A Golden State Warriors loss? Or a Philadelphia 76ers victory?
That's suddenly Question of the Month in the NBA, with the 11-0 reigning champs now just four wins shy of matching the best start in NBA history, while the 0-10 Sixers yet again rank as the league's last remaining winless team.
ESPN's trusty Basketball Power Index gives Golden State only a 28.1 percent shot to become the first team of all time to uncork a 16-0 start, but the Warriors are in an understandably buoyant mood these days given what's happening around the rest of the West, where several teams that were considered preseason locks to finish in the conference's top seven -- Houston, Memphis, New Orleans and even the Los Angeles Clippers -- are either dealing with a curious disappearance of form or serious health woes.
It was admittedly an almighty struggle for the Committee of One to pinpoint a team worthy of the No. 4 slot on this Rankings Monday, such are the ups and downs that have engulfed seemingly the entire league outside of Golden State, San Antonio and Cleveland in these first few weeks of the season. We'll naturally delve deeper into our 1-to-30 order, as always, via Stein Line Live, with the usual opportunity to comment on this week's ladder also below. (Hat tip to the NBA wing of ESPN Stats & Information, as well as the Elias Sports Bureau, for their ever-helpful dishing of data to assist us in our computations.)
| 2015-16 Power Rankings: Week 3 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 | 
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Last Week: 1 | No word on when the head coach will be back on the bench. No sign -- yet -- of last season's Klay Thompson. And really no letup at all from the Dubs, who have to have at least two All-Stars if they keep rolling like this. I'd expect Draymond Green to join Steph Curry in Toronto in February; his all-around game has never been better. | |
| 2 | 
| 2 Last Week: 4 | Tim Duncan is only San Antonio's fourth-leading scorer these days, but he's a decent bet to become the only player to average at least 10 points and nine boards over a full season at age 39 or older besides Robert Parish. The Spurs awoke Monday at No. 1 in defensive efficiency, with Timmy naturally still at the heart of their team D. | |
| 3 | 
| 1 Last Week: 2 | A win Saturday night in Brewtown would have clinched the best 10-game start for any team in LeBron James' career. Yet there's no ignoring the fact that (A) Cleveland's eight victims are just 24-31 combined and (B) LeBron's 11-for-42 shooting from deep (26.2 percent) and .605 shooting from the FT line are far from LeBron-ian. | |
| 4 | 
| 5 Last Week: 9 | Hassan Whiteside and Chris Bosh are booming. Dwyane Wade, too, is adjusting well to life below the 30 MPG line. Can't quibble too much when the Heat so far sport the East's No. 2 point differential, but when do we start asking about what their slow pace is doing for the guy they gave $85 million to? Goran Dragic's PER: 11.4. | |
| 5 | 
| 2 Last Week: 3 | By halftime last Monday, when the Hawks were down 72-42 at home to Minnesota mere hours after our most recent rankings dispatch, we feared that we jinxed them as much as the Committee of One has ever jinxed any team. Turns out Atlanta's week wasn't quite that bad, but we must have gotten to Paul Millsap too. | |
| 6 | 
| 1 Last Week: 7 | With Chris Paul and J.J. Redick ailing and a recent 1-4 skid to cope with, Blake Griffin's ridiculous start continues to be undercovered. Steph Curry (35.54) and Blake (31.11) are the only players in the league with a PER over 30, while Griffin is quietly shooting 76.1 percent at the FT line as he continues his Mailman-esque improvement at the stripe. | |
| 7 | 
| 5 Last Week: 12 | Derrick Rose is shooting 35.9 percent from the floor. Joakim Noah is logging just 20.9 minutes per game. Those two and other Bulls are clearly still trying to find themselves in these post-Thibs times, but this week they'll have to continue that quest under the glare of the ESPN spotlight, with TV games looming in Phoenix and Oakland. | |
| 8 | 
