ESPN.com
Monday, Dec. 30
The Oklahoma City Thunder haven't lost a game yet since losing Russell Westbrook, but the electric guard's third knee surgery in a span of eight-plus months left the committee (of one) with no choice but to name a new No. 1. The Indiana Pacers take over at the top as the most sensible alternative to leapfrog OKC in the wake of Westbrook's latest injury misfortune, with Miami moving up to No. 3 as LeBron James celebrates his 29th birthday on this Power Rankings Monday. More on how this week's order was calculated can be found at Stein Line Live. You are also invited, as always, to rank the teams yourself here.
Watch: Marc Stein and Toni Collins break down the Week 9 Power Rankings
| 2013-14 Power Rankings: Week 9 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 | 2 Last Week: 3 | Danny Granger, four games into his comeback, is shooting 26 percent from the floor. The Pacers, though, can afford to be patient. They have won four in a row since spilling that late lead in Miami, don't see the Heat again until March 26 and play nine teams with losing records in the next 10. | ||
| 2 | 1 Last Week: 1 | We've always factored injuries into these rankings. Which makes it impossible, as resilient as OKC has looked in its first two games without Russ, not to drop it at least one spot after losing Westbrook at a time he was playing what many regard as the best all-around ball of his career. | ||
| 3 | 1 Last Week: 4 | A Chris Bosh-sealed win in San Antonio last season with both LeBron and D-Wade in street clothes was one of the eventual champs' biggest team-building nights of the season. Going to Portland and winning with LeBron sidelined and Bosh supplying the heroics had the same sort of feel. | ||
| 4 | 2 Last Week: 2 | Not going to overreact to Portland finally losing one of those close games just because a chance to beat the LeBron-less Heat was squandered. The Blazers' slippage to No. 22 in defensive efficiency, by contrast, is fair game for dissection, because their D is where doubters get their fuel. | ||
| 5 | 1 Last Week: 6 | Can't say it better than Tim Duncan said it on Christmas Day when a pesky reporter brought up San Antonio's 0-6 record against the other four teams inhabiting the top five of the Western Conference: "In December, it doesn't matter as much. But it's starting to matter more and more." | ||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 5 | Eric Bledsoe makes a triumphant return to Clipperland on Monday night with the Suns sitting just one victory shy of their first 10-win December since 2007-08. There to greet him will be Blake Griffin fresh off the first 40-point game assembled by The Griffin Force since his rookie season. | ||
| 7 | 1 Last Week: 8 | The contention here is Sunday's sorry showing in OKC was a schedule loss on the heels of Houston's impressive Christmas Day dismantling of the Spurs and ensuing wins over Memphis and New Orleans. Having just three games in the next 11 days is a welcome break after some crazy travel. | ||
| 8 | 2 Last Week: 10 | Seven-game road trips don't sound so daunting when all seven stops are in the East. Which is doubly true now that the Dubs have rolled up their first positive burst of momentum this season. They've quietly moved to a tidy 15-3 when Mark Jackson's first-choice starting five is available. | ||
| 9 | 2 Last Week: 7 | Interesting tidbit from ESPN.com teammate Adam Reisinger: Phoenix awoke Monday still on track to have four first-round picks in June -- Washington's, Minnesota's, Indy's and its own -- even amid this Cinderella start. Lots of time for things to change, of course, but pretty tantalizing. | ||
| 10 | 1 Last Week: 11 | The Wolves have scored at least 120 points in three wins this month -- which is a franchise first -- and nearly did it again with 117 in a rout at Milwaukee. So we repeat: If you ranked teams purely on nightly point differential, Minnesota would be seventh in the whole league at +4.2. | ||
| 11 | 3 Last Week: 14 | The burden is shared with Monta Ellis now, but it's a burden nonetheless. The winter focus in Dallas has shifted early to hoops yet again after the Cowboys' demise Sunday night, which means that America's Team is still stuck on one playoff win during Dirk Nowitzki's 15 years with the Mavs. | ||
| 12 | 1 Last Week: 13 | A win Tuesday in Chicago would clinch a winning December for the Rudy Gay-less Raps, who overcame double-digit deficits in their last three road wins (Dallas, OKC and New York). I'm starting to think Kyle Lowry (18.7 ppg, 8.2 apg and 4.5 rpg) has a shot at player of the month in the East. | ||
| 13 | 2 Last Week: 15 | The No. 3 seed in the East would appear to be up for grabs now after what happened to Al Horford in Atlanta. And the Wiz figure to have a real shot at it if Bradley Beal and Nene stop yo-yoing in and out of the lineup. John Wall has four 20-and-10 games already after just three last season. | ||
| 14 | 5 Last Week: 9 | Words can't do justice to the one-legged fallaway Pero Antic sank to force OT in an eventual win over Charlotte. Trouble is Al Horford's latest torn pectoral muscle -- like the repeat injuries suffered by D-Rose, Kobe, Brook Lopez and Westbrook -- leaves you the wrong kind of speechless. | ||
