Power Rankings: Cavs, Lakers switch places
Updated: April 8, 2009, 9:16 AM ET
By
Marc Stein | ESPN.com
Week: Team:
The Cleveland Cavaliers' return to the top spot of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings was short-lived, thanks to back-to-back losses on the road -- with the second coming in a punishing rout at Orlando -- so soon after their big promotion.
The Los Angeles Lakers thus reclaim the No. 1 ranking, with Cleveland narrowly holding off Orlando's charge for No. 2 with a strong bounce-back win at home Sunday over San Antonio.
The other notable movement in the top 10 sees likely Northwest Division champion Denver rising to No. 5, while Houston (No. 6) and Portland (No. 7) have knocked the banged-up Spurs into highly unusual territory (No. 8) for this late in the season.
You can click here to rank the teams yourself and click here to comment.
Also, check out John Hollinger's daily NBA Power Rankings.
Tune in Tuesdays to "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see this week's U.S. Army Power Rankings. The Nuggets earn U.S. Army Team of the Week status for the second straight week with a 4-0 sweep highlighted by a solid home win over their division rivals from Utah.
| 2008-09 Power Rankings: Week 23 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | 1 Last Week: 2 | Historical precedents are only so useful, especially after a disturbing near giveaway to the Clips, but it seems relevant to share that this is Phil's seventh 60-win season ... with each of the previous six leading to a title. | |
| 2 |  | 1 Last Week: 1 | I'm not saying it's fatal. But the 2-6 record against the other three teams bound for 60 wins is an eyesore you can't ignore, since those eight games are the closest thing we see in the regular season to playoff games. | |
| 3 |  | -- Last Week: 3 | Shaky as they looked in their recent wins over beat-up Boston, there was nothing iffy about what the Magic just did to Cleveland and Atlanta. Maybe the drop-off from Jameer to Rafer isn't nearly as steep as people think. | |
| 4 |  | -- Last Week: 4 | KG never missed more than six games in any of his 12 seasons in Sota. He missed 11 in his first season as a Celtic and has missed 20 more this season. Shelving him until the playoffs is sounding better and better, huh? | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 6 | The way the West's new No. 2 has rallied from a 4-8 stumble coming out of the All-Star break, with Melo suddenly playing his best ball of the season, is even more impressive than the great start to the Chauncey era. Right? | |
| 6 |  | 1 Last Week: 7 | You can probably recite the Rockets' mantra by now: Anyone but Utah in Round 1, please. The hunch here is that they'd be just fine with what the standings say today: Houston with home court against Portland's kiddies. | |
| 7 |  | 2 Last Week: 9 | The road record against the rest of the West's top eight teams isn't pleasant reading: 1-11. Yet it sure seems like the young Blazers came of age in March, absolutely drilling the Spurs, Lakers, Suns and Jazz at home. | |
| 8 |  | 3 Last Week: 5 | A home loss to the Thunder? West teams passing them that aren't from Los Angeles? Manu needing further tests on his latest ankle problem? For the first time in forever, San Antonio is not surging into the playoffs. | |
| 9 |  | 2 Last Week: 11 | Interesting scenario: If the Lakers have no shot at the NBA's best record in their final game of the season at home to Utah, do they let the Jazz have the game to make sure Dallas winds up eighth? We're guessing yes. | |
| 10 | New Orleans 47-29 | 2 Last Week: 8 | We thought beating the Spurs with a skeleton crew made New Orleans safe from a fall to No. 8. We were wrong. The brutal schedule that the Hornets still face is going to keep everyone down there in it to the buzzer. | |
| 11 |  | 1 Last Week: 12 | The Mavs' reward for finishing off their old rivals from Phoenix in the biggest game of the season? Three games even bigger this week if they hope to overcome Josh Howard's ankle woes and get out of the No. 8 spot. | |
| 12 |  | 2 Last Week: 10 | Since reaching its 50-win dream is no longer possible, Atlanta's focus shifts to the next two dreams: Beating Miami on April 14 and landing the Sixers (minus Thaddeus and Elton) instead of D-Wade's Heat in the first round. | |
| 13 |  | -- Last Week: 13 | If you're Dwyane Wade, even though you have to know the MVP trophy is likely going to LeBron, it can't be so bad hearing every day how teams don't want to see you in Round 1, no matter how limited your help is. | |
