Monday,March 9
Thunder Rising
Russell Westbrook and the Thunder finally crack the top 10, plus Marc Stein on who is winning the MVP race.
If wresting the top spot away from Golden State was the Hawks' No. 1 target, after they became the league's first team to clinch a playoff berth, you suspect that Mike Budenholzer wouldn't have granted an evening off to three of his starters Saturday in Philadelphia on the night after Atlanta so memorably undressed LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers.
But Budenholzer indeed opted for rest over rankings, which led to a stunning loss to the Sixers that keeps the Hawks at No. 2 behind the Warriors. Atlanta's win over Cleveland was one of the most impressive performances of the season -- and Golden State did open last week with a painful loss in Brooklyn -- but that wasn't enough to penalize the Warriors when Steve Kerr's crew remains on course to become the first team since San Antonio in 2000-01 to lead the league in defensive efficiency while placing in the top three in offensive efficiency.
We'll delve further into this week's order -- San Antonio's return to the top five, Oklahoma City's return to the top 10 and more -- on Stein Line Live. You can comment below on the latest 1-to-30 ladder, which as always was compiled with data and research assistance from our friends at ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau.
You're also invited, as always, to rank the teams yourself here.
| 2014-15 Power Rankings: Week 19 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | Is the West's No. 1 seed all wrapped up? The Dubs are a tidy 27-2 at home and boast seven of their next nine games at Chez Curry while already sporting a 5 1/2-game lead over Memphis. According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index, Golden State has a 99.7 percent chance of finishing atop the conference. | ||
| 2 |
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Last Week: 2 | Crushing Cleveland was a fantastic way to cap Nique Week, but the hidden highlight for the Hawks since our last rankings might well be Indiana inching toward the No. 7 seed in the East. The Hawks are tops in the league at 26-8 against current playoff teams ... but Indy in Round 1 doesn't sound fun. | ||
| 3 |
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Last Week: 3 | We're by no means pinning Memphis' recent blip all on gritty Mike Conley -- since Zach Randolph has been somewhat off, too -- but there's no avoiding the fact that the guy widely regarded as the world's Most Underrated Guard is at just 13.7 PPG on .406 shooting since the All-Star break after all the snub talk. | ||
| 4 | 4 Last Week: 8 | So predictable. As soon as we call ourselves out here for overrating the champs, what happens? Tony Parker is suddenly getting into the paint again and the Spurs ring up 116 points on stubborn Chicago on the same day Tim Duncan goes without a bucket for the first time in his entire career. Of course. | ||
| 5 | 1 Last Week: 4 | I'd submit that what Daryl Morey is really trying to do with his constant James Harden campaigning is trying to let the whole league know the lengths to which Houston will go to back its own players. The problem, in this case, is that so little has gone right for Harden since the infamous "King James" poster. | ||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 5 | Something tells me you're not going to be overly impressed to read now that the Cavs' hiked their average nightly point margin from plus-0.2 in December to plus-3.2 in January to plus-11.6 in February. Not after the way LeBron James and Co. got smothered Friday night in Atlanta by the Hawks' traps. | ||
| 7 | 1 Last Week: 6 | DeAndre Jordan's run of 10 straight games with at least 15 boards perished Sunday, when he had to settle for 14, but the Clips will more than settle for their DJ's production in this 7-5 stretch without Blake Griffin: 14.2 PPG and 18.8 RPG compared to 10.3 PPG and 13.5 RPG before Griffin's staph infection. | ||
| 8 | 3 Last Week: 11 | When someone averages 33.1 PPG, 10.1 RPG and 11.2 APG over a 10-game span, you learn to live with the odd turnover or iffy shot from the field. Right? Elias says Russell Westbrook and Michael Jordan are the only two players in the last 50 years to hit those levels over 10 games. | ||
| 9 | 2 Last Week: 7 | In our search for something -- anything -- to hearten Blazermaniacs in the wake of the depressing Wes Matthews news, this is all we could muster: As of Saturday, Portland was fourth in the NBA against current playoff teams at 19-14 ... trailing only Atlanta (26-8), Golden State (22-8) and Memphis (19-11). | ||
| 10 | 1 Last Week: 9 | The Mavs' 22-16 mark since trading for Rajon Rondo reads a bit harshly on the enigmatic PG, who missed eight of those games. Dallas is 18-12 with Rondo in uniform and has suffered as much from the absences of Tyson Chandler and Chandler Parsons as Rondo's struggles (PER as a Mav of just 11.7). | ||
| 11 | 1 Last Week: 12 | While Russ Westbrook was hogging all the comeback headlines, all Anthony Davis did in his first three games back is block 16 shots and run his total of 20-point, 10-board, five-swat outings to eight this season. The rest of the NBA has combined for six such games. P.S.: The Brow turns 22 Wednesday. | ||
| 12 | 1 Last Week: 13 | The NBA's best record since Feb. 1? Something tells me you've heard it belongs to the Paul George-less Pacers, who rank as a top-five team in both offensive and defensive efficiency while going 11-2. What we haven't talked enough about: Indy is 16-7 with George Hill in uniform ... and 12-27 without him. | ||
| 13 | 1 Last Week: 14 | You only have to wait a week and change for the rematch not a soul could have ever imagined us spotlighting. Yet here we are touting the banged-up Bulls' trip Sunday to OKC ... after E'Twaun Moore hounded Russ Westbrook into 2-for-12 shooting with four turnovers in Thursday night's second half. | ||
