Power Rankings: San Antonio Spurs finish No. 1
Week: Team:
The season's first edition of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings had the San Antonio Spurs ranked 10th … and headed in the direction of the Senior Tour.
A mere 122 days later, Team Duncan sits atop the final 2011-12 edition of the rankings, looking every bit like the NBA's Masters of the Lockout-Shortened Season. Again.
The playoffs begin Saturday with San Antonio, thanks to two 11-game win streaks fueled by Tony Parker's monster season and a young and springy supporting cast that has rejuvenated Tim Duncan, looking like a sure thing to open as the West's No. 1 seed. The Spurs and No. 2-ranked Chicago remain the only teams in the league that can win 50 games in this 66-game schedule depending on what happens this week.
In the other notable developments in the top 10, Miami has climbed back into the top five entering the playoffs (at No. 3), with the Los Angeles Clippers closing at No. 5 thanks to their ongoing 14-3 run, Indiana checking in at a surprising No. 6 … and the Los Angeles Lakers slumping to No. 8 thanks to the forthcoming suspension of Metta World Peace that undeniably deflates L.A.'s playoff momentum.
Check back here every Monday during the regular season for the latest fresh and nonautomated pulse-take of the league's 30 teams, with unparalleled dishing from ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau to help the committee (of one) with its calculations. Click here to rank the teams yourself, or click here to comment on these rankings.
Also, check out John Hollinger's daily power rankings.
| 2011-12 Power Rankings: Week 17 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | 2 Last Week: 3 | David Robinson just proclaimed on Twitter that "this is the best we've looked headed into the playoffs." I think he meant "ever." Also think he might be right. The Spurs secretly fret about Manu's health even more than they worry about Duncan's, but this Pass of the Season would suggest he's ready to roll. | |
| 2 |  | 1 Last Week: 1 | Foot. Ankle. Groin. Back. Toe. Derrick Rose has missed time because of injuries to all of those body parts and conceivably can't be 100 percent when the playoffs start. Because the same goes for Luol Deng, I can't make Chicago my favorites to win the East, no matter how stubborn it's been (17-9) when D-Rose sits. | |
| 3 |  | 3 Last Week: 6 | D-Wade just dislocated a finger, LeBron is lobbying to be rested in the final two games and their supporting cast continues to underwhelm. But I stick with what I said in the Bulls section: Miami wins the East. The No. 2 seed's side of the bracket looks slightly more inviting. Especially if the Knicks somehow finish sixth. | |
| 4 |  | 2 Last Week: 2 | NBA.com's one-man rankings committee (John Schuhmann) tweeted Sunday night that the Thunder are 0-6 against playoff teams since their April 1 home win over Chicago. There's worse news: OKC might very well have to beat the Mavericks, Lakers and Spurs, in order, just to make it to its maiden NBA Finals. | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 4 | Blake's FT woes, Caron's hip and limited playoff experience sans Chauncey are all big concerns. Just don't forget the Clips also have a closer in CP3 with eight game-winning buckets in the last 10 seconds of the fourth quarter or OT over the last four seasons, tying Melo and Kobe for most in the NBA in that span. | |
| 6 |  | 1 Last Week: 7 | One of this season's more eclectic (and impressive) stats: Indy had only two players on the roster making more than $3 mil (Granger and D-West) before the trade-deadline acquisition of Barbosa. And one of those two (Granger) has been at his most efficient and effective in April to spark the Pacers' 11-2 month. | |
| 7 |  | 2 Last Week: 9 | Simmons' latest Grantland missive served up the reminder that the Griz have risen to "The Team Absolutely No One Wants To Play In The West" status despite trading K-Love for O.J. Mayo on draft night in 2008 and then drafting Hasheem Thabeet. Something is amiss, though: We're still not seeing last spring's Z-Bo yet. | |
| 8 |  | 3 Last Week: 5 | Overtime is their time: Kobe & Co. are now 6-1 in OT games. The Lakers also have a league-leading 10 wins in games decided by three points or less. Amid Sunday's Metta World Peace implosion, L.A. can find some solace in all those narrow escapes if it delivers a Staples Center crown and the West's No. 3 seed. | |
| 9 |  | 1 Last Week: 8 | Fair question to raise when the Celts might not have home court in any series and with Rondo (back), Ray (ankle) and Pierce (toe) all dealing with fresh health nuisances: Did the Sports Guy -- and, to a lesser extent, us -- jinx the Celts by raving too much lately about how good they've been since the All-Star break? | |
| 10 |  | 1 Last Week: 11 | Expounding on our Heat thoughts: Miami's road back to the Finals gets infinitely easier if the Knicks finish sixth and thus spare the Heaters from having to beat New York and Indy just to get to Chicago. Not that the Knicks can spend too much time thinking about all that when Amare's return is causing such angst. | |
| 11 |  | 2 Last Week: 13 | The Nuggets might not inspire Memphis levels of fear, but they won't be any fun to play in the playoffs, either. They're one win shy of sealing just the third winning road record in the club's 36 NBA seasons and are as healthy and deep as they've been all season, starting with Afflalo, Lawson and Dre Miller. | |
| 12 |  | 2 Last Week: 14 | Joe Johnson's 30-point eruption Friday against the starless Celts (Rondo, Pierce, KG and Ray all sat) halted a worrying run of nine straight games below 20 points. More worrisome, perhaps, is the fact that the Celts don't seem too bothered about who has home-court advantage in their looming Round 1 encounter. | |
| 13 |  | 1 Last Week: 12 | Good news: Dallas got a big schedule break that'll net a week off for J-Kidd, who usually benefits hugely from an on-the-fly chance to recharge. The bad news for the reigning champs: Finishing No. 7 and facing OKC in Round 1 looks like the best option, matchup-wise, compared to opening with the Spurs or Lakers. | |
