And that's why, despite finally bidding farewell to their 16-game winning streak in Memphis last Tuesday night, Golden State continues to sit atop ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings.
The big news on this Rankings Monday -- on top of the league-wide shock in the wake of Detroit's decision to waive Josh Smith with some $30 million in guaranteed money left on his contract -- involves the big leaps made by Portland, Atlanta and Toronto. With the likes of Damian Lillard, Kyle Korver and Kyle Lowry all throwing up crazy numbers lately, those teams have moved up to Nos. 3, 4 and 6, respectively.
We'll delve further into the ins and outs of this week's ladder on Stein Line Live. You can also comment below on our 1-to-30 order, which as always was assembled with the usual helpful dishings we get from ESPN Stats & Info and the Elias Sports Bureau.
| 2014-15 Power Rankings: Week 8 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | Can they score as much as they need to when Steph Curry goes to the bench? Valid question. What we do know, though, is that one loss on the road to the full-strength Grizz isn't enough to drop the Dubs yet. Not when they've managed to beat Houston, Dallas and OKC without Andrew Bogut. | ||
| 2 |
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Last Week: 2 | If we had issued these rankings Thursday morning, it would have been hard to resist nudging the Grizz into the top spot after their stirring back-to-back wins over the Warriors and Spurs (on the road in three OTs). All that matters now, of course, is making sure Zach Randolph's right knee is right. | ||
| 3 | 3 Last Week: 6 | The Blazers, rather remarkably, can make the case that they've actually trumped last season's 18-4 start with this one. And if the Thomas Robinson who showed up against Milwaukee can keep filling in like that for Robin Lopez, Portland might survive its first serious injury for some time just fine. | ||
| 4 | 8 Last Week: 12 | As of last Monday, Atlanta had played the NBA's weakest schedule. On this Monday, Atlanta is reveling in wins over Chicago (home), Cleveland (road) and Houston (road), generating more Spurs East talk than ever and making me look good (for a change) for picking Mike Bud as preseason COY. | ||
| 5 | 2 Last Week: 3 | Picking our Trimester MVPs this week and James Harden's case is as good as anyone's. He's leading the league in scoring, No. 9 in PER (25.04), tied for No. 3 in minutes per game, generating the occasional compliment about his defense and has Houston at 8-4 in games Dwight Howard has missed. | ||
| 6 | 2 Last Week: 8 | Make it four double-doubles (and nearly five) in the last eight games for Kyle Lowry after four in his first 20 games this season. Don't think he has to worry about All-Star snubs this February, though we must note Toronto is shooting roughly eight fewer FTs per game with DeMar DeRozan out. | ||
| 7 |
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Last Week: 7 | We're as guilty as anyone in Chicago of obsessing over D-Rose. Perhaps it's time to start talking about the turn-back-the-clock season Pau Gasol is assembling. Or the repeatedly ridiculous numbers Jimmy Butler keeps stacking up in this Most Improved Player runaway campaign he's staging. | ||
| 8 | 3 Last Week: 5 | You tell us, Clipper Nation: Concerned in any way to hear that Blake Griffin is averaging a mere 17.6 PPG in L.A.'s losses compared to 25.5 PPG in its wins? Or that his two double-doubles last week took him to seven in 27 games this season after he had 43 in 80 games last season? Just asking. | ||
| 9 |
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Last Week: 9 | The Rajon Rondo trade is far more dice roll than slam dunk. But the Mavs had to do it because this is who they are. They don't build through the draft. They don't rely on free agency. They make trade gambles on distressed big names and get them playing better in Dallas than they were elsewhere. | ||
| 10 | 6 Last Week: 4 | The Spurs have played a total of eight overtime periods across four games in what Pop is calling the "worst month I've ever seen for us" schedule-wise. The truly wild part is that they've lost all four of those games, including their first two triple-OT marathons since way back in March 1984. | ||
| 11 | 1 Last Week: 10 | We were just about to talk up Washington's 6-1 start against Western Conference teams and how much it jumps off the page when the rest of the East is 46-93 against the West. So what happens? The Wiz lose at home to a Suns squad that was in a full-fledged tailspin as recently as Tuesday. | ||
| 12 | 1 Last Week: 11 | As much as we strive not to overreact to any one game, it's difficult to ignore the note we got from the Elias Sports Bureau after Cleveland's 29-point humbling at home against Atlanta: Only two teams in history have lost a home game that badly and gone on to win it all: Boston in 1967-68 and again in 1968-69. | ||
| 13 | 2 Last Week: 15 | Pretty proud of the committee (of one) for restraining itself and resisting the urge to lash out at the Pels after Gal Mekel was let go in the middle of Hanukkah. The Brow's ongoing brilliance, of course, makes it tough to talk about anything else; check those road box scores in Houston and OKC. | ||
| 14 | 2 Last Week: 16 | The healing powers of the Leastern Conference strike again. Phoenix, as stated previously, was in a full-on funk after absorbing those crushing Blake Griffin and Khris Middleton buzzer-beaters in the space of eight days. Good time, then, for the Suns to head straight to Charlotte and New York. | ||
