Power Rankings: Cavs finish on top
Week: Team:
The committee (of one) was faced with an unexpected conundrum in the season's 26th and final edition of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings:
Question: Do we drop the Cleveland Cavaliers in the wake of three straight losses with LeBron James resting for the playoffs?
Answer: Can't do it.
It was decided, after considerable deliberation, that the Cavs should not be demoted to the No. 2 slot when they willingly pulled James out of the lineup to keep him as fresh as possible for the postseason. So Cleveland holds onto No. 1, despite Orlando's very strong finish to the regular season, for the fifth successive Monday.
The Cavs, after a 3-3 start, wound up topping our human, subjective and thoroughly nonautomated check of the league's team-by-team pulse on 13 of a possible 26 Mondays. The Los Angeles Lakers were No. 1 eight times during the season but slipped to a season-low-tying No. 4 after Sunday's home loss to Portland lowered the defending champions' record to 4-10 against playoff-bound teams since the All-Star break. Phoenix (No. 3) and Utah (No. 5) join the Cavs, Magic and Lakers in our farewell top five until training camps start in late September.
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Also, check out John Hollinger's daily Power Rankings.
Tune in Tuesdays to "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see the week's U.S. Army Power Rankings.
| 2009-10 Power Rankings: Week 24 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 |  | -- Last Week: 1 | Couldn't have been more wrong here. Thought the Cavs were destined for one of the longest regular seasons ever. Turns out life is always good with LeBron ... even when you're not sure how much longer he'll be around. | |
| 2 |  | -- Last Week: 2 | You might be right if you say we've done the Magic wrong. Only once in 24 weeks have they ranked No. 1, but they're tops in the league since the All-Star break (21-5). The Cavs and Lakers aren't in the top five on that list. | |
| 3 |  | 1 Last Week: 4 | Just a shade behind Orlando for the league's best record since the All-Star break at 21-6, Phoenix keeps winning without Robin Lopez. The Suns, though, would be the first to say it'll be harder to do that in the playoffs. | |
| 4 |  | 1 Last Week: 3 | Never imagined a final batch of rankings that had the reigning champs so low. But I'd say we're still being plenty respectful when you add up L.A.'s 15-11 mark since the All-Star break to 5-9 against other division winners. | |
| 5 |  | -- Last Week: 5 | Think the resurgent Jazz will be kicking themselves if they don't wind up finishing No. 2 in the West? No. 30 Minnesota has beaten only three teams more than once this season: New Jersey, Sacramento ... and Utah. | |
| 6 |  | -- Last Week: 6 | How tough an out will the Spurs be without any further injuries? They're tied for second best in the West in average point margin and just set an NBA record by finishing with a winning road record for the 13th straight season. | |
| 7 |  | 3 Last Week: 10 | History says point differential is a big deal, so the Mavs can't ignore that theirs is by far the lowest of any West playoff team. Yet I'd also submit that no one is finishing second in this West without something clicking. | |
| 8 |  | 1 Last Week: 9 | Instead of reveling in a nationally televised W on the Lakers' floor -- with Kobe deciding to play and then misfiring in crunch time -- Portland is (what else?) sweating over another injury. It's all about B-Roy's knee from here. | |
| 9 |  | 2 Last Week: 11 | Last week's drop was just for effect to reflect how rough things have been lately. Denver should still be favored in any series it has home-court advantage as long as K-Mart is back for good. With or without their coach. | |
| 10 |  | 2 Last Week: 8 | The Hawks are 1-6 against the East's top two entering a season-ender against the LeBron-less Cavs. We'll soon see if those numbers are more pertinent than notching 50 wins for the first time since 1997-98. | |
| 11 |  | 4 Last Week: 7 | The good news: Durant needs 26 ppg in two games to win the scoring title if LeBron doesn't play again. The bad news: OKC's collapse at Golden State lines Durant up for a playoff baptism against Kobe's Lakers. | |
| 12 |  | -- Last Week: 12 | It would appear that the performance last month in Dallas that wowed me so did not resurrect the 2008 Celtics. It would appear that the creaky Celts are still feeling the after-effects of that display ... three weeks later. | |
