Power Rankings: Cavs' rise gives East a one-two punch
ESPN.com
The Cleveland Cavaliers have moved into the top two. The Atlanta Hawks have risen into the top 10. The Memphis Grizzlies, if for only a week, have sneaked into the top 20!
The Boston Celtics, meanwhile, have merely tightened their hold on the top spot in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings, placing No. 1 for the sixth week out of seven with the best start we've seen from anyone since the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls opened 23-2 in what wound up a 72-win season. The Celts tote a 14-game win streak into Monday's showdown with Utah and, with an assist from a friendly stretch of schedule, have pushed their per-game point differential for the season into the same double-digit stratosphere as the Cavs and Los Angeles Lakers.
You can click here to rank the teams yourself or click here to comment.
And check out John Hollinger's daily Power Rankings as well.
Tune in Tuesdays to "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see this week's U.S. Army Power Rankings. The Grizzlies are the U.S. Army Team of the Week after spoiling Derrick Rose's Memphis homecoming as part of a 4-0 surge.
| 2008-09 Power Rankings: Week 7 | ||||
| RANK (LAST WK) | TEAM | REC. | COMMENT | |
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1 (1) | Celtics | 22-2 | You have to go back to the 1991-92 season to find the last time a defending champ won 14 games in a row. And you have to go back to the magical season of 1985-86 for the last time the Celtics did so. Wicked. |
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2 (3) | Cavaliers | 20-4 | The Cavs didn't lose their 11-game win streak until Zydrunas Ilgauskas rolled an ankle and didn't face a single second-half deficit during the streak. Impressive stat no matter how weak the competition was. |
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3 (2) | Lakers | 20-3 | Even if we were to ignore the L in Sacramento and the slippage on D, we might have been forced to put the West's best here. But Phil Jackson doesn't want us to ignore the L in Sactown ... to rile up his guys. |
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4 (5) | Magic | 18-6 | The Magic are just one basket away from a 4-0 start on a five-game West Coast swing. But we're keeping the praise for Orlando's great road work on the quiet side 'til we know for sure that Dwight Howard's knee is OK. |
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5 (9) | Spurs | 15-8 | Even a total Spurs homer like me has to acknowledge that they've beaten only five teams with winning records. Good luck, though, trying to convince Denver and Dallas of any slippage from Team Duncan. |
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6 (6) | Nuggets | 16-7 | The schedule is about to get a lot tougher, but the Nuggets must feel doubly good about where they are with Chauncey (15-4) when you count up how many teams that made big moves since July are struggling. |
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7 (10) | Hornets | 13-7 | If Antonio Daniels proves to be a dependable backup PG to Paul, trading for AD could turn out to be as important as signing Posey. The Hornets have simply been asking CP3 to do too much. And they know it. |
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8 (8) | Mavericks | 13-9 | Despite generally getting the results they're supposed to get out of a seven-game homestand at 5-1 so far -- and even though No. 41 is indeed rollin' -- Dirk's Mavs have played well maybe twice in the six games. |
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9 (7) | Rockets | 15-9 | We invite you to try to tell us definitively which of the West's top nine teams will miss the playoffs come April. Injuries could be the deciding factor, which must be the last thing Rockets fans want to hear. |
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10 (12) | Hawks | 14-9 | Atlanta found no mercy on an 0-3 swing through the Texas Triangle, but only three teams in the East have played better ball than the Hawks through the first quarter of the season. As the Cavs could tell you. |
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11 (14) | Jazz | 15-10 | D-Will sat out 13 games. Boozer has missed the past 13. Yet you have to think Utah, like the Spurs when Manu and Tony were out, will wind up stronger for the long term by hanging in there without two main guys. |
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12 (4) | Trail Blazers | 15-10 | At first we thought Turkoglu's banked-in buzzer heave merely canceled out what that Brandon Roy heave did to the Rockets. Harder to shrug that ending off after Portland blew its next home game to the Clips. |
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13 (13) | Suns | 14-10 | The only ones left from the glory days: Nash, Amare, Barbosa. Sunday's reaction from Nash: ''I feel like I've been traded. I feel like I'm on a different team because everything's changed so much around here.'' |
