Power Rankings: Cleveland climbs back to the top
Updated: April 1, 2009, 9:19 AM ET
By
Marc Stein | ESPN.com
Week: Team:
The Cleveland Cavaliers are 2-5 this season against the only other three teams that can join them in the 60-win club.
And surely you remember who inflicted the Cavs' only home defeat this season. Right?
Those are two reasons why, curious e-mailers, Cleveland hasn't been able to dislodge the team that's 1-0 at The Q from the top spot of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings. Until now.
With a 20-2 record since the All-Star break and a two-game edge over the Los Angeles Lakers for the league's best record with both teams down to their final nine games, Cleveland has done enough to mask the few blemishes on its résumé to move back to No. 1 for the first time in 11 Mondays. The Lakers, at 16-5 in the same span, fall to No. 2 after six straight weeks at the top.
Denver's return to the top 10, at No. 6, is this week's other notable climb. You can click here to rank the teams yourself and click here to comment.
Also, check out John Hollinger's daily NBA Power Rankings.
Tune in Tuesdays to "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see this week's U.S. Army Power Rankings. The Nuggets are the U.S. Army Team of the Week after posting road wins in New Orleans and Dallas without the suspended Nene to maintain their slim lead atop the Northwest Division.
| 2008-09 Power Rankings: Week 22 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | 1 Last Week: 2 | Something else to boost Cleveland's case/title chances: Only four teams can stop the Cavs from winning a championship and three of them (thanks to Bynum, Garnett and Duncan/Ginobili) still face major injury uncertainty. | |
| 2 |  | 1 Last Week: 1 | You'd typically pardon an L in Atlanta knowing what the Hawks are like at home. In this case, though, L.A. has to take a hit, failing to get to 80 points right after the Hawks fell to the Timmy-less Spurs and KG-less Celts. | |
| 3 |  | 1 Last Week: 4 | If Stan Van Gundy meant the "whatever" part in the following quote -- "Some people still have the same [unflattering] opinion of us, so whatever" -- why does he keep lodging the same complaint almost every week? | |
| 4 |  | 1 Last Week: 3 | You probably know what we're going to say, but the safety-first committee (of one) can't help it. We urge Doc to shelve KG until the playoffs, banking on the idea he can use the first round to get his sharpness back. | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 6 | It appears that concern about the health of Timmy and Manu isn't going away until we see how they look in the playoffs. Looks like what's gone away instead is all the usual Odd Years Are San Antonio's Year chatter. | |
| 6 |  | 5 Last Week: 11 | A deserved return to Denver's old No. 6 perch. Opposition injuries have certainly helped in a few cases, but the Nuggets have now racked up road W's in Boston, San Antonio, Orlando, New Orleans and Dallas twice. | |
| 7 |  | 2 Last Week: 5 | Maybe it's contradictory to say this team has been stabilized by T-Mac's exit but that we also remain skeptical of the Rockets as a playoff entity. You tell us, though. How do they win over skeptics before winning a round? | |
| 8 | New Orleans 45-27 | -- Last Week: 8 | We thought Dallas had an opening to get out of the dreaded No. 8 spot with two cracks at the Hornets and Chandler (and possibly Peja) expected to miss both. Then N.O. beat the Spurs without those two and Posey. | |
| 9 |  | -- Last Week: 9 | Home dates with the Jazz, Lakers and Nuggets. Five more road games to go with those three toughies at home. But you know what? Utah's closing schedule is still worse, so maybe Portland can hang on to the No. 5 seed. | |
| 10 |  | 3 Last Week: 7 | Does a win over the Lakers after their aforementioned stumbles against Duncan-less San Antonio and Garnett-less Boston restore the Hawks' home-court fear factor? Another question only the playoffs will answer. | |
| 11 |  | 1 Last Week: 10 | The Jazz are 1-14 on the road against teams with a winning record ... and that one was way back on Nov. 11 at Philly. Which is a stat you can't blow off when all six of their remaining roadies are against winning teams. | |
| 12 |  | -- Last Week: 12 | The good news: No. 8 Dallas has been presented with three very winnable games this week before the teetering No. 9 Suns arrive for Sunday's showdown. The bad news: Read the comment next to the Hornets' logo. | |
