Five weeks into the NBA season, and like every other season, a clear power structure is being formulated in both conferences. Teams who unsuspectingly started off on the winning path have realistically sunk down to sub-.500 record, while the East and West’s elite have become the cream of the crop that have risen to the top.

The Lakers, who are standing above all and blowing out lesser opponents with ease, are the team to beat, but below them lie the not-so-far-away Clippers and increasingly-intimidating Utah Jazz are on both team’s coattails, now winners of seven straight games.

In the East, the Brooklyn Nets have shown their roster isn’t all that complete just yet to seriously compete, though the new trio of Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and James Harden has helped the Nets manage to score an average of 133.3 points per game through three games. Philadelphia still reigns supreme atop the East, but Indiana, Boston, and Milwaukee are all still surging beneath them.

Let’s get into these rankings for this week to see where each team is at heading into the fifth week of the season.

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1. Los Angeles Lakers (14-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)

Where do we start… No. 1 in defensive efficiency, a perfect road record, LeBron James posting MVP stats at the tender age of 36…in short – the Lakers are rolling, secure in their spot atop the Western Conference. Anthony Davis may have struggled to score the basketball while lacking the aggressiveness to post the regular all-world numbers he usually posts come this time this year, but he quickly bounced back in his win over Chicago with a signature 37-point game.

These Lakers look like the team to compete with the best of them right now and have a fairly favorable schedule coming up this week. It started with Cleveland, and LBJ came back to his old stomping grounds to slice up JB Bickerstaff’s defense for 46 points off 73 percent shooting. Their game against Philadelphia on Wednesday features the battle of the two best teams with the best records in the league, and their interior defense will be put to the test going up against Joel Embiid and Philly’s breakneck offense.

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2. Los Angeles Clippers (13-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)

That 22-point blown lead at the hands of the Warriors really pushed the Clippers to play better basketball, and after being led by Paul George as attributed to his ball-dominant role in the offense, they’ve won seven straight contests. Defensive breakdowns have been their Achilles heel, as they’ve become prone to allowing opponents to go on scoring runs that diminish double-digit deficits they build up, per their 16th-best defensive rating. A favorable part of their schedule has benefitted them handsomely to start the year, and Kawhi Leonard has been a nightmare to guard for defenders, averaging 32.3 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 rebounds in the past three games.

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3. Utah Jazz (12-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)

Averaging over 16 made threes a game as a team, the Jazz is on pace to have one of, if not the best, three-point shooting seasons in NBA history, as they’ve cashed at least twenty 3s in six games this year. This is a really good team, and that’s not quoting media members who are simplifying the efforts of Donovan Mitchell and crew in verbatim; since his early-season woes, Mitchell’s snapped out of them and is averaging 27.3 points off 51/50/90 splits during the Jazz’s seven-game winning streak. Defensively, they’re the fourth-best squad in the game, and while they’re scoring only 113.2 points per game, they’re winning at a moderate and methodical pace, regardless of their 22nd-fastest pace ranking.

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4. Philadelphia 76ers (12-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)

Despite exterior criticisms pertaining to Ben Simmons’ recent offensive inadequacy, he’d go on to score 11 points in a tight contest against the visiting Boston Celtics in a two-game series and will his Sixers to victory, as they went on to sweep their Atlantic rivals during their homestand. A major reason as to why they’ve been so dominant even amidst the turmoil of the pandemic and the lack of a 100% healthy roster as a result of health and safety protocols – Joel Embiid.

He’s having an MVP season, and more importantly, keeping a well manufactured 76ers team at the top of the Eastern Conference. As the team begins to have all of their players out of quarantine, Embiid has averaged 37.7 points, 11.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists in the team’s last 3 games, carrying a ship that isn’t sinking above the shark-infested waters that are the Eastern Conference this early in the year.

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5. Milwaukee Bucks (10-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)

No, six losses aren’t quite ideal for Mike Budenholzer’s Bucks, who didn’t have a lot of roster turnover from last season but rather improvements in-depth and various starting positions. In what many perceived as a temporary slump in winning, Milwaukee started off the week dropping consecutive contests to the Brooklyn and the Lakers. While they may still be looking for their rhythm in an atypical season that’s missed an entire two opening months and a year full of postponements, MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo is still in MVP form averaging 28.7 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 6.0 assists in his last 3 games.

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6. Boston Celtics (10-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 6)

Boston stays put and out of the top 5 for another week and causation: health and safety protocols. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown reunited Monday night against Chicago on the road, and if things go the way they went last night against the Bulls and Sunday night against the Cavaliers since they trounced a developing young team by 38, these Celtics will get healthy and hot at the perfect time.