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14 (15) | Pistons | 13-9 | After the week's ugly start -- blowing a big lead at lowly Washington -- Curry's new small-ball lineup of Iverson, Rip, Stuckey, Prince and Sheed eked out two shaky victories over Indy and Charlotte. Baby steps. |
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15 (18) | Bulls | 11-12 | Paid cynics like us are obligated by J-school law to cast doubt upon Derrick Rose's apple-knife story ... although we concede that the rook would have to have quite an imagination to invent a story that original. |
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16 (20) | Knicks | 11-12 | D'Antoni's Knicks ain't just snoozing 'til the summer of 2010. Our friends at the Elias Sports Bureau say they've scored 2,415 points in 23 games, New York's best since piling up 2,620 in the first season after Pitino left. |
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17 (11) | Nets | 11-11 | Uh-oh. What's happened in December -- home losses to the Wiz, Knicks and Raptors already -- definitely suggests that we jinxed Jersey by rewarding Devin Harris' November explosion with that bump to No. 9. |
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18 (16) | Heat | 12-11 | Proof that this isn't some arbitrary rule writers invented: D-Wade himself says that while his play is ''MVP-caliber'' on a better-than-expected team, only players from ''great'' teams sit at the ''top of the MVP discussion.'' |
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19 (25) | Grizzlies | 9-15 | Let Coach Iavaroni enjoy this bump. He probably won't be treated to a better week all season when you add up the four straight victories and a public proclamation of support from owner Mike Heisley. |
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20 (19) | Bucks | 10-15 | The Bucks were doing OK on the road until they went west last week and gave up 105, 125 and 119 points in three successive defeats. Three more roadies await this week to make it 18 of the first 28 games away. |
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21 (17) | Pacers | 7-16 | How do we know that the Pacers' schedule has been brutal? The Cavs played 10 teams with losing records during their 11-game win streak. Indy has only played five teams with losing records all season. |
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22 (21) | Raptors | 10-13 | One of those what-if questions Simmons is dying to ask and a timely one on the day D'Antoni returns to Phoenix: Would D'Antoni be in Toronto instead of NYC if Sam Mitchell had been fired after last season? |
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23 (22) | 76ers | 10-14 | C'mon, Sixers. If you don't respond to the coaching change, I'm going to have to publicly admit Simmons was right back in October when he told me this team would never live up to the hype. And no one wants that. |
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24 (26) | Clippers | 6-17 | You can call it the best 48 hours of the Clips' season: 68 points from Zach Randolph and wins over Portland and Houston. Whether you also can call it the start of something, well, you'd better check back next Monday. |
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25 (23) | Bobcats | 7-17 | How do we know Larry Brown is serious about the Bobcats making more moves, besides the fact we're talking about Larry? Because the NBA's lowest-scoring team can't trade away its best scorer and be done. Can it? |
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26 (24) | Wizards | 4-17 | The Wiz are the only team in the East besides Detroit to have reached the playoffs in each of the past four seasons. Which seemed appropriate to mention with two games against the Pistons in a span of eight days. |
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27 (28) | Kings | 6-18 | Don't tell me that all the goodwill Theus generated from the Kings' momentous upset of the Lakers was undone by a one-sided home loss to the Knicks on Saturday night. (I asked you not to tell me that.) |
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28 (27) | Warriors | 7-17 | As if the Dubs didn't have enough to lament, with Maggette's injury offsetting the progress being made by Monta Ellis, have you tracked what Al Harrington has been doing since they shipped him to NYC? |
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29 (29) | Timberwolves | 4-19 | Not sure how much this factoid will encourage the brave Wolves fans out there, but Did You Know that McHale is the only coach of the six interims hired this season with any prior NBA head-coaching experience? |
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30 (30) | Thunder | 2-23 | We interrupt the Blake Griffin Watch to point out the magnitude of Tuesday's date with the Clips. If the Thunder don't win, our man Scotty Brooks will have the same 1-12 record P.J. Carlesimo had when ousted. |































