Power Rankings: Celtics overtake Pistons, regain top spot
Updated: January 7, 2008, 11:52 AM ET
By
Marc Stein | ESPN.com
Week: Team:
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Playing Detroit on Dec. 19, as one member of the committee's inner circle likes to say, was the Boston Celtics' first true moment of accountability this season. On their home floor, they lost.
Since then, though, Boston impressively swept through a four games-in-five nights tour through the West and then atoned for that rare defeat by beating the Pistons in Detroit on Saturday night, improving the Celtics' record to a glorious 29-3 … and keeping them on a ridiculous 74-8 pace. So now we're accountable.
We duly move the Celtics back to the top of the ESPN.com weekly NBA Power Rankings, dropping Detroit to No. 2. The New Orleans Hornets and Los Angeles Lakers are climbing, too, and there's also a new No. 30 whose coach has Pistons ties. Guess who?
Rank the teams yourself or click here or at the bottom to register your approval or disagreement with the order at the top or anywhere else.
Tune into Fastbreak on ESPN to see this week's Army Power Rankings.
| 2007-08 Power Rankings: Week 10 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | 1 Last Week: 2 | In each of the past three seasons, there's been 70-win talk with Phoenix, Detroit and then Dallas. But these Celts are the first team to last this long with only three losses since (gulp) the 72-win Bulls in 1995-96. | |
| 2 |  | 1 Last Week: 1 | If the Pistons want No. 1 back right away, they can give us something to think about by winning in Dallas or San Antonio (or both) this week. Before losing to Boston, remember, Detroit had won 11 straight by nearly 17 ppg. | |
| 3 | New Orleans 23-11 | 3 Last Week: 6 | Chris Paul must be seething after failing to win First Trimester MVP honors in the West. How else to explain the venom he played with over the weekend in a big back-to-back road sweep of Golden State and Phoenix? | |
| 4 |  | 1 Last Week: 5 | We've resisted putting the Lakers (or Hornets) above the Suns, Mavs and Spurs. But with the West powers ailing or inconsistent and L.A. at 14-5 since a 7-6 start, plus 2-0 vs. Phoenix, you can make the case for a week. | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 4 | Duncan insists he's fine after colliding knee-to-knee with Corey Maggette. But Sunday's late hit, just as Manu returned to work, means SA still hasn't finished a game with its three best players intact since November. | |
| 6 |  | 3 Last Week: 3 | Our pal Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic has an idea why Suns fans are so edgy when their team leads the West with nine more road wins than home defeats. The reason: Phoenix is 1-6 against the West's top eight. | |
| 7 |  | 1 Last Week: 8 | Hard to believe Dallas is just 7-8 on the road after last season's 31-10. But some normalcy is creeping back into Mavsland: Dirk has been top scorer in nine straight after it happened just seven times in the first 25 games. | |
| 8 |  | 1 Last Week: 7 | Don't be so sure that the Blazers' seven-game trip will ruin the fairy tale. Portland is 5-1 on the road during this astonishing 16-1 run. And its only road losses since Thanksgiving were at Dallas, San Antonio and Utah. | |
| 9 |  | 2 Last Week: 11 | The Nuggets and Lakers became 20-game winners Friday night. Which means A) The West now has seven teams on a 50-win pace and B) Denver needs a 40-10 finish to uphold Melo and AI's preseason touts of 60 wins. | |
| 10 |  | 1 Last Week: 9 | Did we jinx 'em? Fair question after the Warriors follow up Stephen Jackson's coronation as the West's First Trimester MVP with their first back-to-back losses (at Mavs, home to Hornets) since the 0-6 start Jack missed. | |
| 11 |  | 1 Last Week: 10 | The Magic don't have a road game in the West after Jan. 23. But that might not be such great news after they fell to 7-8 at home with Ls to Jersey and Houston by three points total . . . both with Tiger Woods in the house. | |
| 12 |  | 4 Last Week: 16 | If you're looking for Portland Is For Real testimony, check here: The Jazz still haven't returned to the West's top eight in part because they just finished playing the Blazers four times (and losing three) in 26 days. | |
| 13 |  | 5 Last Week: 18 | The floor is LeBron's after his game-turning, 24-point fourth quarter in Toronto: ''. . . We know we're a better team than we've shown early in the season, but it's a new year and we're undefeated so far.'' | |
