Power Rankings: Heat drop two spots to No. 4
Week: Team:
A slip all the way down to No. 4 might seem a little harsh on the Miami Heat after one road loss to the team leading the Western Conference.
Upon closer examination, though, it's clear that Miami's two-spot drop stems not just from one L but the fact the Chicago Bulls, Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are all rolling … as well as the fact LeBron James' form has noticeably dipped since he sustained what was initially feared to be a concussion.
The Bulls held off the Thunder to retain the top spot in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings thanks to three more wins without the injured Derrick Rose. OKC jumped from No. 4 to No. 2 after posting the biggest margin of victory against Miami all season. And San Antonio posted a 4-0 week of its own to retain its top-three status, while Atlanta and two Western Conference upstarts -- Phoenix and Utah -- made bold and unexpected jumps into the top 10.
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Also, check out John Hollinger's daily power rankings.
| 2011-12 Power Rankings: Week 13 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | First team to 40 wins. First team to clinch a playoff spot. Know-it-alls like me keep saying the Bulls can't get too giddy about their 12-4 record sans D-Rose, because they're going nowhere in the playoffs unless he's fully healed, but all the winning without him has to mean his supporting cast is better. Right? | |
| 2 |  | 2 Last Week: 4 | Worth repeating even if you already know: KD and Russ are the first teammates ever to score 40-plus points in the same game twice in their careers, let alone twice in the same season. The way OKC has played since an increasingly forgivable L in Utah makes you think this team is really starting to put it together. | |
| 3 |  | -- Last Week: 3 | I admit it: I thought this was the season that the Spurs, with such limited flexibility to change their team, could finally be written off. So naturally they've managed to strengthen a supporting cast that was already underrated by importing Jack, Diaw and Patty Mills ... moves that even have Tim Duncan talking big. | |
| 4 |  | 2 Last Week: 2 | Sunday's setback in OKC -- Miami's most lopsided L of the season -- will surely generate a fresh wave of loud doubt about the Heat's title chances. This is as far as I'll go: Failing to wrest the East's No. 1 seed away from wounded Chicago would be a worrying playoff harbinger ... as Professor Hollinger would say. | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 6 | Something tells me that the minutes Kobe didn't play Sunday night -- after all the hoopla about Sessions' impact, Bynum's increasing dominance and Pau's production since the trade deadline passed -- will get talked about way more than the fact he's in the running to lead the league in minutes in season No. 16. | |
| 6 |  | 1 Last Week: 5 | Progress? The Magic have beaten Phoenix and Cleveland since the shame of scoring just 59 points in last Monday's home loss to the Rose-less Bulls. If you remember how ugly things got after the season's other sub-60 showing -- teetering toward implosion after an 87-56 loss in Boston -- this 2-0 spurt seems significant. | |
| 7 |  | 4 Last Week: 11 | When you go four OTs in the last game of a back-to-back-to-back set and pull out a win against the league's hottest team, that'll generally get you some notice from Team of the Week selectors. Also notable: Joe Johnson is only averaging 23.3 ppg and shooting 51 percent on 3s in 11 games since returning from injury. | |
| 8 |  | -- Last Week: 8 | A 1-5 start with Zach Randolph back in the lineup is not what we expected. Ditto for the signing of Arenas. Ditto (again) for Sunday night's scenes from Staples Center, where Lionel Hollins moved Z-Bo onto the bench with Gil and nudged that record to 2-5 by bringing the Lakers back down to Earth. Crazy, crazy season. | |
| 9 |  | 4 Last Week: 13 | The Suns still haven't figured out that they have no business challenging for a playoff spot out West, moving to 11-4 since the All-Star break (second only to Chicago's 13-2 mark) and seeing Nash record his 10th 15-assist game in a win in Indy. That's more than twice as many as No. 2 in line: Rajon Rondo with four. | |
| 10 |  | 4 Last Week: 14 | Think we can pardon the Jazz for failing to finish off the Hawks in one of those four OTs after the six wins they just strung together, including Ws over the Lakers (away) and OKC (home). Favors has been especially impressive at both ends, which suggests Jefferson or Millsap is bound to be dealt sooner rather than later. | |
| 11 |  | 4 Last Week: 15 | Collison and P-George are the NBA's only backcourt mates to start in every single game this season now that the Kobe/Derek Fisher tag team has been busted up. That's pretty much the nicest thing we could say about the slipping Pacers until they went to Milwaukee on Saturday night and unexpectedly won by 21. | |
| 12 |  | 3 Last Week: 9 | As bad as things have been lately, lowlighted by nine straight games under 100 points and CP3's humbling New Orleans homecoming, check this out: Elias says this is only the third time since Donald Sterling moved them to L.A. in 1984 that the Clips have been more than five games over .500 this late in the season. | |
| 13 |  | 3 Last Week: 10 | Brandan Wright is becoming everything Calvin Booth was supposed to be in Dallas, but the locals only want to talk about Lamar Odom. So here goes: As little as Dallas is getting from LO, no less an authority than Rick Carlisle believes that the Mavs' 0-6 record without him is proof they need him. Even if it's just to spell Dirk. | |