| 13 |  | -- Last Week: 13 | You're going to hear folks say that the Heat -- on this 10-1 finishing kick and with D-Wade rollin' -- should have finished higher here and can spring a first-round upset. We, however, can't get past that easy closing schedule. | |
| 14 | Charlotte 43-37 | -- Last Week: 14 | Larry Brown is taking his record eighth NBA club to the playoffs, but we're not sure if this helps or hurts karma-wise: The only expansion team since '88 to win its first-ever playoff series was ... the Charlotte-based Hornets. | |
| 15 |  | -- Last Week: 15 | You can't, on one hand, give your ROY vote to a kid (even a lefty) shooting 37 percent from the field. But Jennings still has me second-guessing my pick, because you can't deny the effect he's had on a playoff team. | |
| 16 |  | -- Last Week: 16 | The Bulls play Boston and Charlotte away to finish the season. The Raps go to Detroit and host New York. Toronto holds the tiebreaker, so Chicago needs the better record. Yet we still like the Bulls' chances. Questions? | |
| 17 |  | 1 Last Week: 18 | We leave it to you, Pacer People: Encouraged by this late-season surge? Or enraged by a 10-2 finish that has Indy -- needing as much help in the draft as it can find -- headed for just the league's 10th-worst record? | |
| 18 |  | 1 Last Week: 19 | There's too much traffic in the COY race for Adelman to score many votes, but the campaign for Best Team Ever Without An All-Star is still worth waging according to Adelman's boss, who expounds on that claim here. | |
| 19 |  | 2 Last Week: 17 | After 55 double-doubles for Randolph and with a .500 record still within reach if the Griz can split their final two road games, in Denver and OKC, one question persists: Is Lionel Hollins still getting a contract extension? | |
| 20 |  | -- Last Week: 20 | The combo of five straight L's and Bosh's busted nose -- if it has finally KO'd these guys -- sends Bosh to free agency with a Raps sheet featuring two trips to the playoffs and one winning record in seven seasons. | |
| 21 |  | 1 Last Week: 22 | The Dubs got Nellie his record with a surprising 7-7 spurt and stayed on course to post the league's third-worst record. It was shaping up to be the best ending they could have hoped for until they went and stunned OKC. | |
| 22 | New Orleans 36-45 | 1 Last Week: 21 | We'd like to think our pleas in this cyberspace last week to convince CP3 to shut it down for the rest of the season played at least some small part in that decision. So, yes, we're still quite delusional after all these years. | |
| 23 |  | -- Last Week: 23 | Twitter pal Noam Schiller sums up the challenges of New York's l-o-n-g wait for 2010 free agency: "Raise your hand if, two years ago, you predicted that T-Mac, Earl Barron and an Italian dude would start for the Knicks." | |
| 24 |  | 3 Last Week: 27 | We were there opening night when the Wiz won in Dallas. Rest assured no one there expected the Mavs to trade for two Wiz starters. Or the Wiz to lose 55 in back-to-back seasons for the first time since '93-'94/'94-'95. | |
| 25 |  | 4 Last Week: 29 | The guess here is that the 39-point eruption from Ben Gordon that ended Miami's nine-game win streak only wound up reminding folks in Motown how little they've seen of the Gordon (and Villanueva) they were expecting. | |
| 26 |  | 2 Last Week: 24 | Jrue Holiday hype can't hide the fact Detroit just halted an 11-game losing skid in Philly ... after Chicago halted a 10-gamer in Philly. Don't need to be in the rankings biz to know that just sums up Philly's season. | |
| 27 |  | 2 Last Week: 25 | Lone highlight of another Clipperesque season: Chris Kaman became the first player actually drafted by the Clips to represent them in the All-Star Game since 1988 draftee Danny Manning, who repped them in 1993. | |
| 28 |  | 2 Last Week: 26 | Remember when we asked whether we'd see more Kings wins or Casspi mentions in 24 weeks of regular-season rankings? Even I'm surprised it wasn't closer: 25 W's for Tyreke's Kings ... and nine Omri references. | |
| 29 | New Jersey 12-68 | 1 Last Week: 28 | They'd love to celebrate avoiding the all-time worst record, finishing the season higher than 30th and leaving the Meadowlands for good ... but so much as breathing is on hold until Prokhorov is approved as the new owner. | |
| 30 |  | -- Last Week: 30 | The Wolves have dropped 21 of 22 and are openly acknowledging that Love and Jefferson both play better next to Darko than they do alongside each other. Not expecting much protest, then, to their placement in the cellar. | |
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