ESPN.com
Monday, Jan. 27
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 13 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 | 2 Last Week: 3 | If Kevin Durant wrests the MVP trophy away from LeBron James, it won't be because of LeBron fatigue. It's because Durant's on course to become just the seventh player ever to average 31-plus points, 7-plus rebounds, and 5-plus assists for an entire season. This tweet here lists KD's six predecessors. | ||
| 2 | 1 Last Week: 1 | All of the talk about the Pacers deserving three All-Stars has taken a bit of a hit on their swing through the Western Conference. With one more stop to go, Indy has allowed 109.5 points in going just 2-2, compared to the 88.2 points per game coach Frank Vogel's team was allowing when it left town. | ||
| 3 | 1 Last Week: 2 | We're asking you, Blazermaniacs: What should we focus on? The fact that your team needed only 44 games to match last season's win total of 33 and has Terry Stotts dueling OKC's Scotty Brooks for the right to coach the West All-Stars? Or the fact Portland is just a mortal 9-7 since the 24-5 start? | ||
| 4 | 2 Last Week: 6 | As our own Brian Windhorst expertly detailed Sunday, this is the time of year Miami started getting serious last season. And it might be happening again now that the roster is whole. P.S. Chris Bosh sure looks comfy back at PF with Birdman and Oden giving the champs so many real minutes at C. | ||
| 5 | 1 Last Week: 4 | Just crazy numbers everywhere you look here. The Spurs are 1-10 against teams in the top seven in terms of winning percentage, 32-1 against everybody else ... and play zero home games between Feb. 3 and Feb. 26, with three key rotation guys (Leonard, Splitter and Green) all out injured. | ||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 7 | Everyone knows Blake Griffin is leading the way, but don't ignore Jamal Crawford's contributions. He's averaging 22.1 points since Chris Paul's shoulder injury, compared to 16.5 PPG before, setting L.A. up for a 5-2 finish to its Grammys road trip if it can win Monday night at Milwaukee. | ||
| 7 | 2 Last Week: 9 | One deflating home loss to New Orleans is the only blip on Memphis' ledger in the six games since Marc Gasol's comeback. And just like that, it's quickly become the norm to nominate the Grizz as the Team No One Wants To Play in the first round of the playoffs -- if they actually get there. | ||
| 8 | 3 Last Week: 5 | We can only echo what Mark Jackson said: It's an undeniable disappointment for a team that's billed as much-improved defensively to have lost games in which it scored 121, 120 and 116 points. The Warriors are 5-10 against the rest of the West's top eight and just 3-5 since their 10-game winning streak. | ||
| 9 | 1 Last Week: 8 | Houston had the West's best record in January (8-2) until losing both of its weekend home-and-home games with the Grizz. They're not the same Grizz any more with Marc Gasol back -- as Dwight Howard will attest -- but Memphis was 0-10 against the Southwest Division before that sweep. | ||
| 10 | 2 Last Week: 12 | A rout of visiting Indiana that set Twitter alight, combined with a second-half comeback in which they held Cleveland to a six-point third quarter, has kept the Eric Bledsoe-less Suns on a 48-win pace. And you're sure you don't agree with me that Goran Dragic is All-Star material in the West? | ||
| 11 | 5 Last Week: 16 | Coach Jason Kidd, at least for the time being, has hushed the haters. And after Sunday's triumphant return to Boston for Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett hiked Brooklyn's record to a sparkly 10-1 in 2014, Kidd would seem to be headed for Eastern Conference Coach of the Month honors next week. | ||
| 12 | 2 Last Week: 10 | I still see Phoenix as more likely to drop out of the top eight than Dallas in spite of the Suns' more favorable average nightly point margin (plus-3.1 to the Mavs' plus-1.4). Fact is, though, no one in the West's top nine has a worse record against .500-or-better teams than the Mavs' 9-15 mark. | ||
| 13 |
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Last Week: 13 | We're stealing this gem from Simmons, but we couldn't resist because we love the movie (and the manager) so much. Props to BS for comparing the defiant post-Deng Bulls to the "Indians" and their crusade against owner Rachel Phelps in "Major League." Thibs and Lou Brown have to be related. | ||
| 14 | 3 Last Week: 11 | If this 3-4 funk and the sudden road woes have you wondering where all that New Raptors mojo went, look no farther than Terrence Ross, who is merely the first player in NBA history to uncork a 50-point game (51 exactly) after showing up at the arena with a scoring average below 10 PPG. | ||
| 15 |
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Last Week: 15 | Phoenix's Jeff Hornacek is widely regarded as untouchable in the rookie coach of the year race, but we haven't said enough about the job Mike Budenholzer has done. Al Horford last played in calendar year 2013, and there have been other injuries, too, but the Hawks have continued to cling to the East's No. 3 seed. | ||
