Power Rankings: Suns, Thunder making moves
Week: Team:
Cleveland's stranglehold on the top spot in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings has reached a seventh consecutive week.
The upheaval in the rankings, yet again, can be mostly found in the middle.
Utah has moved up two spots to a season-high No. 3, but Phoenix (No. 15 to No. 7) and Oklahoma City (No. 16 to No. 9) made the biggest jumps this week. Dallas (No. 8 to No. 10) and Boston (No. 10 to No. 11), meanwhile, have fallen to season-low positions.
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Tune in Tuesdays to "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see the week's U.S. Army Power Rankings.
| 2009-10 Power Rankings: Week 15 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | The Cavs are three W's away from the longest win streak in team history, on pace to win 65 games again and you can't even knock Mike Brown's offense any more. Our clear-cut No. 1s are fifth in offensive efficiency. | |
| 2 |  | -- Last Week: 2 | L.A. is the only team in Cleveland's zip code for best record and suddenly sports the West's best road record. Not that you'll hear anyone raving about either factoid. That's how high expectations are in Lakerland. | |
| 3 |  | 2 Last Week: 5 | Eight straight wins? All by a margin of at least seven points? You have to go back to the glory days of March 1998, when Utah was headed for its second successive Western Conference crown, for the last time that happened. | |
| 4 |  | 1 Last Week: 3 | Stats like this one break things down so easily: Denver's magic number is 95 no matter who's in the lineup. The Nuggets are 15-0 when the opposition is held to 95 points or fewer ... with or without Melo or Chauncey. | |
| 5 |  | 1 Last Week: 4 | For all the doubt about how the parts fit post-Hedo, there's no way this team was as so-so as its 9-8 January suggests. The Celts, by comparison, are just 2-7 against the East's top four after another Magic win in Boston. | |
| 6 |  | -- Last Week: 6 | The Commish faces a tough call if Pierce or Garnett or another East forward has to pull out of All-Star Weekend. Josh Smith is widely considered to be the East's biggest snub, but would Stern dare to pick a third Hawk? | |
| 7 |  | 8 Last Week: 15 | Timely history lesson from the Arizona Republic's Bob Young with Nash just turning 36: John Stockton averaged 12 points and 8.5 assists as a 35-year-old; Nash is averaging 18.4 points and 11.1 assists this season. | |
| 8 |  | 1 Last Week: 7 | Since that 146-115 humbling in Atlanta on Dec. 2 and the team meeting that followed, Toronto is 21-10. Which almost -- almost -- atones for the 130 points allowed to Indy after we moved the Raps all the way to No. 7. | |
| 9 |  | 7 Last Week: 16 | My bad: OKC was way too low last Monday and has been hurt more than any team by our recent struggles to sort out the weekly jumble in the middle. At 16-8 during Durant's streak of 25-point games, it had to jump. | |
| 10 |  | 2 Last Week: 8 | You can't hammer a division in which the last-place team is two games over .500 ... but even the All-Star hosts don't know how they've managed to hang onto first place in the Southwest in their current fragile state. | |
| 11 |  | 1 Last Week: 10 | Who needs the All-Star break more than the Celts? Pierce and KG are laboring, Ray Ray can't escape trade speculation, Rondo is openly doubting team chemistry and they're 9-12 since beating Orlando on Christmas. | |
| 12 |  | 1 Last Week: 11 | The numbers might not floor you like Dre Miller's 52-point game did, but this is the more meaningful entry on this season's list of Trail Blazers surprises: They're 7-7 somehow when B-Roy, Oden and Przybilla are all out injured. | |
| 13 |  | 1 Last Week: 14 | The Spurs don't merely have fewer wins (nine) against teams at .500 or better than any team in the West's playoff hunt. They're also the only West team of the 11 over .500 that can't claim more road wins than home losses. | |
| 14 | Charlotte 24-25 | 5 Last Week: 9 | Worried as he sounds about how much longer MJ is going to stick around with new owners looming, Larry Brown has done such a good job with the Bobs that he's sure to get another gig if he wants one. Rep restored. | |
