Power Rankings: Miami Heat bounce Bulls at No. 1
Week: Team:
The Miami Heat are back to No. 1 in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings.
Honestly, though, Miami's return to the top spot comes somewhat by default.
The Heat's 4-0 week isn't as strong as it looks on paper, thanks to sluggish performances against three teams with losing records (Cleveland, Detroit and New York) and a shaky showing in crunch time in Sunday's marquee win over visiting Luol Deng-less Chicago.
But Oklahoma City and Denver likewise didn't do enough over the past seven days to be the team to succeed the injury-hit Bulls at No. 1, with OKC beating up on bottom-feeders (Detroit, New Orleans and Golden State) and the Nuggets squandering their opportunity to put some pressure on the rankings committee (of one) when they lost narrowly at home Sunday night to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The most notable moves of the week are actually in the bottom half of the rankings, with freefalling Orlando plummeting 12 spots (No. 8 to No. 20) and Washington bumping Charlotte into the cellar for the first change at No. 30 since the preseason edition of the rankings.
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 5 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | 1 Last Week: 2 | D-Rose will be pardoned for his late free throw misses Sunday because he was 29-for-29 in fourth quarters before those clanks. LeBron's fourth-quarter failings in the new season are starting to stack up (Warriors, Clippers, Bulls) and leaving us little choice but to laser in on them even when he's otherwise killing it. | |
| 2 |  | 2 Last Week: 4 | The committee (of one) gave deep consideration to bumping the team with the best road record (8-2) up to No. 1. The committee, however, ruled that the recent road loss to the Wiz -- which is the only thing separating OKC from a 12-game winning streak -- must factor into our thinking two weeks in a row. | |
| 3 |  | -- Last Week: 3 | It's a bittersweet day for the oh-so-close Nuggets, but props to Professor Hollinger. Although I suppose there might have been others to proclaim it, PH is the first person I remember who went on record telling the world how dangerous these starless but ridiculously deep Nuggets would be. He was all over it. | |
| 4 |  | 3 Last Week: 1 | D-Rose became the youngest MVP in NBA history last season largely because of the way he kept the Bulls rolling even when Noah or Boozer was out of the lineup. The worry for him this season is the Bulls' apparent destiny to be even more banged up as a team than those 2010-11 Bulls, D-Rose included. | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 6 | The fact they're now on the reigning MVP's hit list got all the attention -- "I will never forget how they celebrated just from winning this game," D-Rose announced Wednesday night -- but the Pacers are still on another important list: Indy, Philly and Chicago are the only teams yet to lose two in a row this season. | |
| 6 |  | 5 Last Week: 11 | With the schedule finally about to stiffen, Sunday's W in Denver was notable for CP3, Blake & Co. for a few reasons: 1) It was these Clips' first victory when allowing 100 points after starting 0-5; 2) It killed any hope the Nuggets had of sneaking into the top spot of these rankings; 3) It was in Denver. | |
| 7 |  | 2 Last Week: 5 | Tricky Monday to judge the Sixers and their easy schedule and the league's only double-digit positive point differential (plus-11.7). You can focus on the bad home loss to New Jersey ... or the fact that Philly is the first team since Utah and Miami in 1994 to win its first 10 home games by at least 10 points. | |
| 8 |  | 4 Last Week: 12 | As soon as we can explain how the Mavs were holding teams under 90 ppg without Tyson Chandler until getting dragged to OT by the Spurs, we will. In the meantime, interested to hear your reaction to Dirk's claim about how he hasn't "seen one team in the West that I'm scared of." We say justified. | |
| 9 |  | -- Last Week: 9 | You know what? The Hawks' 8-2 record without Al Horford -- with only three of those wins coming against teams (Wolves, Blazers, Bucks) playing what you'd call decent basketball -- is a touch easier to explain than the fact Horford was averaging only a modest 12.4 ppg and 7.0 rpg when he got hurt. | |
| 10 |  | 3 Last Week: 7 | Just when you think you've seen it all in what might still be the NBA's best rivalry, Pop unveils his Austin Toros lineup to erase an 18-point deficit, refusing to play any starter in the fourth quarter or overtime (apart from 1.1 seconds of OT for Kawhi Leonard) and nearly toppling hated Dallas in Dallas anyway. | |
| 11 |  | 4 Last Week: 15 | Why'd we make such a big deal about L.A.'s struggles to score 100 points in a lockout-shortened season in which only three teams (Denver, Miami and OKC) are doing it nightly? Because the Lakers' run of 19 sub-100-point games in their first 20 before Sunday's trip to Sota was matched only by the Pistons. | |
| 12 |  | 1 Last Week: 13 | Even if a healthy slice of their recent success has been sparked by a favorable turn in strength of schedule, winning 10 of 12 games will always get you noticed, no matter who you're playing. That's especially true when the winning continues through Kyle Lowry's first sluggish spell of the season. | |
| 13 |  | 3 Last Week: 10 | Stuff we do want to talk about -- that rally in Oakland to take their win streak to seven ... or those three straight L's that followed ... or those hauntingly bad unis on TNT -- is all on hold until the Grizz issue a fresh, detailed update about whether we can expect to see Z-Bo again this season. | |