| 14 |  | 1 Last Week: 15 | Nothing else has worked to spark these guys, so let's try this: Detroit must slice at least a half game off of Cleveland's 25-game lead to avoid tying the biggest gap between the top two teams in a division in league history! | |
| 15 |  | 1 Last Week: 14 | Chicago was mired at 19-27 when Jerry Reinsdorf branded this season a "disaster." Which seemed harsh at the time and might require a formal retraction if ROY favorite Rose and his playoff-bound Bulls finish at .500. | |
| 16 |  | -- Last Week: 16 | The good news: DiLeo is the only in-season coaching hire, out of eight, who is playoff bound. The bad news: What we saw from his Sixers in Jersey when they're trying to avoid a series with Boston or Orlando. | |
| 17 |  | -- Last Week: 17 | Like we said: Phoenix's playoff hopes realistically perished the day Stoudemire was lost with that eye injury. The Suns being the Suns, though, they managed to make the inevitable as excruciating as possible. | |
| 18 |  | 4 Last Week: 22 | Six straight wins? Hottest team in the NBA before Sunday's home slip to the Knicks? Now?!? Doesn't this way-too-late success only add to the idea that our Raps are this season's co-Most Disappointing Team with our Clips? | |
| 19 | Charlotte 34-43 | 1 Last Week: 18 | Sorry, Bobs. If you can't capitalize on Rip Hamilton's ejection, stop Will Bynum from scoring 26 points in the fourth quarter and beat Detroit in a must-win game on a Sunday, you're probably not ready for the playoffs. | |
| 20 |  | 1 Last Week: 19 | Playoff hope is lost in Indy, no matter what the fine print in the standings says, but at least Granger has returned from his foot and knee trouble with five 30-point outings already in his first 10 games back. That's something. | |
| 21 | New Jersey 32-45 | -- Last Week: 21 | Does VC get traded? Does L-Frank get fired? Those are the questions you hear more and more as they fade further away from a 19-19 start that raised expectations faster than the rebuilding Nets were ready for. | |
| 22 |  | 6 Last Week: 28 | The Grizz don't worry about what winning in April might do to their lottery odds because their lottery luck is famously bad even when the odds are in their favor. So don't expect any regrets about this unexpected 5-1 run. | |
| 23 |  | 3 Last Week: 20 | Reality finally caved in on the battered Bucks with a 3-10 record in March, followed by an 0-3 start to April, but we're still trying to work out how they stayed in the race for No. 8 in the East that long without Redd and Bogut. | |
| 24 |  | 1 Last Week: 25 | You could argue that the Wiz were in line for a more substantial bump after halting Cleveland's 13-game win streak. Hard to support that thinking, though, when Arenas is still restricted to making the occasional cameo. | |
| 25 |  | 2 Last Week: 23 | We'd love to tell you the Knicks will (A) avoid 50 losses and (B) still pass the Nets after finishing lower in the East every season since J-Kidd's Jersey debut in 2001-02. But those seem like pretty bold promises to make. | |
| 26 |  | -- Last Week: 26 | It's been easy to miss amid the unending stream of troubling headlines, but the solace for the Warriors has been unearthing bargains like Azubuike and Morrow to increase their options for the next trade season. | |
| 27 |  | 3 Last Week: 24 | Last week's W in San Antonio was an even bigger surprise than you think, because the gutty little OKCs, in truth, really haven't been their pesky selves lately. The losing margin in their last L's: 18, 16, 19, 35 and 18. | |
| 28 |  | 1 Last Week: 27 | Every game minus Big Al must feel like two in these interminable dog days, but there are occasional consolations for the Wolves ... like stunning Utah in Utah or seeing Love quietly close the gap on Mayo's rookie production. | |
| 29 |  | -- Last Week: 29 | We were wrong in Week 19 when we suggested that tripping up Denver on March 8 would be as good as it gets for the Kings. Tripping up Phoenix and then retiring Vlade Divac's No. 21 so warmly were vintage Arco nights. | |
| 30 |  | -- Last Week: 30 | The Clips could have made our intricate calculations very complicated Sunday night had they pulled off that comeback against the Lakers. Maybe they got sick of having their effort slammed in this space every week. | |
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