| 16 | 1 Last Week: 17 | A little history lesson to perhaps lift some of the gloom in the wake of the sad Danilo Gallinari news: Denver was a combined 25-107 during the previous two seasons the Broncos went to the Super Bowl. So 22-21, despite all of this season's ups and downs in the Mile High, doesn't sound so bad. | ||
| 17 | 1 Last Week: 18 | Gonna try to keep it positive here, for once, after the Wolves finally won a game decided by four points or less. More positivity: Newly minted All-Star starter Kevin Love is on pace to become the first player to average more than 25 PPG, 13-plus RPG and 4-plus APG in a single season since Kareem in 1975-76. | ||
| 18 | 4 Last Week: 14 | John Wall is one of just two players (along with Steph Curry) averaging 20-plus PPG and 8-plus APG this season. Yet I'm pretty sure he'd trade that status to see the Wiz finally nudge past .500 ... something that hasn't happened in the nation's capital since they started the 2009-10 season at 2-1. | ||
| 19 | 1 Last Week: 20 | No bitterness here that Melo broke my beloved Bernard King's scoring record. Just us keepin' it real: Melo erupting for 62 points, followed by an unconvincing W over the lowly Lakers, might have shooed away the buzzards circling Mike Woodson, but it doesn't quite mean the Knicks are fixed. | ||
| 20 | 3 Last Week: 23 | Trey Burke (13.5 PPG) will go down as the first Jazz rookie to average at least 10 PPG since Deron Williams in 2005-06 (10.8 PPG). He definitely has to pick up the PER from its current reading of 14.3, but Burke has been key to Utah's under-the-radar decency (11-10) since that 4-19 start. | ||
| 21 | 3 Last Week: 24 | Have to say, after Melo's 62, Charlotte's recent mastery over the Knicks appears over. The Kemba Walker-less Bobs had won four of the six previous meetings until the eruption and are straining to retain their top-eight status in the Least despite beating the Raps and Clips. | ||
| 22 |
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Last Week: 22 | As selfish as this makes the committee (of one) sound, we can't deny it's true: Our primary concern when it comes to the health of Boogie Cousins and the more-efficient-than-ever Rudy Gay (PER of 20.8 as a King) is that they're both able to play Friday night when we'll be there in person. | ||
| 23 | 4 Last Week: 27 | You're undoubtedly still thinking about what Anthony Davis did to Big Baby Davis on Saturday. Just don't forget to note that Davis added seven blocks to his 22 points and 19 boards, tying him with Roy Hibbert and DeAndre Jordan with a league-best three seven-block games this season. | ||
| 24 | 3 Last Week: 21 | The failed inbounds pass to seal a home loss to Dallas. The home loss to Chicago in the Luol Deng Bowl. The 18-point halftime lead over Phoenix that didn't last, either. Add it all up and you've got the most agonizing week of the season for one of the league's most disappointing teams. | ||
| 25 | 6 Last Week: 19 | The street cred that comes from being the only team in the league that knows how it feels to win at Indiana this season pretty much crumbles when you now also have to concede that you're the only team in the league since 2014 started that knows how it feels to lose to Milwaukee. | ||
| 26 |
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Last Week: 26 | Rondo says he's open to "another 10 years in Boston" and ready to talk extension? Just 48 hours before KG and Pierce make their emotional return to town? That's why we pumped Simmons up so much in our Chicago comment. Poor guy needs a lift to survive such an emotional weekend. | ||
| 27 | 1 Last Week: 28 | January hasn't exactly been an efficiency-fest for Michael Carter-Williams, who's only shooting .395 from the field this month, but how can any of us quibble when comparing him to the rest of the worst rookie class since, what, 2000? He's obviously still your ROY in a Lillard-esque runaway. | ||
| 28 | 3 Last Week: 25 | The Lakers lead the league ... in road games played (26). Otherwise? Pau Gasol's big January (20.5 PPG, 12.1 RPG, 1.8 BPG) and whether he's destined to finish the season as a Laker as the Feb. 20 trade deadline draws near is the only topic of note until Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash return. | ||
| 29 |
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Last Week: 29 | The only NBA game on the Super Bowl Sunday schedule sends the Magic into Boston. The same Magic who have lost eight straight road games ... and whose 11-52 road record since the start of the 2012-13 season is the league's worst. Dare I say, it'll still trump any Super Bowl pregame show. | ||
| 30 |
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Last Week: 30 | You really have to have a Greek Freak fetish to follow the Bucks these days. Any joy derived from beating the Brandon Jennings-led Pistons for their 2014 breakthrough is quickly smothered by that 8-35 record that's four games worse than the previous low (12-31 in 1993-94) in team history. | ||
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