| 14 |  | 4 Last Week: 18 | The Celts survived their eight-game trip with monster wins in Atlanta and Milwaukee to go 4-4 and bump their record since the All-Star break to 11-5. Rest assured that Philly, despite beating Boston twice at home, is fretting about holding off its o-l-d friends from Beantown for the division title with just six home games left. | |
| 15 |  | 2 Last Week: 17 | After another thud in the Knicks' roller-coaster season, they've got an immediate opportunity to avenge the Toronto setback in a huge home game Monday night against their closest pursuer in the standings. The Bucks won the season's first two meetings, but this is an all-new team defensively under Woodson. | |
| 16 |  | -- Last Week: 16 | Remember when Goran Dragic scored 23 points in the fourth quarter of a Suns playoff win in San Antonio? He's been looking like that Dragic for the Rockets lately, averaging 17.0 ppg, 9.4 apg and nearly two steals in place of the ailing Kyle Lowry to help the Rockets cling to a playoff spot without this season's best Rocket. | |
| 17 |  | 10 Last Week: 7 | Struggling to process how the Nuggets, even with all their injuries and roster turnover, have dropped 12 home games already. It's just as hard to believe that they've got only six home games left. We've all raved about the depth at George Karl's disposal, but missing out on the playoffs is growing more and more real. | |
| 18 |  | 6 Last Week: 12 | The Sixers still have more 20-point wins than anyone (12 to Chicago's 11) and zero wins in eight games decided by five points or fewer ... when every other team in the NBA has won two such games. Worse yet, Philly's 7-13 mark since Valentine's Day beats only Charlotte, Washington and Sacramento in that span. | |
| 19 |  | 1 Last Week: 20 | No Rubio, no Pekovic and no sign of surrender from the Wolves yet. Last seen in the throes of an argument on the Wolves' bench, K-Love and J.J. Barea just became only the second pair of teammates to post 50 points and a triple-double, respectively, in a loss: Friday night's 149-140 OT classic at OKC. | |
| 20 |  | 1 Last Week: 21 | The afterglow of three successive road wins by at least 20 points in Golden State, Portland and Charlotte -- something Milwaukee has never seen -- was pretty much erased by the two home Ls that accompanied the historic achievement. Losing to Boston was a killer and getting routed by Indy just rubbed it in. | |
| 21 |  | 2 Last Week: 19 | The Kaleb Canales story is a fairy tale to us -- since we haven't seen too many NBA head coaches from Mrs. Line's alma mater at UT-Arlington -- but I can understand how rabid Blazermaniacs might not see it that way. The deep-pocketed Paul Allen's team is run by an interim coach and an interim GM (Chad Buchanan)? | |
| 22 |  | 1 Last Week: 23 | Still can't convince me that the same fans known for that memorable We Believe campaign in 2007 can justify their behavior at the jersey retirement ceremony of true Dubs legend Chris Mullin. But I'll concede that The Sports Guy dished a thorough/provocative defense that makes you think and must be read. | |
| 23 |  | 1 Last Week: 24 | The Kings' recent push to get Isaiah Thomas more pub is understandable and justified given the rookie PG's success since becoming a starter in mid-February. The downside, of course, is that Thomas' success tends to draw more attention to Jimmer's rookie struggles. Especially in the heart of March Madness. | |
| 24 |  | 1 Last Week: 25 | Even by the standards of this wacky campaign, Toronto just completed a quirky five-day stretch of schedule. They almost pulled off a back-to-back sweep of the hot Knicks (at home) and hotter Bulls (losing by a point in overtime on the road) after losing by double digits to both teams earlier in the week. | |
| 25 |  | 1 Last Week: 26 | A brutal April schedule awaits for the Cavs, which really isn't the worst thing when you remember what we said in Week 10: Cleveland not-so-secretly has no problem plummeting in the standings to improve its draft lottery odds. As for your weekly Kyrie Update: He turned 20 on Friday. We repeat: Only 20, folks. | |
| 26 | New Orleans 12-36 | 2 Last Week: 28 | Even though I never thought there was much chance of the league-owned Hornets consenting to buy Kaman out and give him free rein to join Miami or some other top contender, it's been the dominant topic with this team for some time. Now? The focus shifts to the sale of the team ... if that ever happens. | |
| 27 |  | 5 Last Week: 22 | Sign of the times in Motown: Rodney Stuckey's injury opens the door for the (long) overdue Ben Gordon to riddle Denver for 45 points -- fueled by 9-for-9 shooting on 3s -- only for that news to be trumped by the Pistons' only national TV game (April 13 vs. Milwaukee) getting demoted back to local TV only. | |
| 28 |  | 1 Last Week: 29 | The Wizards have four wins in March ... which makes this their most wildly successful March since a 10-6 mark in March 2008. The Wiz, mind you, easily could have six wins this month if they didn't just squander a 22-point lead at home to the Pacers (Thursday) or a 16-point lead at home to the Hawks (Saturday). | |
| 29 | New Jersey 16-34 | 2 Last Week: 27 | What does D-Will have to show for the longest season of his career? A trip to All-Star Weekend. His 57 points against Charlotte and 50 points in a game for Besiktas of Turkey during the lockout. And, lately, technical fouls ... four Ts in the past four games as the frustration gets harder and harder to stifle. | |
| 30 | Charlotte 7-39 | -- Last Week: 30 | Things are looking up for Paul Silas. The Bobcats need only one more win in their final 20 games to ensure a higher winning percentage than the 9-73 Sixers of 1972-73. Also: Silas no longer has the lowest scoring average (9.4 ppg) among 10,000-point scorers thanks to Derek Fisher (8.7 ppg) joining the club. | |
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