Monday, Feb. 9
Power Rankings: Cavs Rise Into Top 5
It's going to take more than that, though, to knock the Hawks off their perch atop ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings.
Don't forget that the Hawks, despite road losses in New Orleans and Memphis that sandwiched impressive home wins over Washington and mighty Golden State, are still in the midst of a 35-4 run. And given how good they looked in the second half Friday night, when they repelled the Warriors in the most anticipated regular-season game in Atlanta since Dominique Wilkins' return as a member of the Los Angeles Clippers in March 1994, there was no way they were going to lose their hold on the No. 1 spot after a blip, or even two.
The Warriors, meanwhile, are likewise proving hard to dislodge from the top two. The Memphis Grizzlies are a heady 12-2 since acquiring Jeff Green and are the only team in the league besides San Antonio and the Los Angeles Lakers that can claim victories over both Atlanta and Golden State. But the Warriors sit atop the league in both offensive and defensive efficiency and sport that ridiculous nightly average winning margin of plus-11.2 -- on track to be one of the best such readings in history -- to keep them above the Grizz. For now.
We'll delve further into this week's order -- with Cleveland and Toronto unexpectedly giving the East two more top-five teams and Washington sinking all the way down to No. 16 -- on Stein Line Live. You can comment below on our 1-to-30 order, which as always was compiled with data and research assistance from our friends at ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau, or you can rank them.
| 2014-15 Power Rankings: Week 15 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | The Hawks probably had that taunting tweet from the Grizz coming, given how aggressive they've been with their own Twitter feed, but you can live with a narrow loss at Memphis when you're 8-2 against the West's top eight ... with the L's coming against the Grizz and Spurs by a combined eight points. | ||
| 2 |
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Last Week: 2 | Think continuity matters? The team with the league's highest winning percentage has utilized the fewest number of starting lineups (four) this season. The Warriors, though, might be fluttering back to earth on the road, having won just four of their past 10 games away from Oracle Arena. | ||
| 3 |
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Last Week: 3 | Fans of a team on the very short list of those to conquer both Atlanta and Golden State are inevitably asking what their Grizzlies have to do to climb higher than No. 3. The answer (that's really not intended to be as snarky as it sounds): Memphis didn't help its cause here with Friday's narrow loss to Minnesota. | ||
| 4 | 2 Last Week: 6 | Only the Cavs. Only these Cavs. Only LeBron James & Co. could reel off 13 wins in 14 games -- with an assist, it must be said, from a favorable stretch of schedule -- and have us all fixated on a cryptic tweet from LeBron and the state of his relationship with the up-and-down Kevin Love. | ||
| 5 | 2 Last Week: 7 | The Clips had won a whopping 83 games in a row in which they seized a lead of 20 or more, until the Raps turned Friday's ESPN game around as dramatically as you'll see. The Raps were a mere 9-9 since Jan. 1 until weekend W's over the Clippers and Spurs, but you tell us: Who deserves this spot more? | ||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 5 | We all know Pop will soon become the third-fastest coach in history to 1,000 wins. The greater uncertainty is whether he'll be joining Phil Jackson and Pat Riley as the only coaches with 17 50-win seasons. These Spurs, after opening the Rodeo Road Trip with a loss in Toronto, are on a 51-31 pace. | ||
| 7 | 1 Last Week: 8 | If James Harden is worried about the load he shoulders with Dwight Howard out, how can you tell? After what he just did to Portland, The Beard is just the fourth Rocket ever (with Elvin Hayes, Moses Malone and Hakeem Olajuwon) with the NBA's highest scoring average at the All-Star break. | ||
| 8 | 1 Last Week: 9 | The Mavs are still a troubling 3-11 against the rest of the West's top eight, but they're going to treasure No. 3 after hauling themselves out of an 11-point deficit with less than two minutes to go to topple reeling Portland. Suddenly -- somehow -- Dallas is just a game out of the No. 3 seed. | ||
| 9 | 1 Last Week: 10 | The triumphant return of Robin Lopez in an eventual home rout of Phoenix seemed to signal that the Blazers were back, nudging their record to 21-6 with Lopez in the lineup and 13-10 without him. But the way they rebounded Sunday night in Houston, after what happened in Dallas, was even bigger. | ||
| 10 | 6 Last Week: 4 | You'd think the schedule might ease up now that the Clips are finishing their annual Grammys trip. Nope. They've lost four in a row -- plus Blake Griffin -- and must see 12 teams with winning records in the next 15 games in what Elias says is the toughest slate in that span among West playoff teams. | ||
| 11 | 1 Last Week: 12 | Even by the standards of the Bulls' roller-coaster season, Sunday night's win in Orlando was something else. Coming back from six points down in the final 35 seconds ... teams trailing by six (or more) with 30 to 40 seconds left in the fourth quarter were a combined 17-1,376 in the past 15 years. | ||
| 12 | 1 Last Week: 13 | The Pels would gladly trade in their stirring win over OKC in that Game of the Season contender if it meant that the hero could quickly shake his sudden shoulder woes. With his current PER of 31.80, Anthony Davis has a shot to best Wilt Chamberlain's all-time PER record of 31.82 in 1962-63. | ||