Though they skidded through a two-game losing streak against Philly on the road, Boston has been led in scoring by Jaylen Brown, who in all accords will be an All-Star if these two weeks have told voters anything. He’s had to pick up the slack since Tatum tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks back, playing an average of 29.1 mpg., but he’s made the most of those minutes, scoring 29.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, and 3.6 assists in Boston’s last 5 games.

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7. Brooklyn Nets (11-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)

As is with every big three throughout the multitudinous instances in NBA history, brand-new big threes never piece it together overnight. That’s the case for Brooklyn’s new trio of Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden. Though Harden has taken on the facilitating role, the trio is combining for an aghast 125.7 offensive rating. Which is really good. And then, you take a gander at the defensive side of the ball and you’d question if that was the same team out there.

Though they held the Jimmy Butler-less Heat to an astonishing 85 points in a home win over Miami, Brooklyn has posted a near league-worst 120.7 defensive rating after acquiring Harden via last week’s wild four-team trade that sent Taurean Prince and Jarrett Allen to Cleveland and Caris LeVert to Indiana. It’s expected for things to get better after being as worse as it’ll likely get, as the team is not done shopping assets and trading for defensive pieces to protect the rim.

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8. Denver Nuggets (10-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)

“Ah, so that was the team we witnessed in the bubble,” said Nuggets fans everywhere over the course of their last four games. Denver is finally rounding into shape and resembling the team that advanced to the Conference Finals a few months back, now winners of three straight as their Western Conference Player of the Week Nikola Jokic has led them in every noticeable statistic. Additionally, as winners of their last eight of eleven games, they’re getting healthy at the right time, as Michael Porter Jr. came back from a 10-game absence due to health and safety protocols. In Monday night’s win over Dallas, Porter Jr. led all scorers wearing a Nuggets jersey with 30 points, while also grabbing eight boards.

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9. Indiana Pacers (10-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)

Indiana is building up a lot of steam as of late, winning a game that went down to the final possessions in the fourth quarter against a resilient Toronto Raptors team that challenged the shorthanded Pacers who had lost Domantas Sabonis for the game early in the first half. Speaking of Sabonis, he’s making historic strides for himself, and they’re paying off in huge dividends for his franchise. In Sunday’s game against the Raptors, Sabonis became the first player in 45 years to record a double-double in his first 16 games of a new season, and despite the loss, they saw Myles Turner return from a fractured hand, upping his averages in the rejection category, now at 4.1 blocks per game.

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10. Phoenix Suns (8-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)

 The Suns were another team struck by the inconvenience of health and safety protocols this past week, as they returned from postponements a week ago. After splitting their first two games of the week, they suffered back-to-back home losses in OT against the visiting Nuggets, but in what was more of an encouraging sign of things to come, it seems like Chris Paul’s influence is directly rubbing off on DeAndre Ayton and not just in the way he’s ramped up his play by averaging 22 points and 14.8 rebounds off 64 percent shooting, but how he’s conducting himself as a future leader of this team. Paul’s ageless distribution skills are on full display in a new uniform, as his 135 assists are the most for a Suns player through 15 games since Steve Nash’s 140 in 2011-12.

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11. Dallas Mavericks (8-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)

If one thing is for certain, the Mavericks must be jubilant as ever getting Kristaps Porzingis back this month, who has shaken off the oxidation onset from his January return from a knee injury. He’s averaging 24 points per game off 65 percent shooting from the field, and alongside him is Luka Doncic, who is returning to MVP form. He is putting up 32.3 points, 11.7 assists, and 8.3 rebounds in the last 3 games for the Mavericks, but defensively they struggle out the gate, ranking as the 17th best defensive team in basketball.

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12. San Antonio Spurs (9-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 11)

In the past seven games, the Spurs haven’t had one consistent leading scorer on a nightly basis, but rather by committee, with a different leading scorer every night. Whether it’s Lonnie Walker IV, Keldon Johnson, LaMarcus Aldridge, or Patty Mills, San Antonio has had six different players lead the team in scoring in the past seven games.

Ball movement and pace is the way for Gregg Popovich to modernize his gameplan and familiarize it with his young stars, and it’s working so far. DeJounte Murray looks as if he’s rounding into shape this season, coming off of his second triple-double of his career last Sunday against the Wizards. Currently, the Spurs are facing postponements, as their contest against the Pelicans to start the week was put off due to potential contract tracing following their game against the Wizards, who until their game against the Spurs, hadn’t played a game in more than 13 days.

