We’re back with another Power Rankings Article as we are gearing up for the sixth week of NBA action in 2021! This week, we saw the Utah Jazz extend their winning streak to 11 games, ultimately having it snapped on the tail end of the week, while the Clippers steadily gain traction on the No.1 seed Jazz. The Lakers are slipping, due to their once-perfect road record getting its first L on the board, thanks to a resilient home win in the last second of the game by Tobias Harris and the Philadelphia 76ers.
Meanwhile, it’s teams like Boston, Miami, and Portland that are struggling with injuries heading into week six, and their record shows that they’re having issues getting into the midst of the fight in their respective conferences. Now that we’re officially in February, we ended January on a fiery note. Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook both played as the hero in a wild conclusion between the Wizards and Nets in the final 12 seconds that saw the Wizards go on an 8-0 run in a winning effort. A night before that, Damian Lillard drilled a game-winning fadeaway jumper after hitting a deep three with 8.9 seconds remaining to beat Chicago, and the Clippers now possess the best record in the NBA.
Let’s go ahead and find out what that means for the rest of the league in this week’s power rankings.
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1. Los Angeles Clippers (16-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)
Ever since the Clippers had been touched by the pandemic’s icy hand, with their most integral pieces being forced to quarantine for a total of six games, the Clippers saw their seven-game winning streak snapped by Atlanta this week as they didn’t have either Kawhi Leonard and Paul George out for that game. Since then, however, they’ve begun a two-game winning streak, have both Leonard and George back in the lineup, and have some big defensive tests this week against the Nets and Celtics.
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2. Utah Jazz (15-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)
An 11-game winning streak saw its end for the hottest team in basketball right now, as the Jazz suffered an 11-point loss to the Denver Nuggets. Still, in the losing effort, Bojan Bogdanovic dropped a season-high 29 points, signalizing the second-best scoring effort of his season. A rare double-digit loss indeed, but it’s unlikely that becomes the precedent since Utah’s been a machine at home and on the road, averaging 114.8 points per game this month and more importantly, post the sixth-best defensive rating in all of basketball. Additionally, they’re winning games with the fourth-largest average scoring margin in the NBA, winning all of their games by 7.3 or more points per game.
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3. Philadelphia 76ers (15-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)
Moving up a spot from last week’s rankings are the Philadelphia 76ers, who highlighted the week by giving the initially-perfect-on-the-road Los Angeles Lakers their first loss on the season away from the Staples Center, thanks to the late-game heroics of Tobias Harris as the 8th year pro hit a game-winning fadeaway jumper on the left hash of the right goal inside of the Wells Fargo Center, while switched onto Alex Caruso. They’re 8-2 in their last 10 contests, and just like last week, Joel Embiid has been putting the All-Star committee on notice, still averaging 34.0 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 2.8 assists in the Sixers’ last four games.
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4. Los Angeles Lakers (16-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)
After dropping consecutive road losses on an Eastern Conference voyage this past week, Los Angeles got their mojo back with two key road wins over offensive juggernauts in Boston and Atlanta to close out a 13-day trip. As they head back home, however, the case for not having a home crowd advantage could be made for their otherwise pedestrian home record of 4-4, one unbecoming of a title-contending favorite this early on. Still at third in the west – a noticeable improvement from their initial fifth seed in the West following their tightly-contested duel with Eastern favorite Philadelphia and head-scratching loss to Detroit in which Anthony Davis did not play, but before their consecutive wins against Boston and Atlanta on Monday night.
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5. Denver Nuggets (12-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)
Winners of six of their last seven, Denver is finding its groove and Nikola Jokic is playing the role of the main catalyst to this uptick of productivity. Most significantly, they knocked off the league’s hottest team this past week and didn’t just skate by the Jazz, but rather blew right past them for an 11-point win nary a soul saw coming. Jokic came out firing and stayed aggressive for the 37 minutes he spent on the floor and made his presence felt against a former Defensive Player of the Year in Rudy Gobert, scoring a career-best 47 points and swiping 12 boards off the glass in the Nuggets’ 12th win of the season. Fun fact – Jokic is making history as the 2nd player in league history to have a double-double in every game so far this season.
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6. Brooklyn Nets (13-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)
Good news: the Brooklyn Nets have won 7 of their last 10 games behind the spectacular chemistry built by the trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, who currently post the NBA’s highest offensive rating (122.6). They’ve handily beaten the likes of the Thunder and survived the likes of Atlanta just to stay above water, but now it’s time for the bad news: Brooklyn is horrendously underperforming on the defensive end, now posting a 119.9 defensive rating, the absolute worst defensive rating in the NBA. If their defensive inadequacy continues, they’ll be on pace to have the worst defensive rating in NBA history. Their biggest test of the season happens Tuesday night against the Clippers, and that marquee matchup could very well be an NBA Finals preview.
