Power Rankings: Heat's 'nightmare' season continues
Updated: January 14, 2008, 12:41 PM ET
By
Marc Stein | ESPN.com
Week: Team:
 | |
It had to be the weirdest week of the season so far. So weird that we had to leave the upper reaches of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings mostly untouched.
No team made a convincing claim for the top spot, with Boston and Detroit both suffering embarrassing losses -- to Charlotte and New York, respectively -- and the Los Angeles Lakers capping an otherwise triumphant 4-0 week by losing Andrew Bynum to a knee injury.
The Celtics and Pistons thus stayed where they are at No. 1 and No. 2, with the most notable moves coming from Dallas (No. 7 to No. 3), Washington (No. 14 to No. 10 after rallying to beat the Celtics on Saturday) … and Miami (taking over the dreaded No. 30 slot from New York to continue a humbling fall from grace).
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 "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see this week's Army Power Rankings.
| 2007-08 Power Rankings: Week 11 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | Two Ls in one week? Losses to Charlotte by 12 and a roadie to the Wiz by seven? Losses that leave them on a mere 70-12 pace? The Celts can only hope that Bostonians are too mesmerized by Brady to notice. | |
| 2 |  | -- Last Week: 2 | Sentence we never imagined writing, no matter how weary the Pistons were: Needing only a win at MSG to reclaim No. 1, three nights removed from winning in San Antonio and riding a 20-4 wave, Detroit lost by 24. | |
| 3 |  | 4 Last Week: 7 | The Mavs have quietly moved to the top of the West by going 14-3 since their 12-8 start. But these happy days out of the spotlight might be ending, at least locally, after the unexpectedly early demise of Romo's Cowboys. | |
| 4 |  | -- Last Week: 4 | Things must have been going too well. L.A. is 16-3 since Dec. 2, almost matching Portland's 17-2 run, but the sight of Bynum going down is scary stuff, even for a team possessing the Lakers' enviable depth. | |
| 5 |  | -- Last Week: 5 | Even when you account for all the injuries -- even when Pop reminds you ''December and early January are times to stay patient'' -- you still struggle to grasp that the Spurs are No. 5 in the West and 6-8 on the road. | |
| 6 | New Orleans 25-12 | 3 Last Week: 3 | The Hornets had to drop some after being obliterated at home by the Lakers. But they're not going to fall too far in the midst of an eight-game win streak on the road, with seven of those victims residing in the West. | |
| 7 |  | 1 Last Week: 6 | Amare, Barbosa, Nash, Marion and Hill are all averaging at least 15 ppg. The significance? Gives us a chance to bring up the last team to have that many 15-point scorers: Our beloved Buffalo Braves in 1973-74. | |
| 8 |  | 2 Last Week: 10 | The Warriors played awfully loose against Indy and this is not the time for it. This is the time to make a move with six of the next seven games against sub-.500 opposition and then just one road game in February. | |
| 9 |  | 1 Last Week: 8 | How will these kids hold up on the road after their remarkable 17-1 run? Take your curiosity one step further now, as in: How will they respond to a double-OT loss in Toronto in the opener of that seven-game trip? | |
| 10 |  | 4 Last Week: 14 | Dare we say that East coaches have to name both Butler and Jamison as All-Stars. The weekend win over Boston was just the highlight; Washington is 19-11 since that 0-5 start and an amazing 16-11 minus Arenas. | |
| 11 |  | 2 Last Week: 9 | Not much changes in the Rocky Mountains, where the Nuggets can never seem to find lasting health. A mystery ailment has sidelined Nene again and they need a new point guard, too, after Chucky Atkins was shut down. | |
| 12 |  | -- Last Week: 12 | Good news: Okur and AK-47 are back from injury and a five-game home win streak has the Jazz four games over .500 for the first time in a month. Bad news: Utah still needs a team in the top eight to start slipping. | |
| 13 |  | 2 Last Week: 11 | Just when you thought Stan Van Gundy was going to start forcing his players to check into hotel rooms for home games, Orlando goes 1-3 on a four-game West jaunt for its first real road slump of the season. | |
