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Monday, Jan. 20
Portland's big week bumped the Trail Blazers up three spots to a season-high-tying No. 2, but Indy was yet again the only option for No. 1 for the committee (of one).
More on how this week's order was calculated can be found on Stein Line Live. You're also invited, as always, to rank the teams yourself here.
| 2013-14 Power Rankings: Week 12 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | The Pacers are 21-1 at home. They've won their past 10 games in the land of St. Elmo's by an average of 20.6 PPG. They lead the league with 20 double-digit wins, ahead of both OKC (18) and San Antonio (17), so there's no mystery why you've seen them here nine out of the past 12 Mondays. | ||
| 2 | 3 Last Week: 5 | Something tells me this isn't the first place you'll have heard the suggestion that it's good to be Paul Allen in 2014. Allen's football team is one win shy of a championship ... and his Cinderella basketball team is halfway to sweeping a San Antonio/Dallas/Houston/OKC road trip! | ||
| 3 | 3 Last Week: 6 | The committee (of one) tweeted this one out Saturday because it speaks to the rare scoring brilliance Kevin Durant possesses: This is the third straight season in which KD has recorded the NBA's first 50-point game. The only other players to ever do so in three straight seasons are MJ and Wilt. | ||
| 4 | 1 Last Week: 3 | I would tend to echo what this scout says about not fretting too much about the Spurs' 1-8 record against the rest of the West's top five -- plus Indiana -- except that Gregg Popovich keeps saying it's a real thing, while no less an authority than Manu Ginobili admits it's in the players' heads. | ||
| 5 | 3 Last Week: 2 | Excellent "something's gotta give" matchup in Oakland on MLK Day when the Pacers (tied with Miami at a league-best 10-2 against the Western Conference and allowing West teams just 92.5 points per game) visit the Dubs (10-2 and unbeaten at home against the Eastern Conference). | ||
| 6 | 2 Last Week: 4 | No one's suggesting it'll haunt the champs for weeks and weeks, but the reality is that two very popular players in that locker room -- don't forget Mike Miller preceded Joel Anthony -- have been cast aside for luxury-tax savings. So there are some raw feelings to go with the coasting issues. | ||
| 7 |
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Last Week: 7 | The Clips can live with getting blitzed in Indy on the second night of a back-to-back because they showed up 6-1 in games missed by CP3. Something else to keep in mind Monday: Blake Griffin has the second-biggest scoring game in MLK Day history at 47 points -- behind only Gil Arenas' 51. | ||
| 8 | 1 Last Week: 9 | He's not going to score 36 points every time out, like we saw against Milwaukee, but the success of Terrence Jones has become a pretty handy barometer for which version of the Rockets we're going to get. Houston is 16-3 when Jones scores 11 or more ... and 10-10 when he doesn't. | ||
| 9 | 7 Last Week: 16 | This is the entry from our latest compilation of Scouts Takes that will please Griz fans the most. The scout in question has Memphis -- 2 1/2 games out of a playoff spot in the West entering Martin Luther King Day play -- bumping Phoenix out of the top eight now that Marc Gasol is back. | ||
| 10 | 2 Last Week: 12 | If the Mavs wind up narrowly missing the playoffs, their list of regrets will start with the two games they squandered against the CP3-less Clips. Before blowing Wednesday's 17-point lead with 4:36 to go, Dallas was seven games over .500 for the first time since the 2011-12 season. | ||
| 11 | 3 Last Week: 8 | A road setback to tanking Boston? Losing at home in one of the those Sunday afternoon specials to the injury-shredded Lakers? The New Raps haven't endured a week like that since the final week of November, when a certain gunner named Rudy Gay was still very much a Raptor. | ||
| 12 | 1 Last Week: 11 | The Suns are only 7-9 without Eric Bledsoe this season, true, but it doesn't seem so outlandish to ask: Do the Desert Cinderellas, basically halfway through the season, deserve an All-Star in the West at a heady 23-17? P.S.: Goran Dragic is averaging 22.0 points, 6.4 assists and 4.7 rebounds in January. | ||
| 13 | 1 Last Week: 14 | Look up "defiant" in the NBA dictionary and you'll see a picture of Tom Thibodeau arm-in-arm with Joakim Noah. Thibs' Bulls are 7-2 in 2014 after a 12-18 start. And Noah, mad as he is about the Luol Deng trade, is up to three 20-and-15 games in 2013-14 ... after just four in his first six seasons. | ||
| 14 | 3 Last Week: 17 | Saturday night didn't merely bring the latest disappointing home defeat in a season full of them. Losing to Detroit prevented the Wiz -- who happen to sport a share of the East's third-best road record at 10-10 -- from moving past .500 after Jan. 1 for the first time in any season since 2007-08. | ||
| 15 | 5 Last Week: 10 | Would normally express some sympathy for the Hawks when the schedule calls for home dates with Miami and San Antonio in the space of five days. But they just went to England without me! (Turning serious: Sincere props to the injured Al Horford for live-tweeting the game in London.) | ||
