ESPN.com
Monday, Dec. 16
After winning Round 1 at home, Indiana heads to Miami for Wednesday night's rematch with the Heat as the top-ranked team in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings for the third successive Monday. More on how this week's order was calculated can be found here at Stein Line Live.
| 2013-14 Power Rankings: Week 7 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | No matter what happens Wednesday night in Miami -- win or lose, nail-biter or rout -- we promise you one thing: In the world of modern-day analysis, where NBA games often get dissected like NFL games even though our regular season is five times as long, whatever we see will be overblown. | ||
| 2 |
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Last Week: 2 | Second-best start in team history through 25 games. 100-plus points in 12 straight games for the first time since 1993-94 ... which happens to be our first season covering the NBA. And Bill Simmons proclaims Portland his favorite League Pass team. Does anyone even notice the rain these days? | ||
| 3 |
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Last Week: 3 | Two of their losses were on the second night of a back-to-back. Westbrook was still out for the Minnesota loss; Ibaka got ejected from the loss to the Clippers. Throw in the progress made by Reggie Jackson and the odd blip from Jeremy Lamb and OKC is feeling more than OK about itself. | ||
| 4 | 2 Last Week: 6 | Fret, if you wish, about all the Spurs' losses to quality teams: Portland, OKC, Houston and Indy. Or you could focus on the fact that the Spurs, with Tim Duncan starting to awaken, have scored 100-plus points in eight straight games and will set a Pop-era record if they do it three more times. | ||
| 5 | 1 Last Week: 4 | Interesting stat from ESPN colleague Ryen Russillo: LeBron James starts the week ranked 27th in shots per game at 15.3. Crazy ridiculous as it has been to see LeBron (.590) flirt with shooting 60 percent from the floor, it seems fair to wonder: Should 26 guys be shooting more often than he does? | ||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 7 | Attacks from Charles Barkley about the Clippers' toughness are getting to be an every-Thursday-night kind of thing. L.A.'s 6-6 record against the East certainly isn't helping those of us who want to counter on the Clips' behalf, but injuries and a road-heavy schedule have been factors, too. | ||
| 7 | 3 Last Week: 10 | Eric Bledsoe, who had four career 20-point games, is up to eight for the season. Goran Dragic and Bledsoe are clicking better than anyone ever imagined. And the Phoenix bigs are all still contributing, too. So you tell us: When do we stop referring to Hornacek & Co. as a desert mirage? | ||
| 8 | 3 Last Week: 5 | Houston has held it together pretty well through the Omer Asik saga, sporting a mark of 11-6 since Asik's demotion from the starting lineup. You get the sense, though, that the other Rockets are more than ready for this thing to be over with Thursday as we've all been promised it will be. | ||
| 9 |
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Last Week: 9 | Holding off the stubborn Pelicans, even with Anthony Davis out, is more impressive than it sounds. You had to be curious, after last season's 38-3 fairy tale at home, to see how the Nuggets would respond to getting outscored 84-36 by Utah's starters in their third Pepsi Center loss already. | ||
| 10 | 3 Last Week: 13 | If you're a Wolves fan who buys into average nightly point margin as a top-notch predictor of future success, take note that K-Love & Co. are sixth in the West at +3.8. (Then take a look, if you can stand it, how high that would put them in the East's gruesome point-margin standings.) | ||
| 11 |
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Last Week: 11 | You want to know how Golden State could lose in Charlotte with Steph Curry uncorking 43 points. The committee (of one) wants to know how Steph Curry could get a Hebrew tattoo on his right wrist (translating to "Love Never Fails") and not know it until an ESPN closeup on the Friday night telecast. | ||
| 12 | 4 Last Week: 8 | Sickening week for the Mavs. The Golden State collapse was their third road L by two points or fewer, following up earlier crushers suffered at Denver and Atlanta, before Dirk Nowitzki and Rick Carlisle were waylaid by twin illnesses that made the Cowboys' latest unraveling seem pleasant. | ||
| 13 | 2 Last Week: 15 | Hot: Atlanta is 6-0 on Fridays and Kyle Korver's record run of consecutive games with at least one 3-pointer is poised to reach 100 on Dec. 29 at Orlando. Not: Jeff Teague has posted just one double-digit assist game in his past 15 after racking up six of them in the season's first nine games. | ||
| 14 | 6 Last Week: 20 | Think I speak for everyone when I say we all can't wait to see what the Pels look like with Ryan Anderson and The Unibrow in the lineup side-by-side for a sustained period. New Orleans is a rather passable 8-5 when Anderson plays ... albeit a worrisome 0-8 against teams .500 or better. | ||