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Last Week: 8 | Not even two more triple-doubles from Russell Westbrook, nor some hopeful words from Kevin Durant about his hamstring, can hush the sense that this opening month of the Billy Donovan era has been bumpier than expected. Sunday's second-half capitulation to Boston is OKC's second eyebrow-raising loss at home. | |
| 9 | 
| 5 Last Week: 14 | For the first time in the Brad Stevens Era -- unless you want to count that 1-0 start -- Boston is over .500. Credit Marcus Smart's return from a freak toe injury for a nice chunk of the good vibes and a team D that has sneaked into the league's top four just behind San Antonio, Miami and Golden State ... teams that are a combined 24-5. | |
| 10 | 
| 4 Last Week: 6 | Can't beat seeing the Sixers, even in Phily, when you're one L away from becoming the fifth team in history to drop four in a row after starting 5-0. But this week's schedule doesn't offer any such breaks for the Raps, who just unraveled in Sacramento and go to Oakland next after Golden State's sleepiest showing of the season so far. | |
| 11 | 
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Last Week: 11 | From the Not Exactly A Coincidence Files: In the three road games Rudy Gobert couldn't finish or didn't even dress for, Utah went 0-3 before ekeing out a W in Atlanta in Rudy's return. Something else to track as storms sweeping the West ensnare the Jazz, too: Gordon Hayward is shooting .394 from the floor and just 27 percent from deep. | |
| 12 | 
| 7 Last Week: 19 | Paul George has scored at least 26 points in six straight games, which accounts for the longest such streak of his career. Better yet for the Pacers: A four-point loss in Cleveland is their only L in those games. Monta Ellis' shooting numbers remain a concern and now rookie Myles Turner is hurt, but PG's play is covering up a lot. | |
| 13 | 
| 5 Last Week: 18 | Leaning heavily on Zaza Pachulia, Dwight Powell and Raymond Felton, Dallas recorded wins on the second night of two back-to-backs (Clippers at home, Rockets on the road) that no one saw coming. In related news: Now you know why Rick Carlisle just got a fat new contract extension. He always gets his teams to max out. Always. | |
| 14 | 
| 1 Last Week: 13 | After three consecutive L's by 15-plus points for the first time since March 2011, and with Bradley Beal suddenly dealing with a shoulder issue, Washington salvaged its week by seeing off pesky Orlando. The big challenge for the Wiz right now: finding some consistency on D to complement the more up-tempo style they've adopted. | |
| 15 | 
| 10 Last Week: 5 | Did we get a bit carried away with the Pistons' promotion all the way up to No. 5? OK, fine. But the harsh reality that greeted Detroit on its West Coast swing doesn't change our alibi, because Drummond Fever is fully justified when No. 0 is on pace to become the first guy to average 19 RPG since ... Wilt Chamberlain in 1971-72. | |
| 16 | 
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Last Week: 16 | The Bucks believed their early-season struggles were tied, more than anything, to an injury-induced reliance on backups at PG and PF and a resulting shortfall on the boards. Saturday's double-OT win over the Cavs, with their projected starting five on the floor together for the first time, would seem to back them up. Also: Jabari! | |
| 17 | 
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Last Week: 17 | Seeing the Griz win 114-109 on the road in Minneapolis was almost as confusing as some of the lopsided L's we've seen in the early stages from the grit-grinders. The Memphis D remains in the bottom five, which has to change quickly for any sort of lasting turnaround, but W's by any means were needed here, and pronto. | |
| 18 | 
| 5 Last Week: 23 | Only the Wiz are playing at a faster pace than the Suns, which obviously suits Eric Bledsoe. Phoenix's $70 million man seems to relish the extra responsibility, given that he's sporting a PER of nearly 26 these days. Yet Bledsoe & Co. are advised to take care their next two home games if they can, with nine of 11 on the road to follow. | |
| 19 | 