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7. Milwaukee Bucks (12-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)
So, it’s not all bad for Milwaukee, but they argue they could have played a lot better to start the year. Surely, you could chalk it up to entering in new pieces, but they’re not complaining as they’ve won six of their last 10 games in lieu of a 12-8 record. But, through 19 games, they’ve uncharacteristically lost eight games, something they didn’t do last year until three quarters through last season.
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8. Indiana Pacers (11-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)
In last Wednesday’s win over Charlotte, Domantas Sabonis continued to make his case for his second All-star selection, scoring 20 points and racking up a triple-double while shooting over 90 percent from the field. Additionally in the same frontcourt, Myles Turner continues to rack up an acumen for what should be a year where he, at the minimum, touches an All-NBA Defensive Team with five blocks or more in six games played this season. They have a fairly easy schedule coming up, as they’ll have Memphis and New Orleans but will have to bring their best game to take on the likes of Milwaukee and Utah later this week.
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9. Phoenix Suns (11-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)
Phoenix dropped their first two games of the season without Devin Booker, who had to miss time due to a sore left hamstring, but quickly got back into the win column with some noteworthy wins over the streaky Golden State Warriors and slumping Dallas Mavericks. Chris Paul’s impact on this team extends far beyond his floor general presence, and in his mentorship role that he’s become accustomed to, his confidence in his younger teammates to play their best game is not taken for granted. Mikal Bridges is now being trusted to be an off-the-catch, spot-up scorer along the perimeter now, shooting above the league average from deep at 40.4 percent. DeAndre Ayton, CP3’s trusty Pick and Roll man, is becoming adjusted and comfortable with both Paul and Booker helping to get him touches, as he’s averaging 15.3 rebounds, 11.3 points, and 2.3 assists in Phoenix’s last four games.
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10. Boston Celtics (10-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)
Injuries are piling up for the Celtics, first losing Payton Pritchard during a freak accident where Jaylen Brown landed on his knee, spraining his MCL which would keep him out for an undisclosed time. One week later, in a primetime battle with the rival Lakers, Marcus Smart went down with what was configured as a strained calf and will miss the next 2-4 weeks. Guard depth is one thing that’ll be missed, but what cannot be replaced is the heart and soul of the Celtics’ locker room, as Smart has helped Boston in a variety of ways as their best on-ball defender. They’ll have a five-game road trip without Smart on the floor, and it won’t be easy, considering that the Warriors, Kings, Clippers, and Suns are up next on their schedule.
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11. Portland Trail Blazers (10-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)
Damian Lillard is the superglue to a levy that’s splitting at the seams at every turn, proven in his dropping of back-to-back threes in the game’s final 8 seconds to break the hearts of the Chicago Bulls and winning the game with a side-fading three-ball in the right corner to give Portland their 10th win on the year. Down multiple role players and starters like both Jusuf Nurkic and CJ McCollum, Dame Time has had to given unlimited minutes as their lone All-Star has needed to lead them in scoring (he is) and chariot them through murky waters. Averaging 34 points a game during the stretch of losing both McCollum and Nurkic, expect Lillard to do more of what he’s accustomed to doing during this period where his Blazers will have to face the Wizards, 76ers, and Knicks this week.
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12. San Antonio Spurs (11-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)
The Spurs don’t see any movement in this week’s rankings, and just miss out on cracking the top 10, as they’ve been snake bitten by some health and safety protocols. Fortunately, all tests for the players sent to quarantine came back negative. As they returned to action, they beat a Celtics team at home after storming to close a halftime deficit, winning the game by double digits. Also, Derrick White came back from his toe injury this past Saturday, making it the first game he’s played since New Year’s Day. In a return win over Memphis, White led the team in scoring with 22 points in 18 minutes off the bench.
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13. Golden State Warriors (11-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)
A positive note: the Dubs finished the week at 3-1 and beating the Timberwolves twice and Detroit by nearly 30 once bolstered the confidence in many of the role players Steve Kerr has on his bench. James Wiseman, their coveted Rookie, has averaged around 12 points and 6 rebounds per game off 50.3 percent shooting and, more impressively, has shot above the league average from deep, shooting 40.3 percent from behind the arc. But, recently the rookie had one of his worst performances of the season against Phoenix, as he only scored five points and had a team-worst -20 in the +/- margin. He quickly bounced back one game later, scoring 25 points in the win over the Timberwolves.
