Power Rankings: Mavs start second half on top
Updated: February 21, 2006, 10:43 PM ET
Week: Team:
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Back to the season we go with a new No. 1 ... and it's the first team all season to break up the Detroit-San Antonio duopoly at the top.
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Question is, do the Dallas Mavericks really want this ranking right now?
For two weeks running, my No. 1 team in the weekly NBA Power Rankings has lost the first game it played after the rankings were published. First, Detroit fell in Atlanta after I flirted with bumping the Pistons down to No. 2 for the first time in three months. San Antonio then lost in Cleveland -- and two nights later in Philadelphia -- after passing the Pistons last Monday. Now, it's the Mavs' turn to see whether their 19-3 efficiency since Jan. 1 can continue with the added pressure of living up to No. 1, starting Tuesday night at home against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Read on to see where your team ranks, and click here to send me feedback. You can also click here for my preview of the second half.
| 2005-06 Power Rankings: Week 16 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | 1 Last Week: 2 | Since Kobe punked them for 62, Mavs have responded by going 23-4. Since Dampier became a sub, Mavs are 15-1 and have allowed 100 points just once. | |
| 2 |  | 1 Last Week: 3 | Health and holding off Mavs and Spurs for home-court advantage are all that matter now. Unless you think Pistons have a 28-3 run in them. | |
| 3 |  | 2 Last Week: 1 | Dismiss them at your own peril. As fragile as Spurs seem with Duncan and Manu at less than 100 percent, they're on pace to break the franchise record for wins (62). | |
| 4 |  | -- Last Week: 4 | No joke: I think Suns can get to the Finals even without Stoudemire, assuming they get all the way to the West finals and let Mavs and Spurs beat each other up first. | |
| 5 | New Jersey 28-23 | -- Last Week: 5 | My favorite Nets fan, Sanford, is livid about Kidd's All-Star snub, with Jersey leading its division, but I bet Kidd benefits from a weekend off as much as anyone. | |
| 6 |  | -- Last Week: 6 | Between now and April 1, Heat have only four games (out of 18) against teams with winning records. Let's see whether they can stay serious when the schedule is soft. | |
| 7 | NO/Oklahoma City
29-23 | -- Last Week: 7 | Logic tells you Paul's myriad injuries and rising expectations could cause young Hornets to crumble, but I'm gullible enough to believe in their Cinderella mojo. | |
| 8 |  | -- Last Week: 8 | The reward for being the best Clips ever? Mavs or Spurs in the first round unless they either pass Suns with all these moves they're making ... or drop a slot or two. | |
| 9 |  | 2 Last Week: 11 | Cavs are just 13-11 without Hughes. But let's set the bar high for the All-Star Game MVP and demand no worse than a 19-11 finish from LBJ's Cavs to get to 50 wins. | |
| 10 |  | -- Last Week: 10 | What a difference a trade makes. Peja already has four 20-point games in his 5-2 start as a Pacer -- after zero 20-point games in the month of January. | |
| 11 |  | 1 Last Week: 12 | Grizz return to work with the NBA's stingiest defense (87.7 ppg) and the first All-Star in club history (Pau). That's why they're giddier than your typical No. 7 seed. | |
| 12 |  | 3 Last Week: 9 | I don't see any 25-4 runs in their immediate future, but I'd bank on a big finish from a motivated 'Melo ... if rumor-weary Nuggets can regroup after the deadline. | |
| 13 |  | 1 Last Week: 14 | Time to solidify their playoff position? Banged-up Bucks reconvened after the All-Star break with a full complement of players for the first time all season. | |
| 14 |  | 1 Last Week: 13 | At least one problem solved: Arenas and rest of Wiz won't be pining for Hughes in the second half, knowing that Cavs won't have him, either. | |
| 15 |  | 1 Last Week: 16 | Credit where credit is due: Artest's arrival has Kings looking more likely to make a playoff push than anyone from No. 9 down in the West. So far, anyway. | |
| 16 |  | 2 Last Week: 18 | This is a big reason Lakers spent so much money to get Phil back: Zenmeister teams are 14-for-14 all-time when it comes to making the playoffs. | |
| 17 |  | 2 Last Week: 15 | The skeptic in me says that, even though Rockets are still mathematically in the playoff hunt, A-S weekend will prove to be the peak of T-Mac's nightmare season. | |
| 18 |  | 3 Last Week: 21 | It's looking like a no-win stretch run. From where they are now, Sixers have to worry about missing the playoffs and the prospect of getting swept by Detroit in Round 1. | |
| 19 |  | -- Last Week: 19 | If the target is making a push for the No. 8 slot, Chicago's nightly target has to be triple digits. The last 20 times they were held under 100 points, Bulls are 2-18. | |
| 20 |  | 3 Last Week: 17 | Boozer is finally back to help Kirilenko and Okur, but Jazz have to be wondering whether they were too hasty in parting with Mo Williams and a surging Kirk Snyder. | |
| 21 |  | 1 Last Week: 20 | As if the NBA's longest playoff drought weren't enough -- 11 seasons and counting -- Warriors also have the longest All-Star drought now: none since Spree in 1997. | |
| 22 |  | -- Last Week: 22 | At just 4-8 with Ricky Davis, and after a 1-4 home stand, you can understand why Wolves are looking to swing one more deal before the trade buzzer. | |
| 23 |  | -- Last Week: 23 | Raps haven't exactly been Mav-like since surrendering Kobe's 81, but they're a decent 5-3 this month, with two OT defeats and last week's two-point loss in NYC. | |
| 24 |  | 1 Last Week: 25 | He didn't get a Houston invite, but you'd have to agree that Joe Johnson -- with two game-winning shots and a triple-double -- is having an All-Star Feb. Wouldn't you? | |
| 25 |  | 1 Last Week: 24 | Danny Ainge has said Celts are just a move or two away from East contention. I'm pretty sure he said so knowing that cloning Larry Bird is not an option. | |
| 26 | Seattle 20-33 | -- Last Week: 26 | The news just gets bleaker and bleaker in rainy Seattle: No team's winning percentage has fallen further since the end of last season than Sonics' .634 to .377. | |
| 27 |  | -- Last Week: 27 | Magic can only hope they do manufacture a Francis trade this week because he won't become any less of a handful if he's stuck in Orlando past Thursday's deadline. | |
| 28 |  | 1 Last Week: 29 | I'll go out on a limb and guess that, given all the image problems in Portland in recent years, Rodman's claim that Blazers offered a tryout is probably a fabrication. | |
| 29 |  | 1 Last Week: 30 | Probably no one remembers this now, with Knicks at 2-16 since Larry's 1,000th victory, but they were 6-0 in their first six games of 2006. Somehow. | |
| 30 | Charlotte 14-40 | 2 Last Week: 28 | Don't want to make light of a car accident, but the news that Felton was injured during a weekend off is sadly no surprise in Bobcats' season of injury misery. | |
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