Power Rankings: Celtics reach No. 1 ... at long last
Updated: December 17, 2007, 3:39 PM ET
By
Marc Stein | ESPN.com
Week: Team:
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Losing streaks in San Antonio and Orlando pretty much killed the suspense factor. But it's still a momentous Monday in Boston.
The Celts' storybook start has them on an otherworldly 75-7 pace and has vaulted them to No. 1 in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings for the first time since the committee (of one) took over this enterprise in the fall of 2002.
Your reaction to Boston's rise or the stunning 10-spot climb by the plucky Portland Trail Blazers -- or anything else you see -- is welcome here or at the bottom.
| 2007-08 Power Rankings: Week 7 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | 2 Last Week: 3 | The league's first 20-game winners -- which puts them on a 75-win pace, remember -- haven't had Ray Allen (ankle) for the last two of those triumphs. So we won't harp on the Celts' schedule for a change. | |
| 2 |  | 1 Last Week: 1 | Let's not get crazy. The Spurs could have gone 4-0 while TD was out as opposed to 2-2 -- and Manu could have kept scoring 37 a game -- and you still wouldn't have heard any Better Without Duncan chatter. | |
| 3 |  | 2 Last Week: 5 | Don't think Detroit appreciated our recent suggestion that the Celts and Magic were miles ahead of the rest of the East. The comp hasn't been the toughest, but the Pistons shredded that notion with a tidy 9-2 run. | |
| 4 |  | -- Last Week: 4 | Things can't be that bad if only two other teams (Boston and San Antonio) have more wins than Phoenix. But it's not just Suns fans that are edgy; Nash has repeatedly questioned his team's effort and focus. | |
| 5 |  | 3 Last Week: 2 | Even we have to concede that the honeymoon appears to be over. It's tough to crow about the Magic's road exploits -- where they are still a spiffy 12-3 -- when they just lost at home to Atlanta and Memphis. | |
| 6 | New Orleans 15-9 | -- Last Week: 6 | How do we know that this group is better than ever? The Hornets were 0-12 last season against San Antonio, Phoenix and Dallas. This season: They're already 2-2 after recent victories over the Mavs and Suns. | |
| 7 |  | 2 Last Week: 9 | The Mavs didn't accumulate nine losses last season until Jan. 25, even after that 0-4 start. But one thing they can always count on to lift local spirits, even when things are rocky, is beating up on Houston. | |
| 8 |  | -- Last Week: 8 | Encouraged as the Lakers were to hear Kobe proclaim that he's ''happy,'' chances are that's not the last word on the subject. Not with the Lakers about to walk into media sieges in Chicago and New York. | |
| 9 |  | 2 Last Week: 11 | Arguably more meaningful than beating the Duncan-less Spurs or even a rare W over the Lakers is the Warriors' away record. Despite a no-show in Detroit, they're 6-6 on the road. Compare that to last season's 12-29. | |
| 10 |  | 10 Last Week: 20 | So we praise Aldridge in last week's rankings, Aldridge promptly joins Oden on the shelf and the Roy-led Blazers beat Utah twice and go 4-0 for the week to stretch their win streak to seven? That's Team of the Week stuff. | |
| 11 |  | 3 Last Week: 14 | All this Better Without Arenas talk isn't much of a distraction (yet). The Wiz don't believe it internally . . . and if they're hearing it in January it means they're coping sans Gil (and now Daniels) better than they could've hoped. | |
| 12 |  | 3 Last Week: 15 | Two encounters this month with the Boston buzzsaw were predictably painful, but the Raps also won a season-high four straight between their recent losses to the Celts, allowing just 84.3 ppg in those Ws. | |
| 13 |  | 3 Last Week: 10 | What guarantees success in Denver? Iverson had 10 assists in his first game as a Nugget and came away with an L, but he's hit the 10-assist mark 17 times since . . . and the Nuggets are 17-0 in those games. | |