| 2 Last Week: 21 | With that gaudy PER of 22.4, Jeremy Lamb has unexpectedly emerged as something of a barometer for the Hornets. Lamb is averaging 16.2 points per game in Charlotte wins, compared to just 9.8 PPG in losses. Frank Kaminsky, meanwhile, has scored just 29 points in his maiden month as a pro, lowest of any top-10 pick. | |
| 20 | 
| 5 Last Week: 15 | Evan Fournier, we suspect, has become quite the fantasy commodity ... as well as an unforeseen MIP contender. He has five 20-point games already this month, with the rest of Orlando's roster having combined for just six. Nikola Vucevic, meanwhile, goes down as the source of the season's first game-winner at the buzzer. | |
| 21 | 
| 5 Last Week: 26 | No less encouraging than the .500 start no one envisioned -- or the wholly unforeseen 2-0 record against the reeling Rockets -- is the way rookie Emmanuel Mudiay delivered in home wins over the Blazers and Bucks by a combined five points. Just three TOs in those two Ws for Mudiay, who then got away with nine against hapless Houston. | |
| 22 | 
| 12 Last Week: 10 | Losses to Denver home and away. The only team, in 10 tries, that failed to beat Brooklyn. And a pushover Saturday night at home to hated Dallas -- with Dirk Nowitzki, Wes Matthews and Chandler Parsons all resting. The Rockets will need some turnaround in the next two weeks to dodge November's Biggest Disappointment status. | |
| 23 | 
| 1 Last Week: 24 | The Knicks didn't see their fifth W last season until Dec. 12, so we can safely say Kristaps Porzingis and his team are ahead of schedule. Melo finally has his FG percentage out of the 30s and here's maybe my favorite stat of the season so far: Porzingis and Houston's Clint Capela are tied for the league lead in putback dunks with six each. | |
| 24 | 
| 3 Last Week: 27 | You wouldn't dare suggest that three home wins fixed everything in Sacramento, but there's no denying DeMarcus Cousins had himself a week, powering through Brook Lopez, Andre Drummond and Jonas Valanciunas with some Player of the Week-ish numbers that also shoved Rajon Rondo's two triple-doubles under the radar. | |
| 25 | 
| 5 Last Week: 20 | If it were up to me, Portland would not have hosted San Antonio on the same night Dallas hosted DeAndre Jordan, because I'd want to save the LaMarcus Aldridge return for separate viewing. And road reunions didn't work out any better for the Blazers, with Nicolas Batum lasered in and clearly playing for something bigger Sunday night. | |
| 26 | 
| 1 Last Week: 25 | Karl-Anthony Towns is out of his teens after turning 20 Sunday, having averaged a tidy 15.7 PPG and 10.3 RPG as a 19-year-old. Of course he's the last of the Wolves' concerns at the minute, after four straight L's with Ricky Rubio out and fair questions circulating about the wisdom of starting both Tayshaun Prince and KG. | |
| 27 | 
| 1 Last Week: 28 | Kobe Bryant certainly left every impression that Friday night was his (and legendary trainer Gary Vitti's) last visit to Dallas, so it's impossible for your overly romantic Committee not to get sucked into Nostalgic Sap Mode. Especially after Kobe followed up his fun duel with Dirk by flirting with a triple-double in a win -- yes, WIN -- over Detroit. | |
| 28 | 
| 2 Last Week: 30 | A surprisingly short stay in the basement for the Nets, who have to be profusely hat-tipped for the stubborn streak they unearthed out West. Beating Houston in Houston for win No. 1? Playing Golden State as tough as anyone has? Didn't think either was possible even if those teams were openly sleeping on Brooklyn. | |
| 29 | 
| 7 Last Week: 22 | The banged-up Pelicans' matinee defeat at MSG marked the first game this season in which they managed to hold the opposition below 100 points. Anthony Davis' injury absence (hip) lasted only two games, but all the injuries have led to the Pels' worst start since the 2004-05 squad opened 1-19 -- en route to drafting Chris Paul. | |
| 30 | 
| 1 Last Week: 29 | The Sixers are the first team in league history to start 0-10 in back-to-back seasons. And you can't be terribly surprised, despite the ongoing strong production from Jahlil Okafor, when six of the 12 players to suit up for injury-riddled Philly so far weren't even drafted and have combined to log 38 percent of the team's minutes. | |
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