ESPN.com
Monday, Jan. 6
You are also invited, as always, to rank the teams yourself here.
| 2013-14 Power Rankings: Week 10 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | Four of Indy's paltry six losses were on the second night of a back-to-back. You could likewise make the case the Pacers, despite failing to hold their late lead in Miami on Dec. 18, outplayed the two-time champs in both games. They're in a pretty good place as the season's midpoint approaches. | ||
| 2 | 1 Last Week: 3 | My main justification for picking against the Heat to three-peat was the historical evidence telling us how rare it is to make four straight trips to the Finals. But let's face it: Miami really only has to worry about one series now -- Indy in the East finals -- to be the first team since Boston in 1987 to pull it off. | ||
| 3 | 5 Last Week: 8 | Make it nine straight wins and a gaudy record of 18-3 when the first-choice starting five of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, David Lee and Andrew Bogut are all in uniform. Only OKC can claim to sport a more successful starting five: 17-2 when Russell Westbrook is out there with KD and Co. | ||
| 4 |
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Last Week: 4 | A home loss to lowly Philly is not the sort of start that the Blazers wanted to see in Game 2 of a soft stretch featuring six straight Tastykakes. Look at it this way, though: Portland made it all the way to the first week of January before suffering a real cringe-worthy loss. Can't complain too loudly, then. | ||
| 5 | 3 Last Week: 2 | Kevin Durant is scoring at a 32.8 PPG clip since Russell Westbrook went down, but OKC wasn't supposed to be struggling like this -- or leaning on KD this heavily -- in the short term. Which suggests that, no matter how often it's happened since April, maybe you never get "used" to life without Russ. | ||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 5 | Saturday night against the Chris Paul-less Clips marked the first 35-point halftime lead of the longest active coaching tenure in North American team sports. Yet something tells me that, Pop being Pop, he's been thinking much more about the severity of Tiago Splitter's shoulder issues than that eruption. | ||
| 7 | 2 Last Week: 9 | As long as Eric Bledsoe's recent knee issues aren't too serious, life soon might be getting even better than it has been for the Desert Cinderellas. Reason being: Phoenix has 23 games left against East foes ... more than anyone else in the West has. (Leandro Barbosa's return has a fairy-tale feel, too.) | ||
| 8 | 1 Last Week: 7 | The Rockets are undoubtedly enjoying this leisurely start to 2014 after a chaotic December ended with a deflating home loss to Sacramento in their 2013 finale. Who knew a two-point escape at home over the Knicks -- given what New York pulled off in San Antonio and Dallas -- would feel so good? | ||
| 9 | 3 Last Week: 6 | The good news: Blake Griffin happens to be playing the best ball of his career at a time when the Clippers suddenly have to weather six weeks without Chris Paul. The bad news dose of reality: Since CP3's arrival, L.A. is 109-55 when its peerless point guard is in the lineup ... and just 10-10 without him. | ||
| 10 | 2 Last Week: 12 | Can they really just give Kyle Lowry away in a tank trade when he's playing this well? Even if they tried, could they lose enough in the final 50 games to work their way into the top five of the lottery? Gotta be tempting for the Raps, after just two playoff berths in the past 12 seasons, to ride this wave. | ||
| 11 |
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Last Week: 11 | It took the Mavs until Feb. 1 last season to win 20 games. So after they blew home dates with the vulnerable Clips and shaky Knicks, right on the heels of teasing road wins in Chicago, Minnesota and Washington to get to 19-13, who could be surprised that the ever-blunt Dirk Nowitzki erupted? | ||
| 12 | 2 Last Week: 10 | So why hasn't that gaudy average point differential we're always going on about -- No. 8 in the league at plus-4.0 -- led to a better overall record for K-Love and Co.? The Wolves are 0-8 when they don't score 100 points ... and 0-8 in games decided by four points or less. That'll pretty much do it. | ||
| 13 | 1 Last Week: 14 | How much longer can the Hawks hang on and keep themselves perched in the East's very exclusive Over .500 Club after losing Al Horford? My other question: Why not send Dennis Schroder back down to the D-League to entertain us all here in Reno if he's not needed in Atlanta this week? | ||
| 14 | 1 Last Week: 13 | Six losses in the past seven home games? Or put it another way: Exactly one win at The Phone Booth since beating Orlando on Dec. 2? Unacceptable for a team with supposed aspirations of snagging the East's wide-open No. 3 seed. The Wizards' ever-iffy health only goes so far as an alibi. | ||
| 15 | 2 Last Week: 17 | Ty Lawson has already matched the nine double-doubles he racked up last season. But that's about as much as you'll hear anyone discuss any of that in the wake of Denver's eight-game skid and the Andre Miller/Brian Shaw blowup that should seal Miller's exit between now and the trade deadline. | ||
