Denver's guards are getting to the bucket better without McGee in the middle. Kenneth Faried's positive response to trade speculation and Wilson Chandler's return, even on a minutes restriction, haven't hurt, either. | ||
| 19 | 7 Last Week: 26 | You'll recall last season's Bobcats, under Mike Dunlap, actually had a better record at this juncture ... albeit by one win at 6-4. What's happening now just has a more sustainable feel, built around the stiffer D demanded by Steve Clifford and the prospect of regular frontcourt productivity from Big Al. | ||
| 20 | 1 Last Week: 21 | As if to remind potential suitors that he should be high on the list of Established Vets Likely To Be Traded alongside Jameer Nelson, Arron Afflalo is already halfway to last season's eight 25-point games. The flip side: Victor Oladipo's nine TOs against Dallas reminded you how raw this team really is. | ||
| 21 | 6 Last Week: 15 | After 31 of them last season, Paul Pierce doesn't have a single 20-point game as a Net yet. KG doesn't exactly resemble KG, either. And oft-flat Brooklyn has racked up as many ankle injuries (KG, Brook Lopez and D-Will's scary one) as wins so far. How do you say disconcerting start in Russian? | ||
| 22 | 1 Last Week: 23 | The good news for Mike Brown: He's already lasted twice as long in his second Cleveland stint than he did with the Lakers last season. The legitimately worrisome news: Brown's Cavs are firmly in the top three of the Team Tension rankings. Which raises eyebrows this early into a new coach's reign. | ||
| 23 | 6 Last Week: 17 | The Wiz have faced a tough schedule, true, but this isn't too surprising after a home loss to a Cavs team in disarray on the heels of a rough road trip that began with a bad collapse in OKC: Our offshore pals from Bovada.lv list Randy Wittman as a 2-to-1 fave to be the season's first coach ousted. | ||
| 24 | 4 Last Week: 20 | What are they talking about in Toronto when they're not wrapped up in the latest travails of Mayor Ford? Rudy Gay's 11-for-37 shooting in OT loss to Houston has certainly come up. Ditto for the fact Gay is shooting 38.2 percent for the season ... with DeMar DeRozan only slightly better at 40.4 percent. | ||
| 25 |
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Last Week: 25 | Who says the Knicks lack consistency? James Dolan started the season talking championship and now we hear, via Frankie Ice in the New York Daily News, that the Knicks -- with no first-round picks to trade until 2018 -- think they have the assets to deal for Rajon Rondo. MSG ... Madison Square Gumption. | ||
| 26 | 13 Last Week: 13 | Score one for Mo Cheeks amid one of the NBA's more disappointing starts: Josh Smith responded to his maiden benching in Detroit by becoming the first player since Hakeem Olajuwon in April 1994 with 21 points, 8 boards, 7 assists, 5 steals and 4 blocks, sparking the Pistons to a much-needed road win in Sacramento. | ||
| 27 | 3 Last Week: 24 | Anyone else out there amused by seeing the Celtics start out 0-4, win four in a row and then drop three straight to utterly toy with Bill Simmons' emotions and make him flip-flop daily on whether to root for the Celtics to tank or make a playoff push? Of course not! Thoroughly rhetorical question. | ||
| 28 | 1 Last Week: 29 | Sunday delivered yet another shellacking for the Kings' starters, who managed just 29 points as a fivesome to Memphis' 78. Outside of Boogie's big numbers and lil' Isaiah Thomas producing more than anyone ever expected, Sacramento's new owners are getting a harsh and immediate dose of NBA reality. | ||
| 29 | 2 Last Week: 27 | Remember everything you read in the offseason about how Senator Kohl would never, ever sanction tanking and prefers the No. 8 seed in the East even if that's the best he could do? The Bucks are so banged-up already that they're on a pace for the upper crust of the lottery whether they like it or not. | ||
| 30 |
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Last Week: 30 | Since Utah could so easily be 0-11 if not for that furious rally to beat New Orleans, life ain't bad. And if only to prove we can say two nice things about these guys in one comment: Derrick Favors just became one of only nine players leaguewide to post an 18-rebound game. | ||
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