Power Rankings: Opening Week brings early surprises
Updated: November 5, 2007, 2:14 PM ET
By
Marc Stein | ESPN.com
Week: Team:
 | |
That's right. Kobe Bryant's Los Angeles Lakers steadied themselves after a circus-like October with impressive victories over Phoenix and Utah over the weekend, resulting in a league-high jump of 10 spots from No. 20 to No. 10. Change was minimal among the top six teams, but four more clubs in the Lakers' range climbed nine spots: Atlanta, Indiana, Charlotte and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Dramatic shifts are commonplace every Monday at this early stage of the season, but here's one constant: Click here or at the bottom to comment.
| 2007-08 Power Rankings: Week 1 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | It wasn't the toughest competition, true, but the champs were the only team in the league to play three games in the first four days of the season. And the so-called fogies didn't look so old to us. | |
| 2 |  | 1 Last Week: 3 | Pounding Washington to muzzle Arenas and scraping an OT victory in Toronto is not just a good start. It's a good start that happens to come with the bonus of six home games in the next nine. | |
| 3 |  | 3 Last Week: 6 | An unbeaten Week 1 would be pleasing enough, but Detroit has only played at home once -- and has only dressed Rip Hamilton once -- so far. So pleasing is underselling things for the East's old reliables. | |
| 4 |  | 1 Last Week: 5 | Congratulations, Rockets. Your reward for completing a tidy opening week featuring two road wins and a 47-point detonation from T-Mac? A visit Monday to Dallas, then San Antonio at home Tuesday. | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 4 | They played the first two games without the suspended Josh Howard, so the Mavs can't be too down about a split in Cleveland and Atlanta. Don't forget that their 67-win season started much worse: 0-4. | |
| 6 |  | 4 Last Week: 2 | You know how teams that know they can't prove themselves until May or June sometimes struggle getting up for games in November? Phoenix can only hope that's what happened Friday against the Lakers. | |
| 7 |  | 7 Last Week: 14 | Deflating as it was to lose in OT to the Celts at home, you suspect that the Raps and their rabid fans will spend more time dwelling on the 37-point mauling of New Jersey in the teams' first playoff rematch. | |
| 8 |  | 3 Last Week: 11 | Anyone else get the feeling, after watching Dwight Howard rumble for 16 points, 12 points and seven blocks in Orlando's opener, that KG might have some competition in East's Best Big Man rankings? | |
| 9 | New Orleans 3-0 | 7 Last Week: 16 | The Hornets started 4-0 last season, so this is nothing new. The newsy part is how Chris Paul, as we anticipated, is already running his team with a check-me-out edge after that long-term injury absence. | |
| 10 |  | 10 Last Week: 20 | Pounding Phoenix in Phoenix without Odom? And then pulling away from Utah? That's two pretty loud and impressive statements from a team that hadn't made any on-court noise since about February. | |
| 11 |  | 1 Last Week: 12 | First Iverson said they'd win 60. Then 'Melo said it. Coach Karl said he'd settle for 55 wins, which would set a new franchise record, but someone obviously forgot to share the plan with New Orleans. | |
| 12 |  | 5 Last Week: 7 | After 250 points in two games, we get it: Utah still has Golden State's number. The bad news? Utah is 0-2 against everyone else and has only one game left with the Warriors . . . which isn't until February. | |
| 13 |  | 9 Last Week: 22 | The first five opponents might represent the toughest part of their schedule: Mavs, Pistons, Nets, Suns and Celtics. But the Hawks are more than surviving for starters. In fact, they really should be 2-0. | |
| 14 |  | 9 Last Week: 23 | Focus, if you wish, on the fact that their victims -- Washington, Miami and Memphis -- are a combined 0-8 so far. The Pacers, with so little expected from them, rank as our undisputed Team O' The Week regardless. | |
| 15 |  | 9 Last Week: 24 | Week 2 commences with eight teams still unbeaten. Yet it's safe to say none of them are happier than the Clips, who dare to believe that Maggette, Kaman and Tim Thomas can fill the Elton Brand void. | |
| 16 | Charlotte 2-0 | 9 Last Week: 25 | They were dreadful at the line against Milwaukee and shaky at the finish in Miami. But two wins by a total of five points means that the Bobs are two games over .500 for the first time in team history. | |
| 17 |  | 7 Last Week: 10 | LeBron knows to never expect any sympathy, but maybe we can spare just a little, with the Halloween treat of a home opener against Dallas followed by an immediate six-game trip out West . . . and still no sign of Varejao. | |
| 18 | New Jersey 2-1 | 3 Last Week: 15 | Overreacting to one game, especially in Week 1, is ill-advised. But it ain't so easy to be philosophical about a 37-point home loss so early, just as the Suns' 21-point loss to the Lakers freaked out folks in Phoenix. | |
| 19 |  | 11 Last Week: 8 | All those years of playing through KG and Pau rumors, on second thought, apparently didn't prepare the Bulls for the Kobe Cloud hanging over them. Shouldn't they be beating Philly at home, distracted or not? | |
| 20 |  | 11 Last Week: 9 | If anyone's still wondering why Stephen Jackson was entrusted with the Warriors' captaincy, you'll note that they've looked absolutely lost without him in the first three games of Jack's seven-game suspension. | |
| 21 |  | 3 Last Week: 18 | He survived his opening night jitters, then contributed 16 points in a win over Chicago in the home opener. Next up for Yi Jianlian? Just a game awaited by millions back home: Yi vs. Yao in Houston on Friday night. | |
| 22 |  | 1 Last Week: 21 | Isiah has to be grateful already that the Knicks narrowly avoided the shame of losing their home opener to rebuilding Minny, knowing Denver returns to MSG on Tuesday for the first time since Fight Night. | |
| 23 |  | 10 Last Week: 13 | We're still optimistic about Ricky and Blount, but that seven-spot bump might have been a tad optimistic. With a 16-game losing streak, if you include exhibitions and the playoffs, back down they must go. | |
| 24 |  | 7 Last Week: 17 | Expected to be commenting here about a big response from an offended Arenas after suggestions he might be traded for Kobe. Instead? We're talking about Gil's still-sore knee and the big words he couldn't back up. | |
| 25 |  | 6 Last Week: 19 | They'd have preferred a win or two off the bat, but they'll have to settle for Popovich insisting that "I'm not blowing smoke" when he calls the Grizz a playoff team and Pau announcing that "I'm proud to call Memphis home." | |
| 26 |  | 2 Last Week: 28 | The two most rabid Sixers fans we know didn't even gloat after their oft-dissed team went to Chicago and spoiled the Bulls' home opener. As poorly as the Bulls have started, I still think they should have. | |
| 27 |  | 1 Last Week: 26 | Blazermaniacs know real disappointment, so we're guessing they'll be able to rationalize a winless start that required their Oden-less heroes to open with a three-game trip through the mighty Southwest Division. | |
| 28 | Seattle 0-3 | 1 Last Week: 27 | A winless start and the stark reality of owner Clay Bennett formally filing his request to move the franchise to OKC is a pretty depressing combo. The consolation: Durant is already getting better every game. | |
| 29 |  | 1 Last Week: 30 | If the Wolves can play as hard in the next 80 games as they did in the first two, who knows? Maybe the die-hards in 'Sota who've been stripped of their beloved KG will develop a bit of a soft spot for the new kids. | |
| 30 |  | 1 Last Week: 29 | Making the new coach's curfew? Apparently not a problem on the Kings' first trip of the season. The problem was finding a way to stay within single digits of the other team with Bibby out and Artest suspended. | |
| ||||
ESPN Conversations
comments