| 14 |  | 1 Last Week: 15 | If you're going to try to make the playoffs with an 11-22 road record, at least have the good sense (like Utah) to finish off your road schedule first. Tuesday's date with the Suns in SLC decides whether this Jazz makes it ... with a consolation prize courtesy of Golden State's lunacy likely waiting either way. | |
| 15 |  | 5 Last Week: 10 | No team has rallied from six games below .500 at the All-Star break to make the playoffs since the Suns themselves (and the Clippers) way back in 1996-97. Of course, if Phoenix falls short now after all it did to climb out of a 14-20 hole, Nash surrenders the No. 5 spot on our MVP ballot to Kobe/Rondo/someone TBD. | |
| 16 |  | 2 Last Week: 18 | We repeat: No. 8 is (marginally) better than No. 7 for the Sixers because they've been routinely pounded by the Heat and because the Bulls are still nursing D-Rose back to health. Also: Can someone please explain how Collins was supposed to do more with a team that doesn't even have a top-30 offensive threat? | |
| 17 |  | 2 Last Week: 19 | You have to believe that the Magic -- even in this beaten-down, Dwight-less state -- will get the win they need against Charlotte to at least lock up the No. 6 seed. Totally self-centered aside: The committee (of one) happened to be in Philadelphia for what might go down as Dwight's last-ever game with the Magic. | |
| 18 |  | 3 Last Week: 15 | Was a McHale/Lowry confrontation -- during the third loss of the Rockets' fatal 1-7 unraveling -- the episode that doomed these guys in spite of our favorite Dragon's MIP surge? A home win over New Orleans in Houston's finale would (gulp) make it three straight seasons out of the playoffs with a winning record. | |
| 19 |  | 2 Last Week: 17 | Within a half-game of a playoff spot on April 7, Milwaukee lost five of the next six games to pretty much guarantee that the No. 4 all-time franchise in division titles (behind only the Lakers, Celtics and Spurs) won't be heard from this postseason ... apart from those new Wendy's commercials with Junior Bridgeman. | |
| 20 | New Orleans 20-44 | 2 Last Week: 22 | The Hornets have a well-respected new owner with local ties, just landed the 2014 All-Star Game and somehow sport a 5-2 record this month when Eric Gordon is on the floor. They also have two lottery picks coming, but I can't help wondering if CP3 might have wanted to stay had Tom Benson bought in sooner. | |
| 21 |  | 1 Last Week: 20 | The season's final (sad) word goes to Blazers escapee Marcus Camby from the season's final Weekend Dime: "They might not want to admit it, but when I was there, my goodness, people (in the locker room) were saying, "Are we really snake-bit? Are we really cursed?" Doubts and talks like that came about." | |
| 22 |  | 3 Last Week: 25 | The injury-ravaged Wolves did have enough left to finally shake their April albatross. Of far greater concern: For all the Love-and-Rubio hoopla, Sota has no lotto pick coming this June and has seen very little from David Kahn's last two top-five picks: Wes Johnson (No. 4 in 2010) and Derrick Williams (No. 2 in 2011). | |
| 23 |  | 4 Last Week: 27 | With all this tanking going around -- most of which we're fine with because the current lottery system, like it or not, encourages it when you've got a bad team -- do we applaud the Cavs for letting Kyrie come back for a late-season bow on his pending Rookie of the Year coronation? Only if he doesn't get hurt. | |
| 24 |  | 2 Last Week: 22 | Anyone else hoping Valanciunas, when he joins our Raps next season, makes it a condition of his new deal that they can never again wear camouflage? The team he'll be joining has now missed the playoffs for four straight springs ... although, for the record, they weren't trying to avoid the 2012 lottery. | |
| 25 | New Jersey 22-42 | 2 Last Week: 23 | Let's hope Prokhorov is a lot more visible in Brooklyn than he ever was in Jersey. If it doesn't sink in soon that players want tangible evidence he cares about the Nets before they get excited about playing for them, this franchise might be doomed to even more of the misery expertly summed up here and here. | |
| 26 |  | 2 Last Week: 24 | Jonas Jerebko has guaranteed that the Pistons will make the playoffs next season. He's one of the better building blocks on Detroit's roster along with G-Monroe and an improving (at last) Stuckey, but who in Motown shares that enthusiasm? Who revels in a 20-20 mark since Feb. 3 when it's preceded by a 4-20 start? | |
| 27 |  | 1 Last Week: 28 | You gotta slap a big ol' asterisk out of the Phil Jackson guidebook to lockout-shortened seasons onto this sentence because of the players who were sitting out, but what was the only team this season to win in Miami's building and Chicago's building this season? That's right: Somehow it's Randy Wittman's Wiz. | |
| 28 |  | 1 Last Week: 29 | Understand tempers in Sac-Town are frayed. Also understand that Kings fans are genuinely excited about li'l Isaiah Thomas and his legitimately promising debut season. None of that, though, is sufficient cause to put IT at No. 3 on my ROY ballot over what Denver's Kenneth Faried did for a playoff team. Sorry. | |
| 29 |  | 3 Last Week: 26 | Something tells me it doesn't surprise Dubs diehards one bit that their team, out of the playoffs in 17 of the last 18 seasons, won at Sota to potentially spoil all the tanking they've done lately to hang onto their No. 1 pick, which is Utah-bound unless it's in the top seven. Said one rival exec: "Worst win of the season." | |
| 30 | Charlotte 7-56 | -- Last Week: 30 | How did TNT know when the season began that they had to put the Bobcats and their desperate quest to avoid ultimate NBA futility on the regular season's final TNT Thursday? Better question: Will No. 23 hold the same reverence if MJ's Bobcats lose all three games this week and close with a 23-game skid? | |
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