| 16 | 7 Last Week: 23 | Tom Thibodeau, man. He continues to get the most out of the Derrick Rose-less Bulls even when layer after layer has been stripped away. The Bulls are 4-2 starting with that Christmas Day smackdown of the Nets, which qualifies as a certifiable hot streak in the modern-day Leastern Conference. | ||
| 17 | 1 Last Week: 16 | I realize it's been a long 20 games for the Grizzlies, 8-12 in that span without Marc Gasol (knee). Yet I'd still suggest that Gasol taking a little extra time before coming back isn't the world's worst idea after seeing so many big names suffer significant re-injuries lately: D-Rose, Kobe, Westbrook, Horford, etc. | ||
| 18 | 3 Last Week: 15 | Would love to focus on the resurgence of Tyreke Evans. The problem is Ryan Anderson just followed up Eric Gordon's nasty fall with unsettling injury scenes of his own. Anthony Davis, meanwhile, is mired in his first slump of the season after three straight games without a double-double. | ||
| 19 | 1 Last Week: 18 | They don't hand out bonus points for this sort of stuff, true, but the Bobcats have to feel a little smarter knowing that -- on top of the promising young coach they did hire -- they were the only team out there besides Phoenix to interview Jeff Hornacek for the job that ultimately went to Steve Clifford. | ||
| 20 | 9 Last Week: 29 | Nothing good is ever supposed to happen in the Texas Triangle. So if you try to tell me that you told all your friends that the Knicks would go down there and relocate not only Iman Shumpert but also the needed mojo to beat the Spurs and Mavs and nearly sweep the three stops ... stop it. You're lying. | ||
| 21 | 7 Last Week: 28 | I know it's been suggested that Jason Kidd going tie-less is the big change in Brooklyn since the calendar flipped to 2014. The committee (of one) would submit that the actual biggest difference with the Nets, starting with Thursday's mega comeback at OKC, is the fact that D-Will is suddenly switched on. | ||
| 22 | 2 Last Week: 20 | December's conventional wisdom suggested Detroit was too talented, even if the pieces didn't snap together perfectly, to miss the playoffs in this East. Five straight home L's and the constant chaos that a non-confrontational coach like Mo Cheeks seems to be faced with have forced folks to rethink things. | ||
| 23 | 4 Last Week: 27 | Any doubts about your ROY favorite as the 41-game marker draws near? The Sixers are 11-11 when Michael Carter-Williams plays, compared to 1-10 when he's out, after their shocking four-game winning streak. And when he starts alongside Thad Young, Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner and Hollis Thompson? Philly is 6-2. | ||
| 24 | 1 Last Week: 25 | Richard Jefferson and a future second-round pick might really be the most Cleveland can get for Andrew Bynum no matter how cap-friendly Bynum's contract is. This much we can promise: All of the suspense stemming from this unforeseen Jazz trade drama will be over by Tuesday at the latest. | ||
| 25 | 3 Last Week: 22 | The honeymoon period stemming from the Kings' big win over the two-time defending champs from Miami didn't even last a week. Consecutive home defeats to Philly and Charlotte -- with those offensively challenged Bobcats, of all teams, ringing up 65 points by halftime -- took care of that. | ||
| 26 | 5 Last Week: 21 | The Lakers thought they bottomed out with those losses to Utah, Philly and Milwaukee. Then they surrendered 137 points -- at home -- to slumping Denver. How many more lows loom? You're almost afraid to ask after Kobe made it clear that we're unlikely to see him until after the All-Star Game. | ||
| 27 | 3 Last Week: 24 | The Cavs have lost eight of their past nine games. Face of the franchise Kyrie Irving (knee) is ailing anew. This team would appear, judging by the standings, to be more than a Pau Gasol away from living up to owner Dan Gilbert's mandate to make the playoffs ... even in this ever-inviting East. | ||
| 28 | 9 Last Week: 19 | The Celts have lost seven of eight. Four tough games (Nuggets, Clippers, Warriors and Blazers) remain on their five-game swing through the West. Do the math and you're inevitably moved to proclaim that wunderkind coach Brad Stevens' days of flirting with the Atlantic Division lead are a memory. | ||
| 29 | 3 Last Week: 26 | Credit Arron Afflalo for expanding the conversation. Orlando's willingness to move him before the Feb. 20 trade deadline remains a constant source of curiosity, but you're starting to hear another interesting question about Afflalo with regularity: Does he have a real shot at an All-Star spot in the East? | ||
| 30 |
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Last Week: 30 | A healthy and understandably happy Andrew Bogut returns to Milwaukee on Tuesday night for the first time as an active player. Let's see if the freshly reactivated Larry Sanders and Gary Neal have stopped arguing by then after their, uh, spirited postgame chat in the visitors' locker room in Phoenix. | ||
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