| 15 | 1 Last Week: 14 | Important reminder when comparing Kobe Bryant's comeback to Dominique Wilkins' return from an Achilles tear in 1992: Nique had a full training camp and exhibition season before scoring 30 points in his first regular-season game back. What you're seeing now is Kobe's training camp. | ||
| 16 | 1 Last Week: 17 | This one's too fun to ignore even with all the frustration in circulation about the NBA sticking with divisions: Boston's 11-14 mark is the second-worst of all-time for an NBA division leader through 25 games ... behind only eventual Central champs Baltimore starting off 10-15 in 1971-72. | ||
| 17 | 5 Last Week: 12 | The committee (of one) expects to hear lots of You Jinxed Us talk after Detroit followed up its rise to No. 12 by losing at home to Minnesota by 27. The reality, though, is that was always a circumstantial promotion triggered by the rampant unpredictability of this season's middle of the pack. | ||
| 18 | 5 Last Week: 23 | The ball is moving so crisply post-Rudy Gay that the Raptors might have no choice. For the losing it takes in the East to land in the lottery, Toronto might have to fast-track its plans and make sure to hatch a workable trade for Kyle Lowry this week to ensure they keep weakening the roster. | ||
| 19 | 3 Last Week: 22 | The new owners are desperate to make splashes and definitely did with the Rudy Gay gamble. But we're going to try to give this a chance after Gay became only the fifth Sacramento King (along with Spud Webb, M. Richmond, C-Webb and M. Thornton) to score 25 or more in his home debut. | ||
| 20 | 2 Last Week: 18 | Last season wasn't just the best season in Grizz history; 'twas a season filled with good health. This season? The injuries (M. Gasol, Z-Bo, Pondexter) just won't stop. With Mike Conley the latest key cog to go down, Grind House suddenly means something totally different than it used to. | ||
| 21 | 5 Last Week: 16 | Uh-oh. Just when it seemed that the Wiz had emerged from their standard early-season misery faster than usual, they lose excruciatingly in OT at Milwaukee and Atlanta, drop two in a row at home after winning five straight in D.C. ... and awoke Monday to Marcin Gortat frustration headlines. | ||
| 22 | 3 Last Week: 19 | The emotional toll of losing Derrick Rose in-season this time -- compared to knowing they wouldn't have him last season -- has been well documented. But taking away Luol Deng and Jimmy Butler on top of D-Rose is just cruel. Without all three of them, Chicago is lucky to crack 80 points. | ||
| 23 | 2 Last Week: 25 | The bad news: Brooklyn already has racked up five losses by 20 points or more after seven for the entire season in 2012-13. The good news: Deron Williams -- who is only the key to everything for the banged-up and creaky Nets -- is averaging 20.7 PPG and 6.7 APG in his first three games back. | ||
| 24 | 2 Last Week: 26 | As much as you can with guys who play 34.5 and 28.3 minutes per game, respectively, Cleveland is trying to keep Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters from being thrown together in the same lineups. The effort seems to be working to some extent, too, judging by the Cavs' 4-2 start to December. | ||
| 25 | 1 Last Week: 24 | Uncomfortable faceoff Monday night at Madison Square Garden for two coaches that need to win that rare Eastern Conference game where neither team secretly wants to lose: Washington's Randy Wittman vs. New York's Mike Woodson. The greater pressure, though, remains on Woody. | ||
| 26 | 5 Last Week: 21 | Another feather in the proverbial cap for Steve Clifford and what ranks as the league's No. 4 defense in the efficiency standings: Charlotte's three-game skid is its first of the Clifford era. Last season? The Bobcats endured eight separate streaks in which they lost at least three in a row. | ||
| 27 | 2 Last Week: 29 | The Jazz did win their last two road games impressively, spanking Sacramento and surprising Denver, but you can't give 'em much of a chance Monday night at Miami. (The Heat, incidentally, have won 16 straight against West foes ... only four shy of tying Boston's record of 20 in the early '70s.) | ||
| 28 |
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Last Week: 28 | Arron Afflalo is up to eight 25-point games in his campaign to get noticed by trade-minded contenders, tying his single-season best already. No. 2 pick Victor Oladipo, meanwhile, had a team-high 26 in Friday's loss to Cleveland ... compared to No. 1 overall pick Anthony Bennett's mere nine. | ||
| 29 | 2 Last Week: 27 | It took a while, but the Sixers we all expected have arrived. They're in a 2-14 freefall after the Cinderella start and haven't been the least bit competitive (1-9) when Michael Carter-Williams isn't able to dress. Philly's D is so porous that No. 30 surely beckons if MCW doesn't get back soon. | ||
| 30 |
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Last Week: 30 | For a guy who, last I checked, has no obvious ties to Brewtown, few scribes have a better handle on the Bucks' universe than our own Kevin Arnovitz. The latest example: KA has a fresh TrueHoop post up on the Bucks smarter than anything we can snarkily say here. Click it immediately. | ||
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