| 15 | 2 Last Week: 17 | The worries addressed here last week persist: New Orleans is still searching for its first win over a team currently .500 or better. The encouragement comes from Anthony Davis' big numbers post-injury ... and Tyreke Evans' best spell as a Pelican in the wake of Eric Gordon's recent hard fall. | ||
| 16 | 5 Last Week: 21 | The city of Memphis celebrated "Zach Randolph Day" on Friday. He marked the occasion by finding a scoring groove with four straight 20-point games after just one in the previous 11. Z-Bo knows the deal, though. He knows he'll have to live with trade chatter until the Feb. 20 deadline passes. | ||
| 17 | 5 Last Week: 12 | It should be clear by now that these ain't last season's Nuggets. Yet it's jarring nonetheless to see them tailing off offensively, sporting the league's longest active losing streak and mired at 1-4 in December in their Pepsi Center fortress going into LeBron's 29th birthday party Monday night. | ||
| 18 | 1 Last Week: 19 | The Bobs keep winning raves for what a tough out they've become despite relying almost completely on D to compete. But Steve Clifford, to his credit, keeps raising the bar: "We've got to get past the point where everybody's happy with the fact [we're] not getting beat every night." | ||
| 19 | 1 Last Week: 20 | The Celts really can't ask Jared Sullinger for more than they've gotten this month: 14.6 points and 6.2 boards in 29.6 minutes per game. Jordan Crawford, meanwhile, has predictably cooled off some, but his December splits remain a pleasant surprise too: 16.2 ppg/5.8 apg in 33.6 mpg. | ||
| 20 | 4 Last Week: 16 | The Brandon Jennings gamble is probably going as well as anyone could have hoped: Jennings' five games with 20+ points and 10+ assists trail only CP3 (nine) and Steph Curry (eight). No one is saying the same about the Josh Smith gamble, though, after another run-in with Mo Cheeks. | ||
| 21 | 3 Last Week: 18 | There are other absentees besides Kobe and Nash these days; Pau joined them by declining to play through a respiratory infection over the weekend. Yet it was only a matter of time, injuries aside, before the charm of trying to win games without No. 24 wore off. I'd say we're there now. | ||
| 22 | 2 Last Week: 24 | The Kings' first two games after new coach Mike Malone called this "a bad basketball team" couldn't have been much tougher. The response, though, couldn't have been much better, with the defensively woeful Kings stunning Miami in OT and pushing the Spurs to the brink in San Antonio. | ||
| 23 |
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Last Week: 23 | In an NBA calendar year dominated by injuries (and reinjuries), watching the Bulls might be the hardest gig of them all. On top of everything that's happened to D-Rose, Luol Deng and Jimmy Butler still aren't close to 100 percent, making you wonder when the Chicago plague will ever end. | ||
| 24 | 2 Last Week: 22 | It took a couple of months but we have our first hint of a Stein Line Live jinx. Friday: SLL proclaims Andrew Bynum too valuable to be overly worried about getting cut before the Jan. 7 deadline that guarantees his deal for the rest of the season. Saturday: Cavs, we learn, are done with Bynum. | ||
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Last Week: 25 | You hesitate to be too critical with this group when you remember only one of the top five scorers -- 23-year-old Gordon Hayward -- is older than 22. The Jazz are a passable 6-9 in December as they welcome Al Jefferson back Monday night for his lone Salt Lake City visit of the season. | ||
| 26 | 3 Last Week: 29 | Arron Afflalo's string of six straight 20-point games is the longest for any Magic player since Dwight Howard's 11-gamer in the spring of 2011. Of course, Orlando's brass is bound to be focused more on the back-to-back solid games Victor Oladipo just enjoyed in wins over Detroit and Atlanta. | ||
| 27 | 1 Last Week: 28 | Sunday night's breakthrough in L.A. wasn't just Philly's first road win going all the way back to Nov. 1 at Washington. It was Philly's first win in regulation dating to Nov. 8 at home against Cleveland. The Sixers' only other four wins since were all OT jobs at home (Rockets, Bucks, Magic and Nets). | ||
| 28 | 1 Last Week: 27 | I keep saying the Nets, even without Brook Lopez, have enough to win the Titanic Division. The Nets, thanks to their ongoing issues on D and on the boards, keep trying to prove me wrong. I'd say 2014 offers hope of a fresh start, but they open at OKC ... after closing out 2013 in San Antonio. | ||
| 29 | 3 Last Week: 26 | One of the things we miss most about the Weekend Dime is the old MARC'S QUOTE section. Rest assured Tyson Chandler would have commandeered that space instantly after admitting he couldn't address Jim Dolan's latest pep talk because he had "been prepped" to decline comment. | ||
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Last Week: 30 | Is the long-awaited return of Larry Sanders to team up with the Greek Freak enough to make you watch Bucks basketball? The NBA's worst home team, still waiting to see how it feels to string wins together in back-to-back games at the Bradley Center, sure hopes that's the case. | ||
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