| 15 | 2 Last Week: 13 | Amid a fresh Kevin Durant scare, we have our first Russell Westbrook inquest of the season after Sunday's rough finish. We also have a very nice piece from our own "Rolls" Royce Young explaining why it would be wise to resist overreacting after all the great play out of Russ lately. | ||
| 16 | 2 Last Week: 14 | What the Bucks wanted more than anything -- more than a .500 record or this unexpected playoff push or all the kudos Jason Kidd and Co. have gotten for exceeding expectations -- was a productive rookie season for Jabari Parker alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo. Which can't happen now. | ||
| 17 | 3 Last Week: 20 | The Kings have to be relieved to see DeMarcus Cousins bounce back from that scary 10-game absence with a quick 56 points and 25 boards in two games. Allow us now to sneak in one more mention of Peja Stojakovic's jersey retirement before we return to the Mike Malone story and potential replacements. | ||
| 18 |
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Last Week: 18 | The Heat can't worry about LeBron reunions or Christmas Day spectacles or anything except getting Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade right for the long term. It should be pretty clear by now, given the health woes already for Bosh, D-Wade and Josh McRoberts, how fragile things are post-LeBron. | ||
| 19 | 3 Last Week: 22 | Ty Lawson's run of 20 straight games with at least nine assists is the NBA's longest such streak since Rajon Rondo had a 37-gamer in 2012. It's also a major league reach to spend more than a sentence on it after Danilo Gallinari, in the midst of a promising game, suffered another knee tear. | ||
| 20 | 1 Last Week: 19 | Don't want to dwell on the 1-13 record against .500-or-better teams or Mason Plumlee thriving in Brook Lopez's absence or the fact that Brooklyn has no incentive to miss the playoffs because Atlanta would get its lottery pick. Can I get away with focusing on how much I like those blue-and-grey unis? | ||
| 21 | 2 Last Week: 23 | Gordon Hayward's lone visit of the season to Charlotte reminded us yet again how well he's lived up to the Hornets' max four-year offer sheet that Utah opted to match. On a really young team, in a truly brutal conference, Hayward shoulders lots of responsibility and sports a PER of 19.9. | ||
| 22 | 3 Last Week: 25 | The Paul George-less Pacers awoke Monday ranked a still-solid No. 10 in defensive efficiency. The problem, of course, is that the PG-less Pacers are struggling offensively as much as everyone feared, sitting at No. 29 in that efficiency table even after a week in which they cracked triple digits three times. | ||
| 23 | 3 Last Week: 26 | Lance Stephenson trade stories have been circulating for a couple of weeks now, so we've had ample time to digest the fact that he's available. Yet we still find ourselves struggling sometimes to believe that even Lance could exhaust the patience of his new employers in less than three months. | ||
| 24 |
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Last Week: 24 | In the wake of the Rondo deal, Brad Stevens told SB Nation's Paul Flannery he plans to stick it out in Boston no matter what college interest inevitably comes. It'll be a long road back to prominence for the Celts, but they have lots of assets and young pieces to work with ... Stevens among them. | ||
| 25 | 8 Last Week: 17 | Those who believe in the Power Rankings jinx would tell you that it doesn't always target teams at the top. Check out what's happened to the Magic since we bought into their (relative) road success and bumped them up to a (relatively) heady No. 17. Their last three games in particular. | ||
| 26 | 5 Last Week: 21 | The week began with the Lakers falling into a 39-point hole at Indy. It ended with widespread dismay about Kobe Bryant's 8-for-30 shooting. In between: Our man Adam Reisinger informed us Kobe has missed his last 12 game-tying or go-ahead shots in the final five seconds of the fourth quarter or OT. | ||
| 27 |
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Last Week: 27 | Andre Drummond recently reeled off five straight double-doubles, averaging 16.4 PPG and 15.2 RPG in that stretch, then rumbled for 18 points and 20 boards in Sunday's loss at Brooklyn. Which means that we might finally be seeing something watchable out of the Stan Van Gundy Pistons. | ||
| 28 |
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Last Week: 28 | The Knicks lead the league in losses and are on pace to win 14 games. They're 4-16 in games decided by nine points or fewer. Carmelo Anthony has even stopped wearing hats. Why aren't we hearing more about Melo resting his sore knees at this point to only enhance New York's draft odds? | ||
| 29 | 1 Last Week: 30 | If the Sixers volunteered to play all of their games on the road, would the ever-patient citizenry of Philly protest? These Sixers can boast W's in Minnesota, Detroit and now Orlando in contrast to their home record of 3-37 in 2014, which is the second-worst home mark in history for a calendar year. | ||
| 30 | 1 Last Week: 29 | Andrew Wiggins might well be the Rookie of the Year favorite after Jabari Parker's injury in Milwaukee, but he takes a modest average of 12.0 PPG -- as well as his first public scolding from Flip Saunders into Tuesday's showdown with LeBron's Cavs and the team that drafted him. | ||
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