Power Rankings: Spurs still No. 1
Week: Team:
The San Antonio Spurs can't seem to extricate themselves from the longest-running web of negative headlines in the Alamo City that anyone can remember ... but it'll take more than that to dislodge them from the top spot in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings.
Stephen Jackson's $25,000 fine for a hostile tweet aimed at Oklahoma City's Serge Ibaka -- so soon after the recent $250,000 fine the Spurs incurred for sending four starters home before their recent visit to Miami, and a provocative Halloween photo featuring Tim Duncan and Tony Parker -- doesn't change the fact that San Antonio racked up three more double-digit wins last week to hang on to the No. 1 ranking ahead of surging Oklahoma City and New York.
The Thunder and Knicks have moved up to Nos. 2 and 3, respectively, capitalizing on three-spot drops for Memphis (No. 2 to No. 5) and the defending champs from Miami (No. 3 to No. 6). The other notable movement in the top 10 finds the Atlanta Hawks rising back up to No. 7 after Saturday's impressive road win over the Grizz, while Golden State has climbed to a stunning No. 9 after failing to sniff the upper third here for years.
The rankings are compiled with ever-helpful dishing from ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau. Click here to rank the teams yourself.
Also, check out John Hollinger's daily Power Rankings.
| 2012-13 Power Rankings: Week 6 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | Legend has it that the Spurs wait until their annual Rodeo Road Trip to really get going, but they've actually racked up 16 wins in their first 20 games for the sixth time in Gregg Popovich's 16 seasons. The only other coaches who can match that: Phil Jackson (seven) and Red Auerbach (six). | |
| 2 |  | 2 Last Week: 4 | More evidence to suggest that the post-Harden healing process is moving at a brisk pace: OKC has just reeled off 12 straight 100-point games. Have to rewind all the way to the 1994-95 season, when the GP-and-Kemp Sonics did it 19 straight times, for the last time this franchise has managed that. | |
| 3 |  | 4 Last Week: 7 | For all the justifiable awe their 3-point barrages generate -- how Mike D'Antoni must wish he could have brought just one of those shooters with him to L.A. -- perhaps we should be even more impressed with the fact mighty Miami has averaged a mere 88 points in two L's to the Knicks. | |
| 4 |  | 1 Last Week: 5 | Chauncey Billups came back six games ago. He's only been able to play in three of the six. Minnesota, Utah and Dallas rank as the toughest opposition in that cushy stretch, but there's simply a different vibe in the air when he's around. L.A. has won those six by an average of 16.8 ppg. | |
| 5 |  | 3 Last Week: 2 | One of the most likable qualities about this Grizzlies team: They refuse to lose to anyone in the bottom half of these rankings. Road losses to the Clips and Spurs, home L's to the Nuggets and Hawks, nothing else out of Memphis that the committee (of one) is really going to ding 'em for. | |
| 6 |  | 3 Last Week: 3 | Not a single scout we consulted for the Weekend Dime betrayed even a hint of concern about the Heat's dreadful D to date or the fact that several of their wins have been underwhelming, too. As for that LeBron postgame workout? A message to his own teammates, not us external pests. | |
| 7 |  | 3 Last Week: 10 | Trivia time: Can you name the only team that has held every foe below 50 percent from the floor this season? Answer: It's the one and only team out there that can claim road victories at OKC and Memphis. Even more good news for the Hawks: Josh Smith, as requested here, is picking it up. | |
| 8 |  | 1 Last Week: 9 | Chicago must feel a little like London right now to Luol Deng. Team Great Britain couldn't afford to take Deng off the floor during the Olympics and Tom Thibodeau has Deng playing a whopping 41.2 minutes per game nightly with Rip Hamilton joining D-Rose on the Bulls' list of unavailables. | |
| 9 |  | 2 Last Week: 11 | Steph Curry is making his $44 million contract extension look like a bargain. The Dubs continue to be a quality defensive team and an upper-echeleon rebounding team without Andrew Bogut. And now they've got more road wins -- seven -- than any team in the league outside of San Antonio. | |
| 10 |  | 4 Last Week: 6 | No special sources needed to confirm that the Nets, after four straight defeats against teams with records over .500, officially miss the ailing Brook Lopez. Deron Williams, meanwhile, recently averaged a mortal 11.4 ppg over seven games and clearly ain't himself thanks to that bad wrist. | |
| 11 |  | 3 Last Week: 8 | The shared struggles of the Lakers and Celtics have made filling the 8-to-15 slots our biggest struggle every Monday. The Bucks haven't made it any easier, either, stumbling every time we nudge 'em upward to fill the void ... then winning in Brooklyn after we promised ourselves not to do it again. | |
| 12 |  | 2 Last Week: 14 | It doesn't happen too often, but when it does we're man enough to admit that Professor Hollinger's unique way of looking at things has forced us into a rethink. That's where we are with the up-and-down Nuggets, who've simply faced a schedule so far too brutal to drop 'em out of the top 15. | |
| 13 |  | 4 Last Week: 17 | The week began with a heartbreaking one-point L to the Clippers that soiled their previously unblemished home record. It ended with a redemption win on the Lakers' floor that took Utah's points tally for the weekend to a whopping 248 when tacked on to Friday's home rout of Toronto. | |