| 14 | 4 Last Week: 10 | Atlanta in their first game after the All-Star break somehow launched the Raptors into a tailspin. They're suddenly just 14-17 in 2015 after sporting the East's best record on Dec. 31 and just endured two more agonizing losses at home to Cleveland and on the road in Oklahoma City. | ||
| 15 | 2 Last Week: 17 | What has to excite The SLC as it soaks up Gobert Fever -- beyond the fact that Monsieur French Rejection has anchored the NBA's stingiest defense since he became a starter -- is that Utah came within a second of a 4-0 road trip without even seeing Alec Burks. Quin Snyder and Dennis Lindsey are building something. | ||
| 16 | 1 Last Week: 15 | The shock of the trade is wearing off and Michael Carter-Williams is settling down. The fact that the Bucks could go 0-4 on an as-favorable-as-it-gets Western Conference swing (Lakers, Jazz, Nuggets, Warriors) and still be in the running for No. 5 in the East speaks to what Cinderellas they've been to this point. | ||
| 17 | 4 Last Week: 21 | Was there a deal with greater impact before the February trade deadline than Charlotte's acquisition of Mo Williams? The newest Hornet is averaging 21.7 points per game through his first nine outings with his new team ... while Kemba Walker's lengthy absence is mercifully drawing to a close. | ||
| 18 | 1 Last Week: 19 | The Hawks and Cavs just met for the first time since Dec. 30. How much had changed in the intervening 10 weeks? The Hawks and the Wiz were tied for No. 2 in the East on the second-to-last day of 2014. Sixty-eight days later, Washington is clinging to the No. 5 seed by a game and a half over the plucky Bucks. | ||
| 19 | 3 Last Week: 16 | Why they're smiling in OKC even without KD: According to ESPN's Basketball Power Index -- which, among other factors, factors in whether the game is home or away as well as how rested teams are -- Phoenix awoke Monday with the league's hardest remaining schedule ... followed by New Orleans. | ||
| 20 | 2 Last Week: 18 | The Celts foiled their own playoff push by following up a rout in Cleveland with a fold in Orlando to sandwich their collapsed deal with JaVale McGee. But Boston does have eight games left with the other five teams (Charlotte, Indiana, Miami, Brooklyn and Detroit) chasing the East's last two postseason berths. | ||
| 21 | 2 Last Week: 23 | The Heat rank 18th overall in pace since acquiring Goran Dragic, which doesn't sound too notable until you remember they were dead last 'til they got him. Think it has to go down as a productive season based on the arrival of Dragic and the emergence of Hassan Whiteside (and Tyler Johnson) alone. | ||
| 22 | 2 Last Week: 20 | This might be a bit harsh so soon after the Golden State game, but Brooklyn's playoff worthiness is even more suspect than it appears if you co-sign the notion that the outcome of close games is based on a whole lot of randomness. The 25-36 Nets lead the East at 7-1 in games decided by three points or fewer. | ||
| 23 | 1 Last Week: 24 | Since we can't get enough of KG Mania (or KG trivia): We feel compelled to share that 2,879 days elapsed between Kevin Garnett's last appearance in a Wolves uniform late in the 2006-07 season and his recent return. The Wolves made eight trips to the playoffs in KG's first tour of Sota duty ... and none since. | ||
| 24 | 2 Last Week: 22 | Given that the Pistons sank to the bottom of the six-team "race" for the East's final two playoff spots as quickly as they emerged, it appears Stan Van Gundy's first season is destined to be remembered more for front-office moves (ousting Josh Smith and trading for Reggie Jackson) than on-court impact. | ||
| 25 |
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Last Week: 25 | One of the more interesting segments on the first-ever edition of the NBA Insiders show on ESPN Radio to exclude the committee (of one) featured Brian Windhorst noting that teams out there are already plotting their trade runs at DeMarcus Cousins in hopes that Boogie and his new coach don't mesh. | ||
| 26 |
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Last Week: 26 | The stat might seem a touch obscure ... unless your name is Victor Oladipo. You figure he won't mind seeing printed confirmation of the fact he just joined James Harden, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook as the only players this season to post back-to-back games with at least 30 points and three steals. | ||
| 27 | 3 Last Week: 30 | Can't say I'm shocked these Sixers managed to take advantage of all those resting Hawks. Not after finally seeing Brett Brown's no-namers in person in OKC -- as well as the inspiring comeback from a very recognizable Jason Richardson -- and how hard Brown still has them playing 63 games into the season. | ||
| 28 | 1 Last Week: 29 | Anyone else find it curious that the likes of David West and Kevin Garnett spoke out so forcefully on behalf of Brian Shaw and yet Denver's players had completely tuned him out? The Nuggets went 2-19 in Shaw's final 21 games, ranking 28th and 29th, respectively, in offensive and defensive efficiency. | ||
| 29 | 2 Last Week: 27 | Thank you, Kobe. Thanks for showing up to Mavs-at-Lakers for your first post-surgery appearance at Staples Center to (presumably) scout potential future teammate Rajon Rondo and (definitely) give us something to buzz about while we await Thursday night's Fallen Giants Bowl with the Knicks. | ||
| 30 | 2 Last Week: 28 | It feels like we're trotting out these sorts of stats on a weekly basis, but New York not only leads the league with 13 losses by at least 20 points but also just suffered a 38-point loss to the Kings on the same night Boston was trounced by 31 in Cleveland -- an NBA futility first for the Knicks and Celts. | ||
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