Power Rankings: Lakers edge Suns for No. 1 spot
Updated: November 30, 2009, 12:50 PM ET
By
Marc Stein | ESPN.com
Week: Team:
Two teams made a strong claim for the top spot in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings on the fifth Monday of the regular season.
But you know we don't do ties here, so the Los Angeles Lakers managed to hang on to the No. 1 slot over the Phoenix Suns, even though Phoenix already has a league-leading eight road wins.
| ESPN.com Senior Writer Marc Stein |
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The tiebreakers, in this case, are the street cred L.A. sports as an unquestioned title favorite as well as its 19-point pounding of the Suns in the teams' only head-to-head meeting (although that game was the second half of a back-to-back for Phoenix and its sixth road date in seven games). Remember, the big picture is always part of the power-computing equation in the "human" version of the NBA rankings … and Steve Nash would be the first to tell you that the Lakers -- especially since Pau Gasol's return from injury -- remain a notch or three ahead of the Suns in that category.
Other prominent upward movers include Orlando (inching from No. 4 to No. 3), Cleveland (rising from No. 7 to No. 4 thanks in part to slips by Atlanta, Denver and Dallas) and Houston (sneaking up to No. 9 largely because there was no obvious "next" after the current Elite Eight).
Click here to rank the teams yourself, or click here to comment on these rankings.
| 2009-10 Power Rankings: Week 5 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | The Lakers play only four of their first 21 games on the road. The Suns play only seven of their first 22 games at home. The relevance? Trying to find something for the Lakers to sweat after six straight double-digit wins. | |
| 2 |  | 1 Last Week: 3 | First team in the league to 14 wins. Only team in the league that hasn't lost at home. Seventeen games played? Seventeen games with 100 points or more. We clearly had the Suns too low at No. 10 in the preseason. | |
| 3 |  | 1 Last Week: 4 | As a longtime J-Will fan, I promised to stifle my bias for a bit before touting what a sneaky-good pickup he was for a team that lost a lot of playmaking when Turkoglu left town. I'll let you decide: Is crowing OK now? | |
| 4 |  | 3 Last Week: 7 | It's not exactly Hollinger-esque data, but this stat won't discourage folks who think LeBron's team would always be better off playing at a faster pace: Cleveland is 12-3 since an 0-2 start and 9-0 when it scores 100. | |
| 5 |  | 3 Last Week: 2 | The Hawks take a dip, but not because their coach recently said out loud: "What's Power Rankings?" It's because Woody's Hawks got roughed up by Orlando (and Detroit) after all the buildup to their big Thanksgiving game. | |
| 6 |  | 2 Last Week: 8 | Ray Allen is shooting 30.1 percent from long range. Sheed is 12-for-63 on 3s since sinking six 3s in Philly on Nov. 3. And Boston has given up 110 or more points three times ... after doing so just six times in '08-09. | |
| 7 |  | 1 Last Week: 6 | Losing at home to the six-man Warriors can't go unpunished -- hence the drop to No. 7 -- but maybe we've been a bit too tough on the Mavs. They've had injuries, too ... but going 7-3 on the road works for anyone. | |
| 8 |  | 3 Last Week: 5 | What kind of long shot were the Wolves to end Denver's 17-game home winning streak? The Nugs are the second team ever with a win percentage of .750 or better to get dumped by a team on a skid of at least 15 games. | |
| 9 |  | 2 Last Week: 11 | GM Daryl Morey, via Twitter, on the new Rockets: "We cannot win if we are in [a half-court game] as much as [the] opponent." As for the tweeted conclusion you did expect from him: "We have little margin for error." | |
| 10 |  | 2 Last Week: 12 | Real Salt Lake has set the bar high with the city's first championship since the ABA's Utah Stars won one in '71, but the Jazz have more modest aspirations these days. Restoring their dominance at home, for starters. | |
| 11 |  | 2 Last Week: 9 | No time to revel in the best statistical run of Oden's young career when it coincides with new injury problems (Outlaw and Batum) and humbling double-digit losses (on the road to Golden State and at home to Memphis). | |
| 12 |  | 3 Last Week: 15 | Problem No. 1 has been solved: San Antonio finally has a road win after breaking through in Houston. Next up? Finding some lasting health and building up some momentum with only six road games left in 2009. | |
