ESPN.com
Monday, Nov. 4
As fate would have it Saturday night, your trusty NBA Power Rankings committee (of one) crossed paths with our old friend John Hollinger just as those stunning Philadelphia 76ers were rallying past the Chicago Bulls to move to an unfathomable 3-0.
Now vice president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies, after all those years as the patriarch of ESPN's daily automated NBA Power Rankings -- which are coming back soon to complement this weekly version -- Hollinger couldn't help but chuckle at the quandary Philly's early success has thrust upon yours truly.
VIDEO PLAYLIST 
So ...
The Sixers have been bumped all the way up to a spot in the hallowed top 10 this week, which has to be one of the biggest leaps we've ever authorized. If you were hoping to see them even higher, I totally understand, but we're sorry: It's going to take more than three funky results for us to divorce the principles we've applied to these rankings for more than a decade and promote them all the way into the upper crust.
Something tells me that the 20-spot jump from last Monday's poll will nonetheless allow the Sixers to upstage the season's first change at the top: Indiana has climbed five spots to No. 1 while Miami dips to No. 5. The Sixers' thoroughly unforeseen climb will also undoubtedly overshadow big leaps for Houston (No. 5 to No. 2) and Minnesota (No. 12 to No. 3), too. And rightfully so after Philly erased a nine-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to beat the Heat; Miami had won 48 straight games in which it had led by at least nine points after three.
These rankings, as always, were compiled with the ever-helpful assisting 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 1 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 | 5 Last Week: 6 | Although I probably should have said something about this earlier, after seeing Paul George just light up American Airlines Center in Indy's final preseason game like he always does when he comes to Dallas, it's obvious to everyone now: PG was ready to start the season. Ready in the extreme. | ||
| 2 | 3 Last Week: 5 | They were supposed to be good, so there's little Philly-style shock value in the Rockets' 3-0 launch. Yet you have to say that Saturday night's big rally in Utah was impressive. Ditto for the Dwight-led defense in general that has Houston on the brink of its first 4-0 mark since way back in 1996-97. | ||
| 3 | 9 Last Week: 12 | No one was going to deny the Sixers their highly improbable Team of the Week honors, but the Wolves showed us glimpses of the potential we've been talking about for ages by clamping down on Durant and Melo to secure the best start in Sota since a KG-led pack of Wolves opened up 6-0. | ||
| 4 | 1 Last Week: 3 | We've been spoiled for a l-o-n-g time: Tim Duncan's absence from the Spurs' win over the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers in L.A., thanks to a chest contusion, marked the first meeting between the teams with neither Kobe nor TD on the floor since Nov. 22, 1996 ... back when I was still on the Lakers beat. | ||
| 5 | 4 Last Week: 1 | The Heat managed to beat Washington and avoid their first three-game losing streak since January 2012. Didn't take long, though, for all that preseason talk about how focused they were for the long season ahead to evaporate amid a rash of punchless first quarters. | ||
| 6 | 4 Last Week: 10 | Question: What can bump you up the charts instantly after you just went to Minnesota and got drilled by 19 points in the club's worst defeat in more than two seasons? Answer: The thunderbolt news that Russell Westbrook is back in the lineup about a month earlier than anyone expected. | ||
| 7 | 5 Last Week: 2 | The Clippers' bandwagon has certainly emptied some after that inexplicable crash on opening night against the Kobe-less Lakers. They've rebounded reasonably well, though, setting up a rather interesting Monday night duel at Staples pitting the new (?) DeAndre Jordan against Dwight Howard. | ||
| 8 |
--
Last Week: 8 | If you like the sort of wild (borderline irresponsible) stat projections that crop up with the small sample sizes we're working with at this point, you'll love this one: Steph Curry is on pace to splash home 437 triples this season based on what we've seen so far ... after a record 272 last season. | ||
| 9 | 5 Last Week: 4 | Don't want to overreact to three games. Especially when D-Rose is harder on himself than anyone early in his comeback. But all the stuff Charles Barkley said on TNT about the Bulls not having enough scoring ... that's why I came into the season saying Indy is the East's bigger threat to Miami. | ||
| 10 | 20 Last Week: 30 | The madness continues when the Warriors visit town Monday. Philly will be going for its first 4-0 start since the Allen Iverson-led team that made the Finals went 10-0 in 2000-01 and the MCW/Steph matchup brings together two of only three players averaging at least 20 points and nine dimes. | ||
| 11 | 4 Last Week: 7 | It'll come as little consolation that the other team in town had a worse opening week. Brooklyn finally toppled Miami in the game that mattered most, true, but its road performances in Cleveland and especially Orlando were disheartening. P.S.: D-Will clearly still has plenty of rust to shake off. | ||
| 12 | 1 Last Week: 13 | Three games into the new season, Dirk Nowitzki has already matched his longest streak of 20-point games from last season. Five more back-to-backs loom in a challenging November, but as we've said too many times to count: 41 is the last Mav anyone in Dallas should be fretting over. Even at 35. | ||