| 13 |  | 1 Last Week: 14 | Heat lovers hate hearing this stuff from yours truly. So what about when Tim Duncan says it? TD on the MVP race: "Wade's definitely third. It's those other two [LeBron and Kobe] I can't make a decision on." | |
| 14 |  | 2 Last Week: 16 | This is starting to feel like 2005-06, when Chicago closed with a 12-2 rush to go 41-41 before pushing the eventual champs from Miami to six games in Round 1. At least that's what longtime Bulls observer Sam Smith says. | |
| 15 |  | 3 Last Week: 18 | We said it a bunch: No way AI goes into free agency, in this economy, with the world thinking he tanked the last 25 games to avoid sixth-man duty. But we also have to admit we didn't expect AI to sit out as long as he did. | |
| 16 |  | 1 Last Week: 15 | Sometimes nostalgia is good, like playing at the Spectrum one last time. And sometimes nostalgia ruins your weekend, like Larry Brown's Bobs winning Friday in Philly, followed by Philly's loss in Detroit in AI's return. | |
| 17 |  | 4 Last Week: 13 | The last time Shaq missed the playoffs -- with Orlando at 41-41 in his rookie season -- his team won the lottery as a consolation prize. Knowing how lucky the Suns are, though, do you think that's even an option? | |
| 18 | Charlotte 33-40 | 1 Last Week: 17 | The Bobcats have never played a game in April that mattered. That will finally change this week in spite of a loss at Washington that realistically dooms Larry's Bobs now that the Pistons have finally awakened. | |
| 19 |  | 2 Last Week: 21 | The umpteenth Pacers paradox of the season: Our man Troy Murphy strains his knee on the final play of the morning shootaround ... and then Indy goes out and beats Miami anyway without Murphy or Dunleavy. | |
| 20 |  | 1 Last Week: 19 | It says a lot about what piques national interest in 2009 when Charlie Villanueva's Twitter account generates reams more coverage than all the injuries and everything else that's happened in Milwaukee this season. | |
| 21 | New Jersey 30-43 | 1 Last Week: 20 | Everyone knows Brook Lopez was an absolute steal at No. 10. His rookie prowess is a heartening counter to the massive Yi Jianlian disappointment. Doesn't mean he's worthy of passing Rose on our ROY ballot, though. | |
| 22 |  | 3 Last Week: 25 | Par for the season, eh? Not until our Raps fall 20 games under .500 -- and not until some of the locals start openly souring on Bosh -- do they string four wins together for the first time since (yikes) December of last season. | |
| 23 |  | 1 Last Week: 22 | The ballyhooed Summer of 2010 can't get here fast enough, huh? The Knicks' depressing March swoon out of the playoff race has clinched their eighth straight losing season. One more and they set a franchise record. | |
| 24 |  | 1 Last Week: 23 | Can't let it go. Can't stop wondering, even if Chandler is injured, why the Thunder didn't just go through with the trade, sit him for the rest of the season and try to get him right for the final two seasons on his contract. | |
| 25 |  | 4 Last Week: 29 | I still say Arenas shouldn't have played this season, even if it's just in a few games, because of the re-injury risk. But DA's piece on NBA.com recalling a similar situation for our beloved Bernard King did get us thinking. | |
| 26 |  | 2 Last Week: 24 | The defenseless Dubs have allowed 125 points or more 12 times, going 1-11 in those games. That's twice as many as the next team in line (Kings with six) and the first time it's happened to any team since (gulp) 1992-93. | |
| 27 |  | 1 Last Week: 28 | Figures. After losing all those picks in the Joe Smith affair and flubbing multiple picks it did get to keep, Minnesota might have four firsts this June when everyone says the draft pool is as shallow as it's been in years. | |
| 28 |  | 2 Last Week: 26 | The Grizz help us explain why Utah's road woes are such a hot topic. Check out the other six teams besides Utah with just one road win against teams over .500: Bobcats, Knicks, Warriors, Wizards, Kings . . . and Grizz. | |
| 29 |  | 1 Last Week: 30 | This should tell you how serious we were about finding fresh Kings material with a few weeks of comments to go: The committee (of one) is in Sactown as we speak for research (OK ... and Vlade Divac's jersey retirement). | |
| 30 |  | 3 Last Week: 27 | We ask again: How disinterested and uncompetitive have these guys been lately? The Clips' seemingly infinite capacity to torment the Knicks can't mask the fact that 21 of their last 25 losses are double-digit losses. | |
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