Monday, Feb. 22
Warriors chasing history
1. The Golden State Warriors' quest to win 73 games ... and become the first team in the history of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings to hold the top spot in all 26 editions of the rankings.
2. Kobe Bryant's final 25 games as a Laker ... with remaining road stops in Milwaukee, Memphis, Denver, Phoenix, Utah, New Orleans, Houston and Oklahoma City.
The question we've been asking ourselves for ages here at Stein Line HQ hasn't gone away, either: How many losses in a week would it take for us to bump the Warriors out of the top spot? Two? Three? Golden State's lead over San Antonio for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference was a mere three games as of Monday morning, but the Spurs' 1-4 record against Golden State, Cleveland, Oklahoma City and Toronto means that the gap on our ladder is realistically bigger than that.
In this week's most notable developments, Portland continued its Cinderella season by moving up to a season-high No. 9, while Phoenix -- mired in a 6-33 nosedive since Dec. 1 -- is the only team keeping Kobe's Lakers out of the dreaded No. 30 cellar.
You can comment on the last 1-to-30 order assembled by the Committee of One, which offers its deepest thanks to our pals within the NBA wing of ESPN Stats & Information, as well as the Elias Sports Bureau, for the invaluable data assistance they faithfully provide week after week to help us with all of our calculations.
| 2015-16 Power Rankings: Week 17 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 | 
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Last Week: 1 | If you buy into the notion that the Warriors must go 4-2 on their current six-game road trip to preserve their chances at a 73-win season, you can look at splitting a back-to-back with a very tight turnaround in Portland and Clipperland two ways. It wasn't the worst outcome, certainly, but Golden State still has its work cut out for it to win three of the next four in Atlanta, Miami, Orlando and Oklahoma City. | |
| 2 | 
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Last Week: 2 | With stops looming in Sacramento, Utah and Houston, San Antonio is 4-1 on its annual Rodeo Road Trip despite a fresh calf issue for Kawhi Leonard. The Spurs, like Golden State, are still alive in the hunt to become the first team to go an entire season without losing at least two games in a row. The previous best is Boston's 74 games in 1984-85 without a losing streak of any kind. | |
| 3 | 
| 1 Last Week: 4 | Performance of the season for the Cavaliers? Hard to dispute that a 23-point win on OKC's floor trumps even Cleveland's Jan. 30 home trouncing of San Antonio. The Cavs are one of just six teams in the league with a winning percentage of .600 or higher, and they hadn't beaten any of them on the road (Warriors, Spurs, Thunder, Clippers, Raptors) until Sunday afternoon. | |
| 4 | 
| 1 Last Week: 3 | Hard to believe LeBron James is now 17-4 in head-to-head meetings with Kevin Durant (including the playoffs) after the Cavs came to OKC and won by 23. The Thunder suddenly need a win in Saturday night's showdown with Golden State to avoid just their second three-game skid at home, with both KD and Russell Westbrook dressed, since the dark days of Russ' rookie season in 2008-09. | |
| 5 | 
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Last Week: 5 | Confession time from the Committee of One: We're going through major Toronto withdrawals as All-Star Weekend fades farther and farther in our rear-view mirror. Friday night would be a good time to go back with the Raps hosting the Cavs in a potential Eastern Conference Finals preview; Toronto's 9-1 home mark since Jan. 1 is the third-best in the league behind only Golden State and San Antonio (both 9-0). | |
| 6 | 
| 1 Last Week: 7 | On the one hand, you're completely justified when you question the wisdom of surrendering a first-round pick for Jeff Green when pretty much the same trade in January 2015 did not have the desired effect for Memphis. On the other hand: Doc Rivers hasn't seen a small forward score 30 points in nearly 300 games, dating back to Caron Butler in November 2012. The Clips had to try something. | |
| 7 | 
| 1 Last Week: 6 | The Celtics are quietly up to eight road wins by 15 points or more -- third-most in the league behind 10 each for Golden State and San Antonio -- after Sunday night's comfortable W in Denver. We now refer you to this podcast from Sunday's NBA Insiders show on ESPN Radio for some very interesting theories about GM Danny Ainge's trade deadline strategy from our own Brian Windhorst. | |
| 8 | 