| 13 | 3 Last Week: 16 | Scoring 113 points in Denver after a bummer of an opener in Phoenix? A mild surprise at best. Ringing up 115 points at home against San Antonio with Tim Duncan back in the lineup? Legitimately eye-catching. You'd have to say LaMarcus Aldridge and especially Damian Lillard were ready to go. | ||
| 14 | 4 Last Week: 18 | The best start no one's talking about? Probably Detroit's. The Pistons have already beaten one of their perceived prime rivals for an East playoff spot (Washington) and dragged Memphis to overtime before the real (and pleasant) surprise: Brandon Jennings, like Westbrook, is back from injury early. | ||
| 15 | 6 Last Week: 9 | Last season's third-best road team is off to an 0-2 road start and looks unrecognizable defensively compared to the Grizz we're used to. Yet it should be noted that both of the losses were in San Antonio and Dallas, and that it's reasonable to expect Memphis' early focus to be on its new offensive wrinkles. | ||
| 16 | 13 Last Week: 29 | Presented without conclusions: The committee (of one) wrote THIS when Eric Bledsoe was not signed to a contract extension before the Halloween buzzer. In the two games since, Bledsoe spectacularly carried Phoenix late to clinch a win in Utah and then dazzled in a narrow defeat at OKC. | ||
| 17 | 11 Last Week: 28 | While I think we can all agree it's too early for any firm pronouncements, you had to come away from Orlando's home blasting of New Orleans and subsequent spoiling of Jason Kidd's coaching debut with the sense that Vucevic, Oladipo and Co. form one of the most intriguing young cores going. | ||
| 18 | 2 Last Week: 20 | Highlight of a surprising .500 start: Xavier Henry's 22 points that stunned the Clippers made him his team's leading scorer for the first time in 134 career NBA games. Related question: Can you still call him X-Man if his first name is pronounced Zah-vee-ay instead of the way we pronounce Xavier McDaniel? | ||
| 19 |
--
Last Week: 19 | Canada is still waiting for the Rudy Gay Renaissance; it's been a rough start to the season for the Raptors' highest-paid player. Whether that's directly tied to uncertainty about his future is something only Gay could answer, but that's certainly a question Raps fans are asking. | ||
| 20 | 9 Last Week: 11 | Two get-well games loom this week against Charlotte. That's the good news. The bad news: New York already needs get-well games after a couple of underwhelming performances at home against Milwaukee and Minnesota. It would appear that the Knicks, like it or not, badly miss J.R. Smith. | ||
| 21 | 1 Last Week: 22 | From the Not The Start We Expected Files: Kyrie Irving managed just five points and zero assists in the fourth quarters of road L's at Charlotte and Indy ... and Anthony Bennett hasn't made a basket yet. The positives: Irving's near triple-double -- and the Andrew Bynum sighting! -- in the W over Brooklyn. | ||
| 22 | 7 Last Week: 15 | It happened against Charlotte. And it didn't happen until after the Pels were drilled in Orlando. But when Anthony Davis, Jason Smith and Greg Stiemsma each blocked at least five shots Saturday night, it marked only the third time in history that three teammates have done so in the same game. | ||
| 23 |
--
Last Week: 23 | Do you focus on the fact that Boogie Cousins erupted for just his sixth career 30-and-10 game to ensure that the Kings delivered a win in their home opener to a grateful Sacramento? Or do you focus on the fact that the Kings' starters somehow combined for a mere 22 points at Golden State? | ||
| 24 | 3 Last Week: 21 | We haven't talked enough about the passing of Walt Bellamy, and I'm as guilty as anyone. Bellamy was just one of three rookies -- along with Wilt and the Big O -- to average at least 30 points a game. He played his last meaningful basketball as a Hawk ... and attended Atlanta's home opener. | ||
| 25 | 11 Last Week: 14 | Blame me, @ESPN_RobKing and @HouseFromDC. The committee (of one) clearly got carried away with the l-a-t-e October trade for Marcin Gortat and what that meant for the Wizards' playoff prospects. Which, in turn, doomed your heroes to the home loss at Philly that sealed a winless Week 1. | ||
| 26 | 9 Last Week: 17 | Trying not to get carried away about two games for a team that clearly did not begin the season at full strength. Still ... Denver's Week 1 struggles did illustrate why some pundits (us included, yes) fear that the Nuggets won't be a playoff team in a West with 12 teams in the hunt for eight spots. | ||
| 27 | 1 Last Week: 26 | Do you focus on the fact that the Bucks almost rallied from a huge MSG deficit on opening night and did roar back from 22 points down to come all the way back and win in Boston? Or the fact that Milwaukee got outrebounded 60-38 by Toronto after O.J. Mayo missed shootaround? | ||
| 28 | 4 Last Week: 24 | Al Jefferson rushed back from that twisted ankle to give it a go on opening night in Houston. It's just too soon for Big Al and an offense that so badly cries out for him after quickly (and predictably) plummeting straight to sub-90 levels in offensive efficiency. No easy first gig for Steve Clifford. | ||
| 29 | 2 Last Week: 27 | This week has to be a better one. A fall-from-ahead home loss to Houston, on the heels of young Gordon Hayward and management failing to come to terms on an extension before the Halloween deadline, dropped the Jazz to their first 0-3 start since the team's inaugural season in Utah in 1979-80. | ||
| 30 | 5 Last Week: 25 | That six-year contract from the Celts affords Brad Stevens more security and leeway than pretty much any coach on the NBA map not named Popovich. Yet it still has to be a culture shock to be staring at the first three-game losing streak he's lived through since December 2011 back at Butler. | ||
No comments:
Post a Comment