| 14 |  | 2 Last Week: 12 | Portland has stolen some of the Pacers' Most Surprising Team thunder, but here's another unexpected development in Indy: Tinsley has quietly averaged 20.1 ppg in his last six games in spite of all the off-court chaos. | |
| 15 |  | 8 Last Week: 7 | The Jazz are in the midst of a taxing stretch of schedule (10 of 13 games on the road) and certainly miss the injured Okur, but they shouldn't be losing six in a row anywhere if Boozer and Williams are both playing. | |
| 16 |  | 3 Last Week: 13 | One win over Detroit aside, Houston's problematic start continues, with fresh concern about T-Mac's health, unexpected worries over that supposedly deep supporting cast and Yao calling the whole team soft. | |
| 17 |  | 2 Last Week: 19 | The Hawks, even after their big road win in Orlando, are the East's only top-eight team with a negative margin of home Ls to road Ws at -2. So we repeat: Only major road improvement keeps them in the top eight. | |
| 18 |  | 1 Last Week: 17 | The Bulls are no longer last in the league in scoring, passing that unwanted status onto New Jersey. Yet they remain high on the list of East disappointments, underperformed only by the Nets and Heat. | |
| 19 |  | 4 Last Week: 23 | A favorable schedule has helped as much as anything, but check out all the ink Stefanski is getting for the Sixers' 5-2 mark since he replaced Billy King. Imagine how much pub he'll get when he actually swings a deal. | |
| 20 |  | 4 Last Week: 16 | So much for the theory that the Cavs only needed LeBron and Varejao back in uniform to make a swift return to the .500 Club. They're only 1-2 since those two returned, falling meekly to the Nets and Sixers. | |
| 21 |  | 1 Last Week: 22 | Although not quite in Indiana/Portland territory, Sacramento continues to surprise. We didn't expect nine wins at this point with Bibby out from the start, Artest's long suspension and Kevin Martin going down. | |
| 22 |  | 1 Last Week: 21 | The Bucks have an Eastern Conference-leading 11 road losses. They also have to play 10 of their next 15 games on the road, which threatens to turn Milwaukee's current 3-9 skid into a season-wrecking skid. | |
| 23 | New Jersey 10-14 | 5 Last Week: 18 | Thorn is generally resisting all overtures for Kidd, but you have to ask: If the Nets can't even beat the Knicks anymore -- and they've lost to New York twice in a 10-day span -- what exactly are they holding on to? | |
| 24 |  | -- Last Week: 24 | On second thought, that "resurrection" W in Phoenix might say more about the Suns than the Heat. Miami is 0-2 since that win, averaging 109 ppg against Phoenix . . . and 92 ppg against everyone else. | |
| 25 |  | 2 Last Week: 27 | Elton remains intent on coming back ASAP, no matter where his Clips are in the standings, so the race is on: Can L.A. shoot 50 percent in a game before Brand is back in uniform? It hasn't happened yet. | |
| 26 |  | 1 Last Week: 25 | This can't be good: Memphis got off to a 6-15 start before losing Gasol to injury. Not a whole lot better, in other words, than the 5-17 start that the Grizz endured last season while Pau was out injured. | |
| 27 | Charlotte 8-14 | 1 Last Week: 26 | NBA Access Charlotte gave the Bobs unprecedented exposure. The Bobs even livened things up with a trade. But at 2-10 since that 6-4 start, you have to wonder if the highlight of their season just came and went. | |
| 28 | Seattle 7-18 | 1 Last Week: 29 | It'd be a stretch to call them big wins, but road wins over the Knicks and Wolves in back-to-back games all but ensure that young Durant won't spend his first NBA Christmas looking up at 29 other teams. | |
| 29 |  | 1 Last Week: 28 | If Boston being No. 1 is great for the league, as most of us would agree, how do you describe this? The Knicks probably would have sunk to the depths of No. 30 if they hadn't beaten the Nets on Saturday night. | |
| 30 |  | -- Last Week: 30 | Now that we've passed the 20-game marker, with the Wolves winning just three times and Boston having lost only twice, I think it's safe to say that the reality of the KG trade is starting to sink in. | |
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