| 16 | 3 Last Week: 19 | Deron Williams has had 16 days off. The Nets liken his latest ankle procedures to an oil change. What they're banking on is the idea that the time off before and after Brooklyn's trip to London, on top of the treatment course, leads to an all-new version of D-Will as we move into the second half. | ||
| 17 | 4 Last Week: 13 | If they go on to narrowly miss the playoffs in Brian Shaw's roller-coaster debut season on the Nuggets' bench, Team Up & Down will undoubtedly rue its repeated inability to beat the Suns, who are 3-0 in the season series and will go for the sweep Feb. 18 when the teams meet in Denver. | ||
| 18 | 3 Last Week: 15 | You can probably recite the stat by heart: Sota is 0-11 in games decided by four points or fewer, compared to 19-10 in all other games. Kevin Love, meanwhile, has been held below 20 points in five of his past six games ... after it happened just five times in the season's first 33 games. | ||
| 19 | 2 Last Week: 21 | The Pistons are still the only team in the league to beat the Pacers in Indiana. I imagine they'd trade that feat for a better home record than 7-13, but they've somehow won three of four after dropping six in a row ... with the loss, inexplicably, at home by 21 to the Gordon Hayward-less Jazz. | ||
| 20 | 2 Last Week: 18 | Seven games to go on an eight-game homestand that offers up several sub-.500 opponents and looks, shall we say, quite vital to the banged-up Knicks' chances of salvaging their season. You have to win at home occasionally, even in the Leastern Conference, if you want to play in the playoffs. | ||
| 21 | 4 Last Week: 25 | Even when you account for the 44-point humiliation suffered in Sacramento, there's no denying that the Cavs have looked a bit more legit since trading for Luol Deng. The team that left Cleveland with a 2-15 road record overcame that debacle to finish 3-2 on its Western Conference trip. | ||
| 22 | 2 Last Week: 20 | This scout is a fan of the Kings' gamble on Rudy Gay because it gives them three potent scorers to trot out together. But Sacramento generally remains a tough out only in Sacramento, so I struggle to envision the 20 or 21 wins needed to get the road-averse Kings to his 34/35 projection. | ||
| 23 |
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Last Week: 23 | The Jazz just scored 23 points in the first half and shot 28.8 percent from the field in Saturday night's dismantling at Minnesota. So I think we're all ready for Gordon Hayward's return after five games out with a hip flexor ... though you do have to hat-tip Utah for winning a couple without him. | ||
| 24 |
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Last Week: 24 | As soon as Michael Kidd-Gilchrist gets back from a broken finger, Kemba Walker goes down with a sprained ankle. The loss of Jeff Taylor for the season has likewise contributed to a slight defensive slide that the offensively challenged Bobcats -- now in a 3-10 funk -- just can't afford. | ||
| 25 | 2 Last Week: 27 | It doesn't quite make up for all of their recent suffering, but the Lakers did enjoy the historic sight of Pau Gasol, Kendall Marshall and Wesley Johnson all posting double-doubles Friday. The previous time three Lakers did that on the same night in Boston: Kareem, Jamaal Wilkes and Norm Nixon in 1979. | ||
| 26 | 2 Last Week: 28 | After 357 days away, Rajon Rondo is back. And with 31 days left until the trade deadline, that means the Celts can expect a month's worth of nagging Rondo trade scenarios no matter how many times Danny Ainge tries to convince us Boston intends to keep its famously enigmatic QB. | ||
| 27 | 5 Last Week: 22 | The Pelicans are 12-10 with Ryan Anderson healthy ... and 6-4 with ridiculously gaudy offensive numbers when their best five players are healthy. But they're 3-14 when Anderson is out injured and they don't know when they'll see their superlative stretch 4 or Jrue Holiday back in the lineup. | ||
| 28 | 2 Last Week: 26 | We know winning isn't exactly the top priority, but you still have to wonder whether Philly can continue to play at such a fast pace with so little depth. The strain of the load shouldered by Thaddeus Young, Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner and ROY fave Michael Carter-Williams is starting to show. | ||
| 29 |
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Last Week: 29 | The Magic (yikes) are 19-79 since starting 12-13 last season under committee fave Jacque Vaughn. The only solace: Victor Oladipo's 35-point game in the triple-OT loss to Chicago snapped him out of a slump and now ranks as the highest single-game scoring output for any rookie this season. | ||
| 30 |
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Last Week: 30 | For all the angst about the state of Larry Sanders' game, he's got lots of time to turn things around and make something of his partnership with The Greek Freak. Isn't O.J. Mayo's decline, in Year 1 of the same three-year, $25 million deal that Monta Ellis got in Dallas, far more unsettling? | ||
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