| 15 |  | 3 Last Week: 12 | Saturday's trip to 'Sota figured to be a nice tonic after a stretch that wedged in stops in San Antonio and Cleveland with home dates against the Hornets, Lakers and Rockets. Except that the Wolves are suddenly no gimme, either. | |
| 16 |  | 3 Last Week: 13 | Although the Bulls miss January even more than Memphis does -- judging by the way their February started -- this team look likes playoff material again as long as Noah's mandated rest pays off after the All-Star break. | |
| 17 |  | 1 Last Week: 18 | How hard to beat have the Rockets been in their own building? Saturday night's unexpected L to Philly -- wasting Aaron Brooks' sixth 30-point game of the season -- was their first February loss at home since Feb. 28, 2007. | |
| 18 | New Orleans 27-24 | 1 Last Week: 17 | It's quite possible that the long-suffering sports fans of New Orleans haven't even realized yet that CP3 just had knee surgery. And after what the Saints just did? He might even make it back before anyone really notices. | |
| 19 |  | 1 Last Week: 20 | He wears Throwball T-shirts to mock American football and just granted us a one-on-one. So I might be biased. But I do strongly believe Bogut is the best center I've seen in the East this season not named Dwight Howard. | |
| 20 |  | 1 Last Week: 19 | Their winning record? Gone. Ditto for the Heat's standings cushion over Milwaukee. That's what happens when you manage four wins in three-plus weeks against teams with a combined winning percentage of .342. | |
| 21 |  | 1 Last Week: 22 | I'd be happier if Iverson could accept a bench gig like my beloved Bob McAdoo did at a similar stage in his career. But I'll be happy for Iverson when he's on the All-Star stage. More than a million fans have spoken. | |
| 22 |  | 1 Last Week: 21 | The Clips are eight games under .500 and 7 1/2 games out of the No. 8 spot after losing Kim Hughes' debut. Which tells you why all the focus now is on Camby's future before the trade deadline as opposed to playoff delusions. | |
| 23 |  | -- Last Week: 23 | The Knicks started 3-14, won 12 of the next 18 and then tumbled again with losses in 11 of the past 15. Add it all up and you inevitably conclude that D-Lee is going to struggle for an All-Star spot even as an injury replacement. | |
| 24 |  | 5 Last Week: 29 | Whether it's Brewer's under-the-radar progress, K-Love's acceptance of a sixth-man role or the improving grasp of the triangle offense, interesting things are happening in 'Sota. Worth a look in spite of the record. | |
| 25 |  | 1 Last Week: 24 | If there was going to be a snow-out this season -- weather reasons previously forced the postponement of an NBA game more than three years ago -- is anyone out there surprised that the Wiz were involved? | |
| 26 |  | 1 Last Week: 25 | Conseco remains one of the best basketball temples you could ever wish to visit. But not even yours truly would dare claim that these Pacers or even their top-shelf building can lift the locals out of their Colts-induced gloom. | |
| 27 |  | 1 Last Week: 28 | No one around the league is giving much credence to the idea that the Pistons could be moving to Pittsburgh, as rumored, but the rumor itself highlights the newfound uncertainty for such a historically stable franchise. | |
| 28 |  | 2 Last Week: 26 | Everyone loves the Kings' draft, but GM Geoff Petrie's best move might have been securing his contract extension when he did. The Kings had just beaten Denver at home to improve to 14-16. They're 2-18 since. | |
| 29 |  | 2 Last Week: 27 | If Monta Ellis is not selected as B-Roy's injury replacement for Sunday's All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium, there is a consolation prize: Another crack Monday night at the Dallas defense Monta just shredded for 46 points. | |
| 30 | New Jersey 4-46 | -- Last Week: 30 | OK, OK. The Nets surely need the All-Star break even more than the Celts, given that they just tied the 1972-73 Sixers and 1992-93 Mavs for the worst 50-game start in league history and since they're on pace to finish 7-75. | |
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