| 13 |  | 1 Last Week: 14 | Morey after Houston inflicted Oklahoma City's fourth home loss: "Huge W against vastly improved OKC [team] playing like a top-10 [team]." Top-15 is more like it, but add him to the (growing) list of Thunder admirers. | |
| 14 |  | 1 Last Week: 13 | Good thing they've somehow found a way to win the close ones. The Heat are 4-0 in games decided by five points or fewer but start a western swing (A) mired in a 3-6 funk and (B) still asking D-Wade to do more than ever. | |
| 15 |  | 5 Last Week: 10 | After all the slobbering over Jennings, we have to devote as much space to the little lefty's bad days, too. So here goes: Jennings has averaged just 14 points during the Bucks' four-game skid while shooting (gulp) 20-for-69. | |
| 16 |  | 3 Last Week: 19 | The Kings take a .500 record into December. We repeat: Sacramento is a .500 team despite losing Kev Martin to a wrist injury. With apologies to anyone else worth nominating, this is your Surprise Team of November. | |
| 17 |  | 1 Last Week: 16 | If the Bulls got anything out of their latest dreaded circus trip -- with their composite post-MJ record on those trips now a haunting 10-60 -- it was a nice view of potential trade target Boozer's best game of the season. | |
| 18 |  | 5 Last Week: 23 | Has the worst passed for Mike Dunleavy? We would be asking different questions if not for that epic fourth-quarter comeback against the Griz, but the Clips have quietly gone 4-1 starting with that home win over Denver. | |
| 19 | Charlotte 7-9 | 6 Last Week: 25 | Did we wake these guys up or what? Since last week's comment in this cyberspace that the Bobs wouldn't score or win enough to resist shopping Stephen Jackson before the trade deadline, they're 4-0. | |
| 20 | New Orleans 7-10 | 2 Last Week: 18 | Whatever weird mojo makes the Hornets unbeatable at home as long as the game goes to OT -- they've won 11 straight OT games at their place -- worked against Milwaukee even with CP3 out. So something's working. | |
| 21 |  | 4 Last Week: 17 | As pointed out by Twitter follower JumpedTheWeis, Toronto's struggles have helped drag the Atlantic Division back toward Titanic status. The Raps, Sixers, Knicks and Nets have a combined (gulp) 31 losses in a row. | |
| 22 |  | -- Last Week: 22 | Detroit's best (and sturdiest) player so far has been a 35-year-old named Ben Wallace. Which would make for a heartwarming story if not for all the losses and injuries that piled up on the Pistons in a rough November. | |
| 23 |  | 2 Last Week: 21 | A run of six straight games against top-flight teams ended with a 33-point hammering from the Lakers. The Dubs would prefer that we focus on the wins over Portland and Dallas, but that depends on what happens next. | |
| 24 |  | 4 Last Week: 20 | Mike Dunleavy Jr. finally returned, but Hansbrough and Granger missed time with their own knee issues last week. Don't think you need reminding that Indy needs everybody to have any shot at the East's top eight. | |
| 25 |  | 1 Last Week: 26 | We were all set to wax poetic about how the one Iverson story no one is writing is how well Memphis has played since A.I. left. Then the Griz gave up 33 of the game's final 40 points to blow a 22-point lead in Clipperland. | |
| 26 |  | 2 Last Week: 24 | Heavy sadness overwhelmed the chaos in Washington with the passing of owner Abe Pollin … only for a bad home loss to Charlotte to bring all the tension back. No one in the Wizards' world is going to miss November. | |
| 27 |  | 2 Last Week: 29 | This was only the second time two teams have started 1-15 or worse in the same season. Which is why there isn't a soul who can get away with claiming that he/she saw the Wolves winning in Denver to get to 2-15. | |
| 28 |  | 1 Last Week: 27 | The biggest problem we see with bringing Iverson back, even if it provides a short-term boost at the gate, is that Philly would eventually have to let him go again. And then deal with all the post-A.I. fallout for a second time. | |
| 29 |  | 1 Last Week: 28 | The good news: Al Harrington has somehow erupted for 40 points or more twice off the bench. The bad news: Harrington's Knicks have surrendered four of the league's past 10 50-point games after Melo's 50 on Friday. | |
| 30 | New Jersey 0-17 | -- Last Week: 30 | Can't tell you quite yet who the next coach will be. Can tell you that three of the Nets' next five games (Friday vs. Charlotte, Saturday at New York and Dec. 9 vs. Golden State) would appear to be (somewhat) winnable. | |
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