Power Rankings: Banged-up Bulls still NBA's best
Week: Team:
In a season defined by injuries more than anything so far, with most teams closing in on the 20-game mark on their fast-tracked schedules, Chicago is a fitting No. 1 in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings.
That's because the Bulls, at least so far, keep stacking up wins to go along with all their injuries.
Yet we'll have to see if the Bulls can keep that up now that Luol Deng (wrist), Joakim Noah (ankle) and Taj Gibson (another bad ankle) are all ailing alongside Derrick Rose and his nagging toe woes. The Oklahoma City Thunder might have supplanted the Bulls by now if they hadn't lost embarrassingly in Washington last Wednesday night, which essentially sealed OKC's drop from No. 2 to No. 4 in a week that should have been celebratory after star guard Russell Westbrook was signed to a five-year contract extension.
Denver (No. 8 to No. 3), Indiana (No. 9 to No. 6), Orlando (No. 11 to No. 8), Atlanta (No. 12 to No. 9) and Memphis (No. 17 to No. 10) are the most notable upward movers in this week's poll. The steepest drops were suffered by the Los Angeles Lakers (No. 7 to No. 15) and the New York Knicks (No. 16 to No. 25), two glamour teams awash in crisis talk thanks to their respective losing streaks.
Check back every Monday during the regular season for a fresh and fully nonautomated pulse-take of the league's 30 teams, which is compiled with Ricky Rubio-esque dishing from ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau. 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 4 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | As long as this turf-toe deal eventually heals, Rose and the Bulls are bound to be grateful later that he's getting rest now and that they're getting away with it in the short term against a string of sub-.500 foes. Think you already know what it means if the toe isn't healing properly. | |
| 2 |  | 3 Last Week: 5 | Something tells me Miami will hear a lot more about its home loss to a Milwaukee team that couldn't win on the road until this past weekend than its recent wins over the Spurs, Lakers and Sixers without D-Wade. Something also tells me that the Heatles are used to it by now. | |
| 3 |  | 5 Last Week: 8 | They're a win in Sacramento away from a 5-0 road trip and sport the league's third-best record at 30-12 since the Melo trade last February. No wonder Frank Isola of the New York Daily News proclaimed Saturday night on Twitter that we should start calling it the Gallo trade. | |
| 4 |  | 2 Last Week: 2 | The Thunder are one of just two teams with a better regular-season record than Denver since Melo was dealt to New York on Feb. 22, 2011: Chicago is 39-7 and OKC is 33-11. But a loss in D.C. -- Durant's hometown! -- isn't easily overlooked by the committee (of one). | |
| 5 |  | 2 Last Week: 3 | Villanova-ex Kyle Lowry looks like the early MIP favorite, but Spencer Hawes' growing importance to the Sixers is tangible even when he's not out there. Philly lost by 21 in Miami without its improving center (Achilles) after suffering its first four L's by only 17 points combined. | |
| 6 |  | 3 Last Week: 9 | Who had Indy as one of the last two teams, along with Chicago, to be unbeaten at home? Who had the Pacers winning games like Sunday night's in Lakerland when Granger is shooting 35.5 percent? The schedule has been kind, but the truth is they could (and should) be 13-2. | |
| 7 |  | 3 Last Week: 4 | Sentences we never thought we'd utter even with Manu still sidelined by that long-term hand injury: San Antonio is tied with its old friends from Lakerland, at 1-6, for the worst road record in the West. No wonder Pop has already publicly blasted the Spurs as "soft." | |
| 8 |  | 3 Last Week: 11 | It's not just Ryan Anderson shooting lights out: Hedo's doin' it under the radar, too. And as noted in the Weekend Dime, Dwight has debunked any notion of trade uncertainty impacting his production, on course to be just the NBA's second 20-and-15 man since Moses in 1982-83. | |
| 9 |  | 3 Last Week: 12 | Apologies to the Hawks. They've mostly beaten up on patsies in this 5-1 run without Al Horford, but there's been no dip from them yet. Larry Drew actually called them out for some surrender signs in Friday's loss in Philly ... and they responded by shredding Cleveland by 27. | |
| 10 |  | 7 Last Week: 17 | Make that six straight wins for the Z-Bo-less Grizz and double-digit rebounds in 11 of Marc Gasol's past 12 games. The Spaniard's run of 10 in a row before the streak was halted was two games longer than brother Pau's best-ever run of consecutive double-figure board games. | |
| 11 |  | 5 Last Week: 6 | CP3 had the good sense to deliver difference-making performances in victories over the Heat and Lakers before pulling that hammy. And short-term survival without him is feasible, remember, because PG is the one area that the Clips have some depth with Chauncey and Mo Williams. | |
| 12 |  | 2 Last Week: 10 | The basics: Dirk wanted to play through his knee issues; Carlisle and the Mavs' medical team have insisted he try a different approach away from game action. Far tougher to explain is how the Tyson Chandler-less Mavs continue to play top-three D. | |
| 13 |  | 2 Last Week: 15 | The schedule has certainly softened some, sure, but production from the center spot makes a big difference, too. Lowry and Kevin Martin are a much more dangerous backcourt when Dalembert averages 14.7 ppg, 10.8 rpg and 2.7 bpg, which happen to be Sammy's streak numbers. | |