| 14 |  | 1 Last Week: 13 | The skeptic in me says Arenas won't be able to resist the urge to play again before the season ends. But it's good to hear him at least talking about a cautious approach as opposed to the usual bravado we get. | |
| 15 |  | 3 Last Week: 12 | The Raps hoped to build off the happy ending to their grueling seven-game trip, which they closed with wins at San Antonio and New Orleans. But they're 0-2 since coming home, including Sunday's fade against Cleveland. | |
| 16 |  | 1 Last Week: 15 | I'm sure you're expecting (and perhaps even hoping for) concrete Better Without T-Mac evidence, but be advised that Houston is 12-12 when McGrady and Yao are both in the lineup . . . and 5-5 when it's just Yao. | |
| 17 | New Jersey 17-16 | 2 Last Week: 19 | Reminiscent of Stefanski's arrival in Philly, Jersey is 3-0 since hiring Vandeweghe, including a double-digit comeback in Orlando. That gulp you hear comes from teams still praying that the Nets make J-Kidd available. | |
| 18 |  | 4 Last Week: 14 | No one misses 2007 more than these guys. The Hawks are off to an 0-3 start in 2008 to sink below .500 for the first time in almost a month, including a loss to the Nets to open a crucial five-game homestand. | |
| 19 |  | 2 Last Week: 21 | The good news: Gordon led the team in scoring in his first five games off the bench for Boylan. The bad news: Chicago's four Ws under Boylan came against teams (Bucks, Knicks, Bobcats, Kings) at a combined 44-85. | |
| 20 |  | 3 Last Week: 17 | Nearly used the word crisis in last week's Pacers comment, with a better-than-ever Tinsley getting hurt just as Indy was hitting the road. No hesitation this week with Indy in a 2-7 funk and eight of the next 10 away. | |
| 21 |  | 1 Last Week: 20 | The Sixers finished their six-game, back-to-reality trip with Ls to the Lakers and Nuggets by a combined 44 points. And it gets even tougher on the shorter trip looming in a week: San Antonio, then Houston, then Boston. | |
| 22 |  | 1 Last Week: 23 | A two-game road streak isn't much, especially when the Ws are in Miami and Charlotte. But with Redd ailing, pressure mounting on GM Larry Harris and a 2-15 road record before those Ws, Milwaukee will take anything. | |
| 23 |  | 1 Last Week: 22 | With zero games left against the Knicks, playing without Bibby, Martin and Artest is probably going to be a problem. Whether the injured Bibby gets dealt before the Feb. 21 trading deadline is pretty much the focus now. | |
| 24 |  | 3 Last Week: 27 | Maybe no one believes in New Year's mojo more than the Grizz. At 1-6 in games decided by three points or fewer and 3-12 overall in December, Memphis has won at Indy, held off Miami and hung with Boston in '08. | |
| 25 | Seattle 9-24 | 1 Last Week: 24 | It's an admittedly big request, but throw out the 0-8 start and there are morsels of progress here, whether it's a 6-9 record against the East or the sight of Durant hanging in there when assigned to guard Nash on TNT. | |
| 26 |  | 2 Last Week: 28 | Same old stories: Kaman has 25 double-doubles in 31 games, but the Clips have won only once in 10 home dates since Thanksgiving (against the Wolves) and still haven't shot 50 percent from the field even once. | |
| 27 | Charlotte 11-21 | 2 Last Week: 25 | J-Rich is finally starting to heat up, but the sense of doom is only growing for the Bobs' rookie coach with Vincent's team -- whose 12 road games to date are the fewest in the entire league -- in the midst of a 1-7 slide. | |
| 28 |  | 2 Last Week: 26 | This is not committee (of one) hyperbole. Seriously: If Miami makes the playoffs from here, it might rank as a better comeback than the '06 Finals against Dallas. The decaying Heat have to go 33-15 just to finish .500. | |
| 29 |  | 1 Last Week: 30 | OK, OK: The post-KG Wolves do have nine double-digit losses at home to New York's eight, as well as a 1-14 record since stunning Phoenix on Dec. 8. Unlike the Knicks, though, Minnesota was supposed to be this bad. | |
| 30 |  | 1 Last Week: 29 | With the league's No. 1 payroll, nearly as many double-digit losses at home as the rebuilding Wolves and zero wins involving actual travel -- their only road W came against the Kidd-less Nets -- Isiah's Knicks have earned this. | |
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