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14. Atlanta Hawks (10-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)
The Hawks are a cumulative 4-5 in their past nine contests, and while that may sound unsatisfactory to some, it means a leg up for Lloyd Pierce’s team, who saw Trae Young return to early-season form following his confusing scoring slump. Young dropped 41 points against the Washington Wizards this past Friday, becoming the fifth player in league history to score 40+ points in 14 games in an NBA career. For some perspective, only Shaquille O’Neal, LeBron James, Rick Barry, and Kevin Durant have achieved the same feat. Also, Young has 404 threes through his three-year career, doing so in just 160 games – the shortest amount of time ever needed to reach 400 threes in league history.
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15. Houston Rockets (10-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)
Well, what was supposed to be a year that the Rockets would rest on their laurels, play their younger guys, and allow their more tenured pieces in Victor Oladipo, DeMarcus Cousins and John Wall look good enough so they can get shipped out of Houston to build draft capital, turned out to be a year that they can realistically challenge for a playoff spot and honestly, their aspirations are not that lofty. The Mavericks and Pelicans are on a swift downturn, and Houston has won 7 of their last 10 games by just playing hard defense and getting some major contributions from Christian Wood, who will probably be an All-Star, as he is only in company with Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic as the only players in the league to average 20 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 55 percent from the field. Additionally, Houston currently has the second-best defensive rating in the NBA at 102.8.
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16. Memphis Grizzlies (8-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)
Memphis hasn’t lost a game since January 7. Okay, great! Since then, however, they’ve been hit hard by the pandemic, not being able to resume any basketball activities until this past week, when they picked up where they left with a win over the Spurs. That extended their winning streak to six games, and they’re still fourth in the West at the moment even with a long layoff. Ja Morant’s health has been in question, but in the past week, he’s looked good at full strength as he dished out 10 assists against the Suns and 11 assists against the Spurs a few nights later.
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17. Charlotte Hornets (10-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)
Moving up six spots in these rankings are the Hornets, who might need to start LaMelo Ball a little more often. This past Saturday, the Hornets found a way to upset the Milwaukee Bucks to go 2-2 on the week, as Gordon Hayward finished that game with 27 points in 38 minutes. Consistency has been their issue and while Terry Rozier and DeVonte Graham may have the experience from being Charlotte’s starters in the backcourt for two seasons, James Borrego turning to LaMelo Ball sooner rather than later should have more of a benefit than cost at the expense of the Hornets’ improvement in 2021. Ball also scored 27 points off 8-10 shooting from the field in the win over Milwaukee over the course of last weekend, and earned his first start of the season against Miami on Monday night, scoring an inefficient 14 points but dishing 7 assists and grabbing 5 rebounds in the win.
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18. Cleveland Cavaliers (10-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)
After such a momentum-gaining week 5 of play, Cleveland fell back to earth with a 1-3 week, giving up 46 points to the homecoming LeBron James while losing a tight contest to the Lakers. They then unceremoniously dropped two games against the Timberwolves and Knicks, which they couldn’t lose a game to since they are the types of teams that need to be beaten in order to keep the Cavaliers in the playoff hunt. They ended the week on a good note, beating the Pistons as Collin Sexton had yet another insane scoring outing of 29 points off 10-14 shooting with 5 rebounds and 5 assists to boot. They earned a win on Monday against the Timberwolves on Monday night but barely, as Sexton kept up the fiery and energetic stat-stuffing with 26 points, 3 assists, and 3 rebounds.
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19. New York Knicks (9-13, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)
The Knicks lost a tough battle against the Chicago Bulls on Monday, and have lost six of their last 10 games. It was expected that these Knicks would tail off and toil away down in the bottom tier of Eastern teams; the roster just isn’t talented enough to credibly compete. But what has been a sight for sore eyes: Immanuel Quickley should be in consideration for Rookie of the Year at the least. In back to back games this past week, Quickley dropped 25 points in 27 minutes against the Clippers, and on Monday, scored 16 points while racking up 6 rebounds and 7 assists. The Knicks have been pragmatic and optimistic about competing this season as any team should, but they should see the first full month of the Thibs/Rose era in NYC as a right-on-track situation.
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20. Toronto Raptors (8-12, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)
Toronto is another team that’s dealing with a multitude of injuries, as they’ll now be without OG Anunoby due to a calf strain. A 6-4 record in their past 10 games signifies that they are finally getting out of the hole they dug themselves into earlier on the year and with somewhat of a soft schedule coming up with an exception to Brooklyn, the question remains: is this Toronto team good enough to keep up the momentum for the entire duration of what’s left this season, or are they a barely-.500 team, that’s grown anemic from injuries and free agency departures?