| 14 |  | -- Last Week: 14 | Right there with anything we've seen from a team whose only 2012 losses were inflicted by the Lakers and Mavs by six points combined: Utah just held Kevin Love to 15 and eight. Love's 15 straight double-doubles to start the season was the NBA's longest streak in 30 years. | |
| 15 |  | 8 Last Week: 7 | Kobe might be right. Bryant, Pau and Bynum might still be as dangerous as any Big Three. But if there's nothing else behind 'em, this won't work. The case for trading Gasol for a couple of quality youngs, after 11 straight games under 100 points, is only getting stronger. | |
| 16 |  | 3 Last Week: 13 | We were prepared to attribute most of the Blazers' struggles since that promising start to the tough schedule they've seen lately. But then they went to Detroit and lost to a team that scores 85 points per game and sports the league's fourth-worst average scoring margin (minus-9.4). | |
| 17 |  | 5 Last Week: 22 | A smile has to crease Scott Skiles' face after the winless-on-the-road Bucks broke through with back-to-back wins at New York and Miami. Doesn't it? I was already smiling, though, because Brandon Jennings -- PG on our All-Lefty Team -- is playing more efficiently than ever before. | |
| 18 |  | -- Last Week: 18 | Fearless Prediction: Sota will relent between now and Wednesday's deadline and give Kevin Love that extra fifth season on a max contract extension. Fearless Prediction II: Ricky Rubio would narrowly win ROY honors over Kyrie Irving if the balloting closed today. | |
| 19 |  | 4 Last Week: 23 | Winning a nationally televised road game in Boston with a whopping total of 79 points? Nash and Gortat leading the team in scoring at a tick under 15 ppg? You're thoroughly forgiven if you're still struggling to come to grips with the new world order on Planet Orange. | |
| 20 |  | -- Last Week: 20 | The surprise isn't that the reeling Celts are willing to blow up their aging roster. The surprise is that their decision-makers openly acknowledge it, which is going over as well as you'd expect in a locker room you'll recall needed weeks to get over the Perk trade. | |
| 21 |  | -- Last Week: 21 | For a guy with 15 games on his resume, Mark Jackson is rather well-acquainted with excruciating losses. Four of the Dubs' 10 defeats have been sealed in the final minute, including Friday's home L to Indy aided by what the league admitted was a kicked ball that the refs missed. | |
| 22 |  | 7 Last Week: 29 | Home win over the Pacers thanks to a stifling late zone? Road win in San Antonio no Kings fan would have dared to predict after the way this team played in Dallas, Texas? Adds up to a week off from the usual harping here about Sac-Town's desperate need for a real passer. | |
| 23 |  | 4 Last Week: 19 | It'll take a lot to put a damper on Kyrie Fever in Cleveland -- much like the committee's unshakeable Casspi obsession -- but last week was an undeniable patience-tester after a home loss to Golden State was followed by back-to-back L's to Chicago and Atlanta by a combined 66 points. | |
| 24 |  | 3 Last Week: 27 | Statistical Oddities Corner: Detroit is one of just two teams, along with Miami, that hasn't let an opposing scorer out there post a 30-point game against them yet. Those same Pistons, though, have played 17 games and are still waiting to find out how it feels to score 100 points. | |
| 25 |  | 9 Last Week: 16 | As rough as things are with no real PG and Amare and Melo meshing worse than the loudest naysayers projected, I'd still have done the Melo deal. The Knicks clearly surrendered more than anyone thought at the time, but it's still harder than anything to get players that good. | |
| 26 | New Jersey 5-12 | -- Last Week: 26 | D-Will was a rebound shy of his first career triple-double in Sunday's win over Charlotte, but the Nets have a more immediate statistical goal, having somehow managed to post a lower team shooting percentage from the field than the opposition in (gulp) all 17 games so far. | |
| 27 | New Orleans 3-13 | 2 Last Week: 25 | Expectations were obviously low after the CP3 trade, but the Hornets presumably wouldn't be caught in a 1-13 tailspin if they could have dressed their projected starting lineup (J. Jack, E. Gordon, Ariza, Landry and Okafor) at least once. Hasn't happened yet thanks to injuries. | |
| 28 |  | 4 Last Week: 24 | The compacted season can't go fast enough for the Raps, who are clearly waiting for the draft in June but still have to play 49 games between now and then. They couldn't score with Bargnani and they've lost six in a row without him, posting a high of 91 points in that span. | |
| 29 | Charlotte 3-14 | 1 Last Week: 28 | The Bobcats' two best games all season, apart from that thriller they lost at home to Miami in late December, were the two they've played at Madison Square Garden this month. Which makes the slumping Knicks' visit to Charlotte on Monday night unexpectedly crucial viewing. | |
| 30 |  | -- Last Week: 30 | Can't beat the unfathomable upset of OKC for shock value, but it really can't be looked at as anything more than a temporary distraction in the midst of JaVale-gate when five of the top six Wiz scorers (all except JaVale) are shooting less than 40 percent from the floor. | |
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