| 14 |  | 1 Last Week: 15 | Depth is supposed to be one of Toronto's calling cards. But with Bargnani amiss and T.J. Ford into his second month on the shelf, Bosh might have to keep putting up huge numbers to keep the Raps where they are. | |
| 15 |  | 2 Last Week: 13 | Ready or not, Cleveland gets its long-awaited NBA Finals rematch Thursday in San Antonio. But the Cavs, even if they're not ready, have quickly climbed to within a game of No. 4 in the East with a 5-1 start to 2008. | |
| 16 |  | -- Last Week: 16 | No team in the West has played more road games than Houston's 22. But before we can say it gets easier now, we have to see if the Rockets can work T-Mac back in after their first-ever run of success (7-3) without him. | |
| 17 | New Jersey 18-18 | -- Last Week: 17 | The Nets might not be all the way fixed, but they do appear to be onto something with Josh Boone and Sean Williams starting. Since those kids joined triple-double machine J-Kidd in the starting lineup, Jersey is 8-4. | |
| 18 |  | -- Last Week: 18 | The Hawks can lament the NBA's ruling on the Miami protest all they want, but keeping that top-eight slot depends more on Joe Johnson. They're 11-2 when JJ scores 24 or more, but why doesn't it happen more often? | |
| 19 |  | 4 Last Week: 23 | Martin is back now and Bibby is on the way, but the return of Brad Miller might be the biggest news of all . . . if Miller's January form continues. He's suddenly averaging 20.2 ppg, 10.5 rpg and 5.2 apg this month. | |
| 20 | Charlotte 13-23 | 7 Last Week: 27 | The Bobs are still up there on the list of first-half disappointments, but that was some week. Besides stunning Boston in Boston, they also halted the Nets' five-game win streak and dragged the Cavs and Pistons to OT. | |
| 21 |  | 1 Last Week: 20 | Fall-from-ahead losses in Phoenix and Golden State left Indy with a 1-4 mark on its West Coast swing. That puts the Pacers at 2-9 since Christmas, which should explain why they've dropped out of the East's top eight. | |
| 22 |  | -- Last Week: 22 | Two Saturday tidbits to really make us feel old: Our pal Dominique Wilkins turned 48 -- how is that possible? -- and the Bucks lost in PHX again to extend a drought stretching to our senior year of high school. | |
| 23 |  | 4 Last Week: 19 | Fallout from the spat between Noah and assistant coach Ron Adams dragged through the weekend, but I'd be more worried about the double-digit lead Chicago blew to the Knicks before the spat. At home, no less. | |
| 24 |  | 3 Last Week: 21 | Was Korver their MVP? OK, OK: The Sixers' schedule has obviously turned in a most unfavorable way since the Utah trade. But that won't stop us from noting that Philly is 1-7 since dealing its sharpshooter, 0-6 in 2008. | |
| 25 |  | 1 Last Week: 24 | The line between success or failure can't be this easy to figure for the Grizz. Can it? The stats say Memphis is 10-11 when Mike Miller scores at least 17 points. But when he's under 17 points? Make that 0-16. | |
| 26 |  | -- Last Week: 26 | Only two players have more double-doubles than Kaman's 25 in 33 games: Dwight Howard with 34 and Al Jefferson with 26. The problem? Kaman's double-doubles are pretty much the only source of joy in Clipperland. | |
| 27 |  | 3 Last Week: 30 | We stand corrected. We figured Team Isiah was going to occupy the cellar for some time, but Miami's own embarrassment -- and surprise wins for the Knicks over Chicago and Detroit -- has trumped New York's misery. | |
| 28 | Seattle 9-27 | 3 Last Week: 25 | Happy New Year? Not for Sonics players, whose 2008 begins with eight roadies in the first 10 games. And not for Sonics ownership, amid fresh worries that the Hornets will try to move to Oklahoma City before they do. | |
| 29 |  | -- Last Week: 29 | How giddy were the Wolves to see Miami last Tuesday? In the eight games that preceded the Heat's visit, all of them losses, Minnesota knew what it felt like to play with a lead for only 68 of a possible 384 minutes. | |
| 30 |  | 2 Last Week: 28 | The committee (of one) makes an exception to let D-Wade describe the 2006 champs' crash to the bottom: ''It's like having a nightmare and never waking up from it. You can't believe it's happening to you. But it is.'' | |
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