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21. Dallas Mavericks (8-13, Last Week’s Ranking: 11)
It’s hard to fathom just how disappointing the Mavericks have looked this season, and no matter the numbers that Luka Doncic puts up, they don’t translate to wins if what we’ve watched over the course of this past week tells us anything. Dallas is the league’s worst 3 point shooting team at 32.8 percent, and they’ve lost nine of their last eleven games. You could say that their roster is just incomplete since they ended up getting Maxi Kleiber back from health and safety protocols, but even he doesn’t immediately solve the issue of how the team looks right now. Scoring looks like a foreign language to them, and the ball at times doesn’t move as much as it’s supposed to in the halfcourt. Dallas needs all the help they can get at the moment.
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22. Miami Heat (7-12, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)
After getting Jimmy Butler back from a sprained ankle, the All-Star scored 30 points in the Heat’s win over the Kings which snapped a five-game losing streak. Meanwhile, there is a bevy of injured bodies on the Heat bench that won’t be activated any time soon, as Goran Dragic tends to a groin strain, Avery Bradley deals with a knee contusion, Meyers Leonard is set to miss the rest of the season to surgically repair a shoulder strain, Mo Harkless has a thigh contusion, and Tyler Herro recently tweeted that he may have been in contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Though the season extends to May, they’re walking on eggshells to reclaim the Eastern throne, and a week-opening loss to Charlotte doesn’t do them any favors.
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23. Oklahoma City Thunder (8-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)
These Thunder don’t know the meaning of “concede” on the road but know all about it at home. Weird, right? Count OKC AKA Loud City as a key place where crowd sound doesn’t play to the benefit of the home team and the silence is rather discouraging as the Thunder are an abysmal 1-7 inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. And they’re 7-3 on the road, but those wins don’t translate on home hardwood. Their most recent losses featured ex-Thunder players in Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and James Harden coming back to where their careers started to drop 147 points on the Thunder, and following that, John Wall, Victor Oladipo, and Christian Wood came back to drop 136 points on this building team to give OKC their 7th loss at home this year.
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24. Chicago Bulls (8-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)
Dame Time is something that every now and then just happens. The Bulls played a great game against an undermanned Trail Blazers team that Chicago blew a late lead to, but if there was a silver lining, Lauri Markkanen has shut down all trade talk and could be a viable piece to build around in the era of Arturas Karnisovas, scoring a season-high 31 points in the loss.
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25. Sacramento Kings (9-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)
Is Marvin Bagley III turning the corner? Consistency has always plagued him, but in two of the three contests this week for the Kings, the former Duke big man had a week where he scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against Orlando and scored 17 points on 7-8 shooting against the Heat. The Kings are getting valid help from the likes of De’Aaron Fox and rookie Tyrese Haliburton (combined for 41.5 points per game off 43.7 percent shooting) and if Bagley can find a way to stay consistent, the Kings will definitely have something to compete within the West.
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26. Orlando Magic (8-13, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)
That’s now 11 of the last 13 games the Magic have lost now, after their 4-0 and 6-2 start of the season. The loss of Markelle Fultz and Jonathan Isaac is too damaging to their season and chances to make it back to the playoffs but to make matters worse, Aaron Gordon will be out for 4-6 weeks with a severe ankle sprain. Two games against Toronto follow a heated matchup against the Raptors this week.
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27. New Orleans Pelicans (7-12, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)
If there ever was a restart button to not just the offseason, but the entire coach hiring and drafting process, Pels fans would certainly slam it, right? New Orleans is officially 3-7 in their last 10 games, and pose the sixth-worst defensive rating in basketball while simultaneously being 18th in total offensive rating. Their only positive of this past week: an upset over Milwaukee in which the Pelicans splashed a total of 21 threes against the Bucks’ defense, tying a franchise-best effort.
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28. Detroit Pistons (5-15, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)
After getting shellacked by Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors last week, Detroit has lost 15 of their last 20 games for the sixth time in franchise history. They’ve still yet to win back to back games this year.
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29. Washington Wizards (4-12, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)
In what was undoubtedly their biggest win of the season, the Wizards (ironically) helped the Nets become the worst defensive team in the NBA with a shocking 147-145 home win in the last few seconds of the game; Bradley Beal splashes home a transition three to draw the Wizards within a point, and a Brooklyn inbounder accidentally gives it to Beal, who kicks it out to Russell Westbrook (who had 41 points in the victory) cash out on the go-ahead jumper to give Washington their fourth win of the year. And amidst trade rumors, Beal has stated that his interest is to not leave the Wizards this year.
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30. Minnesota Timberwolves (5-15, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)
Losers of eight of their last 10 games, the Timberwolves have probably already chalked this year up as a year for developing their younger players, most notably Anthony Edwards, who looks to be turning a corner. Over the last two games, the first-overall pick has looked impressive, scoring 25 points against the Warriors while shooting 5-8 from deep as well as having a 23-point night agains the Cavaliers a few nights later. He’s scored in double figures for five straight contests and leads all rookies in scoring.