| 13 | 3 Last Week: 16 | The worst record in NBA history for an eventual champion through 50 games was Washington's 26-24 mark in 1977-78. For all of Russell Westbrook's video-game numbers lately -- look again at Friday night's box score from New Orleans immediately -- OKC was 25-25 before spanking the Clips. | ||
| 14 | 3 Last Week: 11 | How many ways can one playoff dreamer lose at the buzzer? Add Boogie Cousins to the list of Suns slayers alongside Blake Griffin, Khris Middleton and James Harden. Phoenix's four buzzer L's are tied for the most suffered by any team in the past 10 seasons, matching Utah's four in 2006-07. | ||
| 15 |
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Last Week: 15 | Good timing from The Greek Freak. Giannis Antetokounmpo will be heading to All-Star Weekend for Friday/Saturday duty playing the best ball of his life, having just erupted for 27 and 15 against Houston for the most surprising team on Earth -- five games over .500? -- that no one ever talks about. | ||
| 16 | 2 Last Week: 14 | The bottom third of these rankings is filled with hard-to-watch teams, but the Wizards' current plight reminds you that the 11-to-16 range is more competitive than usual. Yet you can't overlook the fact that the Wiz, after an untimely five-game skid, are down to 10-15 against .500-or-better teams. | ||
| 17 |
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Last Week: 17 | The good news: Charlotte used a 12-3 burst to very quietly sneak all the way up to No. 7 in the East even in the midst of Kemba Walker's absence. The bad news: Charlotte also suddenly has to rebound now from a thoroughly dispiriting weekend of narrow losses at Philly and at home to Indy. | ||
| 18 | 5 Last Week: 23 | Count the committee (of one) among those who were convinced we wouldn't see Paul George play this season. No matter what. Yet when you hear Pacers prez Larry Bird speak at length about the possibility, it's only natural to presume that PG-13's comeback is closer than anyone thought. | ||
| 19 | 1 Last Week: 20 | D.J. Augustin's recent back-to-back games with at least 25 points and 10 assists put him on a short list with Steph Curry, Chris Paul and James Harden as players who've achieved that feat this season. The previous Pistons players to do so? Jerry Stackhouse in 2000-01, and Isiah Thomas in 1989-90. | ||
| 20 | 1 Last Week: 21 | Imagine where the Celts would be if they hadn't lost 11 of 12 games against fellow East residents before a win in New York against the Knicks launched a rare 3-0 start to the week. Boston would be even more of a playoff factor than it already is ... whether Danny Ainge really wants to be chasing a playoff berth or not. | ||
| 21 | 4 Last Week: 25 | Twice in the past three weeks, Brook Lopez has assembled a game with at least 20 points and six blocks off the bench. Makes you wonder, in the wake of the Steven Adams news, whether the Thunder will revisit their interest in Lopez with the league's annual trade deadline just 10 days away. | ||
| 22 | 4 Last Week: 18 | The first ray of (Heat-related) sunshine on South Beach in weeks that has nothing to do with the Hassan Whiteside fairy tale: ESPN's Basketball Power Index says Miami, as of Monday morning, has the league's easiest remaining schedule. Which has to help in that "race" for the East's last playoff spot. | ||
| 23 | 4 Last Week: 19 | Make that six 30-point games for Gordon Hayward this season after just four in his first four NBA seasons. Hayward's team, meanwhile, finds itself in a race with Miami to see which team can go the longest without an overtime game. They're the only two teams in the league yet to taste OT. | ||
| 24 | 2 Last Week: 22 | If the Kings indeed hire George Karl, they'll become the first NBA team to employ three different coaches for at least 10 games each in one season since Denver in 2004-05, when the Nuggets ousted Jeff Bzdelik at 13-15, had Michael Cooper as interim coach for 14 games ... and then hired a certain George Karl. | ||
| 25 | 5 Last Week: 30 | Trading Thaddeus Young, Kevin Martin or Mo Williams -- or some combination -- has to be increasingly appealing to the Wolves. They're going to win too much with their full-strength team, now that Ricky Rubio's back. They're up to 7-9 now when Martin plays ... and 4-31 without him. | ||
| 26 | 1 Last Week: 27 | The Sixers had zero home wins as of Jan. 4. Yet they're suddenly up to seven in 2015 thanks to Friday night's mind-boggling home W over Charlotte in which both teams shot below 40 percent from the field but couldn't manage more than five offensive rebounds each. Which is borderline impossible. | ||
| 27 | 3 Last Week: 24 | No one will be calling 'em Comeback Kids while waiting to see how many more trades Denver swings in the last 10 days before the deadline. The Nuggets are one of three teams (the others being Miami and New York) to lose every game it trailed by more than eight points at any time during the second half. | ||
| 28 |
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Last Week: 28 | Not sure how long he'll be there, but give interim Magic coach James Borrego this much: He's the league's first in more than 46 years to win his maiden game as a head coach while facing the Lakers. The last man to do it: Our own beloved Dr. Jack Ramsay, on Oct. 18, 1968. | ||
| 29 | 3 Last Week: 26 | The Knicks' 8-37 mark at the time Carmelo Anthony was named as an All-Star starter was one of the worst ever alongside Kobe Bryant's 12-32 Lakers and Miami's 9-43 record in 2007-08 when Dwyane Wade was voted as a starter. It must be noted, though, that these Knicks are 0-12 when Melo sits. | ||
| 30 | 1 Last Week: 29 | I'm sure Byron Scott had an inkling of what he was signing up for, but he surely didn't expect this. The Lakers' 13-37 mark before Sunday's splattering in Cleveland was indeed the worst in club history through 50 games. | ||
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