| 14 |  | 1 Last Week: 13 | The Thunder's revenge for losing in Boston on the night after Thanksgiving: OKC's second straight 16-4 start reminded Elias that the last team to do that in back-to-back seasons was the Celtics ... with four such (seemingly forever ago) starts in a row in the first four seasons of the KG era. | |
| 15 |  | 3 Last Week: 12 | The Lakers haven't crossed the 20-game mark with a record this far below .500 since Shaq-and-Kobe-and-Co. started 8-13 in 2002-03 ... after L.A.'s three-peat. The panic, though, runs far deeper this time, because this star-laden construction has so many flaws and hasn't proved anything yet. | |
| 16 |  | 2 Last Week: 18 | Indy (sub-).500 is fortunate. Ever since we caught wind of the recent Twitter stir revealing that St. Elmo's Steakhouse now sells its famous, sinus-slamming shrimp cocktail sauce online, that's what we think of when we hear anything about Indy. Not the Pacers' turnover-laced rough start. | |
| 17 |  | 2 Last Week: 15 | Saturday night's James Harden versus O.J. Mayo shootout briefly took you back to that unforgettable T-Mac versus Dirk laser show in 2006 ... but the true highlight came before the opening tip when the Mavs, one by one, walked to the Rockets' bench to welcome Kevin McHale back to work. | |
| 18 |  | 2 Last Week: 16 | The good news: Evan Turner just broke off the best 10-game stretch of his NBA career. The not-so-good news: Philly has had the league's third-easiest schedule according to one measure and is getting a measly 5 points and 4 rebounds nightly from its centers while Mr. Bynum heals up. | |
| 19 |  | -- Last Week: 19 | Props to Kevin Love. His right hand is undeniably still messed up if he's shooting 38 percent from the floor and 22 percent on 3s, but he's giving Sota almost 35 minutes a game and averaging 21-and-14 with a pretty handsome PER (22.36) for a guy who can't release the ball how he wants to. | |
| 20 |  | 2 Last Week: 22 | There's been so much glass-half-empty talk in Dallas when it comes to O.J. Mayo and the assumption that he won't be able to score this way when Dirk Nowitzki returns and the offense doesn't revolve around him. Maybe it's time to start asking: What if Mayo and Dirk do eventually click? | |
| 21 |  | 1 Last Week: 20 | The Magic are 7-2 against fellow sub-.500 teams and have squeezed nine double-doubles out of Big Baby Davis, who managed only six last season. Have to say that rookie coach Jacque Vaughn, one-fourth of the way through his maiden season, is getting as much as he can out of this group. | |
| 22 |  | 2 Last Week: 24 | A glimmer of hope for Detroit's road woes? It's probably a reach, but something tells me that our Andre Drummond-obsessed NBA supervisor back in Bristol will be watching with great anticipation Monday night once he hears that Philly is 0-2 and allowing 107.5 ppg on Mondays. | |
| 23 |  | 6 Last Week: 29 | That unforeseen run of five straight games without a double-double for DeMarcus Cousins is a memory. DMC was back to his usual stat-stuffing ways to help the Kings, even with a knee injury derailing Tyreke Evans' renaissance, sweep the week against three fellow bottom-half teams. | |
| 24 | Charlotte 7-12 | 3 Last Week: 21 | We've officially reached the stage where bouquets for the Bobcats have to go on hold. They lost their final 23 games last season after getting to seven wins. They're up to seven straight L's, in the face of a stiffening schedule, after win No. 7 this term, starting with that 45-point laugher in OKC. | |
| 25 |  | 3 Last Week: 22 | Fun argument this week with a rival team official who loves Damian Lillard. He thinks Kyrie Irving, just by virtue of playing for LeBron's old team, gets way more spotlight. I'd argue that, even with Portland 4-12 in non-OT games, all folks like me have been doing is writing and talking about Lillard. | |
| 26 | New Orleans 5-14 | 2 Last Week: 28 | The committee is rather relieved to see the Hornets excluded from Monday night's six-game schedule. On each of the past two Mondays, even without the injured Anthony Davis, those future Pelicans tripped up a resident (first the Clips, then Milwaukee) of the rankings' upper echelon. | |
| 27 |  | -- Last Week: 27 | If anyone out there understands the Lakers' belief that Steve Nash can fix a ton, it's the Suns. They handled many high-profile departures over the years, as well as an ownership change, but relaunching post-Nash has been even harder than they thought. Tough, tough spot for Alvin Gentry. | |
| 28 |  | 2 Last Week: 30 | Perhaps it's time to consider that the Heat are incredibly fortunate that they won't have to see the Wizards in the playoffs. Or maybe, just maybe, Washington is 3-0 against Miami and 3-15 against all other teams in its last 21 games dating to last season to make it easy on us to fill this space. | |
| 29 |  | 3 Last Week: 26 | One game to go (in Portland) to complete the season-opening slog that called for the Raps to play 15 of their first 22 on the road. They'll be dragging themselves home with the look of a team in need of a major shakeup after six L's by five points or less, several injuries and beaucoup tension. | |
| 30 |  | 5 Last Week: 25 | Anyone remember that 2-2 start? Didn't think so. I'm afraid there's little else we can do in this cyberspace beyond tracking Andy Varejao's rebounds and trade possibilities with Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters out. 'Cause the Cavs can't score enough without 'em to even keep games close. | |
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