| 1 Last Week: 9 | More and more, Indiana is seeing the Monta Ellis it expected when he arrived as the Pacers' marquee offseason acquisition. He was Indy's top scorer in much-needed weekend wins at Oklahoma City and Orlando, though Ellis still sports the second-largest PPG decrease (minus-4.9 PPG) for any player who started at least 40 games last season behind LaMarcus Aldridge (minus-6.5 PPG). | |
| 9 | 
| 4 Last Week: 13 | Hell hath no fury like a Dame scorned (by Western Conference coaches). So much for that 2-9 career record for All-Star snub Damian Lillard against Steph Curry that we were talking about last week. The conversation now has to be about how the Lillard-led Blazers just became the first of five teams to beat the mighty Warriors this season and follow that up with a win in their next game. | |
| 10 | 
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Last Week: 10 | Rudy Gobert is one of just three players in the whole league, along with DeAndre Jordan and Hassan Whiteside, who can claim to average at least 10 PPG, 10 RPG and 2 BPG. The French Rejection -- or Stifle Tower, if you insist, @DJJazzyJody -- is also becoming one of the more entertaining Twitter follows on the NBA map, as he proved again Sunday night with this post-game blast. | |
| 11 | 
| 1 Last Week: 12 | The absence of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami's first two games since the All-Star break has unleashed Goran Dragic, who averaged 20.5 PPG, 9.0 APG and 6.0 RPG in wins over the Hawks and Wizards. Rail on us if you wish about Small Sample Size Theater, but numbers like that can only raise the volume on concerns about the long-term fit of Dragic and Wade in the same backcourt. | |
| 12 | 
| 4 Last Week: 8 | It's up to the slumping Hawks to sort out their leaky defense (of late) and beat Golden State on Monday to prevent the champs from becoming the first team in NBA history to win 50 times in its first 55 games of the season. This is the second straight season, actually, that the Warriors (68.6 percent) and Hawks (65.9) rank as the league's top two in terms of percentage of field goals assisted. | |
| 13 | 
| 3 Last Week: 16 | Should we start talking about the Hornets as a viable contender for the East's third seed? After a five-game win streak and Courtney Lee's arrival to fill the void created by Michael Kidd-Gilchrist's latest shoulder setback, why not? Charlotte sits just three games behind No. 3 Boston -- and just two games behind Miami for the Southeast Division lead -- in the tightly bunched East. | |
| 14 | 
| 3 Last Week: 11 | Did the Griz really punt on their season by following Marc Gasol's foot fracture by trading away Jeff Green and Courtney Lee? Is the disappointing West really ruthless enough to make the Griz pay? Not so sure if they keep feasting on "teams they should beat." Memphis is 22-4 against teams below .500 ... and two of those losses came to the nearly .500 Jazz. | |
| 15 | 
| 3 Last Week: 18 | Weekend wins over the Raptors and Lakers hiked the Bulls' record to 7-14 since Jan. 9, which is still the worst mark for any playoff team in that span thanks largely to a big defensive drop off over the past six weeks. To survive Jimmy Butler's absence, Chicago could sure use more of what it's been seeing from Derrick Rose lately, as well as another Doug McDermott eruption or two. | |
| 16 | 
| 2 Last Week: 14 | How much of a difference can David Lee make? How worrisome is the Mavs' negative point different (and Memphis' for that matter) when two chief rivals for one of the last playoff spots in the West (Portland and Utah) boast positive readings? And can Dallas follow up a 1-5 slide by taking advantage of the season's most favorable stretch of schedule? All valid questions in Big D. | |
| 17 | 
| 1 Last Week: 18 | After they elected not to trade Dwight Howard, this is a huge week for the Rockets. The team pegged to finish No. 3 in the West by ESPN Forecast has to visit both Utah and Portland in the increasingly tight race for the last few playoff spots in the West, with Portland just one win away from clinching the head-to-head tiebreak just like the Blazers did Sunday night against the Jazz. | |
| 18 | 
| 3 Last Week: 15 | Widely regarded as one of the league's trade deadline winners after its bold moves to acquire Tobias Harris and Donatas Motiejunas, Detroit is suddenly in the throes of a five-game skid that ranks as its longest of the season and threatens to extend the East's longest playoff drought to a full seven seasons. On top of that: Stan Van Gundy's trade for Motiejunas might not even go through now. | |
| 19 | 
| 2 Last Week: 21 | Common sense says that there's not enough time left in the regular season for the Pels, even after Sunday night's Anthony Davis Show, to erase a 5 1/2-game deficit and climb back into the West's top eight. But New Orleans has quietly won four of five while Jrue Holiday, after being hamstrung by a minutes restriction all season, is averaging 21.1 PPG and 7.6 APG off the bench in his past 12 games. | |