| 14 |  | 2 Last Week: 16 | Only two teams in the Western Conference have a better nightly average point differential than the Blazers' +4.9 nearly a third of the way into the season: Denver at +7.2 and OKC at +6.2. But the Blazers' ongoing road struggles and inconsistent guard play are getting more attention. Justifiably so, Blazermaniacs? | |
| 15 |  | 3 Last Week: 18 | Am I prone to rush them into the top half of the rankings every chance I get because of my Rubio addiction? Guilty. But how can you quibble after they spoiled Dallas' ring night and moved to 2-0 for the season against the Spurs on Friday night? Also: Six of Sota's losses are by five points or less. | |
| 16 |  | 4 Last Week: 20 | Last Monday, Doc Rivers' Celts were three games under .500 ... with half of their six wins coming against Washington. Since then, Doc has reminded everyone why he's a $7 million-a-year coach, stirring his injury-ravaged Celts to a season-salvaging week, even if the finish against Kyrie's Cavs didn't quite work out. | |
| 17 |  | 3 Last Week: 14 | No one on Earth saw them taking a 10-4 record for the month into their final January game, but the committee's first up-close glimpse at this Jazz was (unfortunately for them) Friday's night drubbing in Big D in which they looked a lot like the team that played out last season's string with no gusto. | |
| 18 |  | 5 Last Week: 23 | Only issue so far with Kyrie is that he's making it tough to write about Casspi in this space as much as the Omri-loving committee would like. More circus layups in the paint after spin-cycle drives into the lane like the ones he uncorked against Phoenix and Boston will soften the blow, though. | |
| 19 |  | 2 Last Week: 17 | Beating the Lakers on Saturday night without Bogut and Captain Jack was the least the locals deserved in a week they were forced to watch Prince Fielder snatched from their grasp and while more injury misfortune was heaped upon the luckless center from Oz. At least they can't take Major Goolsby's away, Milwaukee. | |
| 20 |  | 12 Last Week: 8 | Wasn't it just one Monday ago that the Magic were actually feeling sneaky good about their chances of making one last run in an East with D-Rose ailing and only six teams above .500? Must feel like a year ago after what SVG aptly described as Orlando's worst week since he started coaching there in 2007. | |
| 21 |  | 7 Last Week: 28 | Three road wins in the space of a week at Phoenix, Utah and New Jersey? A 25-point outburst from Linas Kleiza in the Utah triumph after he scored just 42 points total in his first eight games of the season? Six wins in January after just two in January 2010? Surprises galore from the Bargnani-less Raps. | |
| 22 | New Jersey 7-14 | 4 Last Week: 26 | Guess D-Will wasn't kidding when he said he loathes he Nets' temporary home in Newark. How on Earth do you win back-to-back games in Philadelphia and Cleveland -- two very good road W's, given how those teams are playing -- and then lose at the Prudential Center by 21 to the Raps on a non-back-to-back? | |
| 23 |  | 2 Last Week: 21 | The Warriors don't want to believe that their 1-7 record against fellow Western Conference residents -- which was 0-6 until Wednesday's strong close to finish off Portland -- is an accurate reflection of their playoff hopes under my man Mark Jackson. The reality, though, is that's how the outside world sees it. | |
| 24 |  | 5 Last Week: 19 | Unless you're Marcin Gortat -- getting spoon-fed like no pick-and-roll center in basketball because he gets to play with Steve Nash -- these are painful days in the desert. How painful? The Suns have lost at home to New Orleans, New Jersey and most recently Toronto ... teams with a combined record of 18-44. | |
| 25 | New Orleans 4-16 | 2 Last Week: 27 | Nothing quite sums up the Hornets' circus season so far like this tidbit: Unless the Knicks wake up soon, New Orleans is going to get a worse draft pick from the Clippers (Minnesota's unprotected 2012 first-rounder) than it would have scored in the original CP3 deal with the Lakers and Rockets (New York's 2012 first-rounder). | |
| 26 |  | 4 Last Week: 22 | OK, OK: So that late triple from the wing in Jimmer Fredette's grand return to the state of Utah didn't exactly result in a Hollywood ending. Won't stop us from pointing out that Jimmer, ever since his Q&A ran in the Weekend Dime, is averaging 13.8 points and is 17-for-25 on 3s in that span. Just sayin'. | |
| 27 |  | 2 Last Week: 25 | Whoever came up with Baron Or Bust was dead on. The Knicks have no PG and are shooting the ball worse than any Knicks team (41.4 percent) since the 1960-61 Knicks (41.0 percent) ... and this is all D'Antoni's fault? Of course, it wasn't all Flip's fault in Washington, either, and we all know what happened there. | |
| 28 |  | 4 Last Week: 24 | The good news: Pistons fans can stop wondering whether this team will ever score 100 points. The bad news: Detroit needed an OT game to get there, lost that game Friday night to Atlanta and still sports a road record of 1-9 with an NBA-low road scoring average of 81.4 ppg heading into a road back-to-back-to-back. | |
| 29 |  | 1 Last Week: 30 | When you have a career coaching record of 100-207, as Randy Wittman did when the Wiz installed him as Flip Saunders' short-term replacement, you don't apologize when two of your first three games in charge pit you against Charlotte. More trivia material: The Wiz are 4-0 after their last four coaching changes. | |
| 30 | Charlotte 3-18 | 1 Last Week: 29 | How many more triple-doubles does Kemba need to bust up the Kyrie/Ricky duopoly at the top of the ROY race and turn it into a three-man weave? How many more triple-doubles does Kemba need to get the Bobcats out of the basement now that the Wiz have shoved them down here? | |
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