| 20 | 
| 2 Last Week: 22 | The Wizards survived last week's back-to-back-to-back reasonably well and have won three in a row at home for just the second time all season entering what my pal Michael Schwartz from ESPN Stats & Info has dubbed the NBA's Disappointment Bowl against New Orleans. Washington, you'll recall, was picked to finish fifth in the East coming into the 2015-16 campaign by ESPN Forecast. | |
| 21 | 
| 1 Last Week: 20 | The Magic have played an East-leading eight overtime games. Dallas has played a West-leading nine. So it didn't seem all that surprising, on the surface, when Orlando hauled the visiting Mavericks to OT on Friday night. The reality, though, is that the details were plenty weird; it was the Mavs' third straight OT game and featured a 51-22 Dallas run over the second and third quarters. | |
| 22 | 
| 1 Last Week: 23 | After engaging in as much trade chatter as anyone, Milwaukee ultimately stayed quiet at the deadline. The focus thus shifts to the storybook addition of Steve Novak, Greg Monroe's eyebrow-raising move to the bench and, of course, Jabari Parker, who just strung together the first consecutive 20-point games of his young career to help the Bucks follow a five-game skid with a 3-1 uptick. | |
| 23 | 
| 1 Last Week: 24 | Anthony Davis can't hog all the headlines. Not when DeMarcus Cousins just recorded his fourth game in the past five seasons with at least 35 points and 20 boards when the rest of the league has combined for four such games in the same span. Yet we're not sure how much longer we can make the case that the Kings are still in the race for No. 8 in the West. You tell us: Are they? | |
| 24 | 
| 5 Last Week: 19 | The quiet passing of the trade deadline, after all the Blake Griffin rumbles as well as suggestions Kenneth Faried was being shopped, hasn't had a steadying effect at all. After an impressive win in Detroit right before the All-Star break, Denver returned to work with a thud. The mystique of the Nuggets' high-altitude home court, as Boston just proved, continues to be a memory. | |
| 25 | 
| 1 Last Week: 26 | Carmelo Anthony made the playoffs in his first 10 seasons. But it's getting to the point, with apologies to Jimmer Fredette, that a third successive non-playoff season with the Knicks is unavoidable after they had no luck finding the PG at the trade deadline they so badly need. Despite a win at Minnesota, this team is still 2-11 since the heady heights of 22-22. | |
| 26 | 
| 1 Last Week: 27 | The Nets managed to lure the GM they wanted out of San Antonio and opened up that snazzy new practice facility in Brooklyn. Throw in a win over the hated Knicks, and it was one of the most upbeat weeks in a while for Mikhail Prokhorov & Co. Only now Brooklyn heads out on the longest road trip for any team all season; Tuesday at Portland is the first of nine in a row away from home. | |
| 27 | 
| 2 Last Week: 25 | We didn't exactly get the Rookie of the Year duel we were hoping for Saturday night when foul trouble derailed Kristaps Porzingis in the Knicks' win over the Wolves. Next headline assignment for Karl-Anthony Towns: Saturday's visit to New Orleans to duel with fellow Kentucky product Anthony Davis ... with KAT's per-36 minute averages all higher than The Brow's were as a rookie. | |
| 28 | 
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Last Week: 28 | There's a long history (trust us) of players scoring goals immediately after a guest spot on the weekly soccer radio show co-hosted by the Committee of One every Sunday. And we just might have the same touch when it comes to the NBA; Jahlil Okafor went out and scored a career-high 31 points Sunday in Dallas not long after sitting down with us for a chat that aired on the NBA Insiders. | |
| 29 | 
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Last Week: 29 | Kobe Bryant, in case you've somehow missed it amid what's starting to feel like 24/7 coverage of No. 24's farewell tour, has averaged 24.5 PPG over his past eight games. Not sure, however, that he'll really miss seeing Tim Duncan and the Spurs; Friday night's home defeat dropped Kobe to 25-36 lifetime against San Antonio. That's his lowest success rate (.410) against any team. | |
| 30 | 
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Last Week: 30 | Kudos to the Suns for extracting a first-round pick from Washington for Markieff Morris at the trade-deadline buzzer -- after grumbling from rival teams that they were asking too much for the disgruntled Morris -- but that's the extent of the good news. Phoenix just joined the '64-65 San Francisco Warriors as the only teams in history to go 0-7 on a homestand spanning at least seven games. | |
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