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13. Portland Trail Blazers (9-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)

Portland’s injury woes were supposed to be a thing of the past, but it seems their Mr. Misfortune has placed his cursed hand on the Blazers’ franchise yet again. CJ McCollum being out for a little over a month and Jusuf Nurkic being sidelined for quite possibly the same duration has done them in, evident in them losing four of their last five games. Moreover, their defense still poses as a major red flag for a team that’s fifth in the West and without McCollum or Nurkic, gave up 125 points to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Oklahoma City Thunder at home.

Damian Lillard has no other choice to carry this offense until his cohort McCollum returns, and with him dropping 35+ points in three straight contests leading up to his 26-point night against the Thunder, expect more of the same for Dame in the near future.

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14. Golden State Warriors (9-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)

Staying put in these weekly rankings are the Warriors, who are treading water at the moment winning three of their last six. The week started with an eye-opening 19-point comeback and win against the Lakers, and then the rollercoaster took another dip, as they followed their Laker performance with an ugly loss at the hands of both the Knicks at home and the Jazz on the road. There was some silver lining, however; Stephen Curry eclipsed second-place Reggie Miller on the all-time 3PM list, and now has only 404 threes to go until he ties Ray Allen for the most made three-pointers in a career. Putting those games behind them, the Dubs then defeated the Timberwolves handily, as Curry literally put Minnesota out of their misery in the fourth quarter by scoring 15 points in three minutes.

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15. Toronto Raptors (7-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)

It was only a matter of time until these Raps shook off the abhorrent 1-6 start and got back to playing winning basketball, winning five of their last seven and having their winning streak snapped by Indiana in a split series. In their most recent win, they got it done without Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry and relied on the talents of the guys not named All-Stars (Norman Powell, Fred Van Vleet, Chris Boucher, etc.) to finish a healthy Pacers team. Though they have a rematch with vaunted rival Milwaukee this week, they enter a soft spot in their schedule to get back on the winning track and affirm themselves into the top eight of the Eastern Conference.

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16. Atlanta Hawks (8-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)

Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks are no longer ice cold from the field, and the shooting slump is no more. Winners of three straight games, they’ve been allowed to get back into normalcy with a preferred easy spot of the season with wins coming by teams who hold the worst record in their respective conferences (two over Minnesota and one over Detroit) but fell back down to earth with a loss to Milwaukee who did not have Trae Young or the rim presence that Clint Capela provides. In Capela’s two games this past week prior to sitting, he had 27 points and 26 rebounds against the Wolves as well as 13 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 blocks against the Pistons.

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17. Cleveland Cavaliers (8-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)

With the basketball world’s eyes showing upon these young Cavaliers as they went toe-to-toe with the Nets during James Harden’s debut with the Brooklyn Nets, Collin Sexton decided that his Cavs wouldn’t be run out of the gym by three all-world talents on the same team, at least not on his watch. He would end up dropping 42 points that included an unfathomable 20-straight point run to help beat the Nets in double overtime for a team that many are starting to consider as one of the surprise squads that could likely challenge for a playoff spot if their success continues.

They ended up beating the Nets in consecutive games but finished off their week in sour fashion, but they were promptly blown out by Boston by a grotesque 38 points this past Sunday. One night later, they played the visiting Lakers, and homecoming LeBron James, tightly up until the end of the third quarter, where James would score 21 points and finish the night with 46 points off 73 percent shooting, resembling his dominant self that would routinely put on performances inside the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse a many years ago.

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18. Miami Heat (6-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)

Miami is still without Jimmy Butler as he is still nursing an ankle injury, Avery Bradley is adhering to health and safety protocols, Tyler Herro is experiencing neck spasms, and Meyers Leonard is recovering from a shoulder strain. And yet, the Heat are still remaining competitive in every contest in their absence, thanks to Bam Adebayo doing his very best to keep the Heat alive in the East. During Saturday’s loss to the Nets, he dropped 41 points, and in their second game against Brooklyn for the series, scored 26 points and put up a double-double with 10 rebounds in Miami’s second-straight loss.

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19. Memphis Grizzlies (7-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)

While in the midst of a five-game winning streak, the Grizzlies’ season was put on halt when the NBA decided that it was in the best interest to not have the Grizzlies play for over 10 days, with contact tracing becoming an issue. The good that comes with this layoff is that the Grizzlies have more time to get healthy, which means Ja Morant has more time to rest his ankle, and Jaren Jackson Jr.’s return should come up in a few week’s time.

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20. New York Knicks (8-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)

In an atypical up-and-down season to kick off the Leon Rose era in New York, the Knicks experienced a three-game winning streak, then a five-game skid, and then a three-game winning streak in the last 11 games prior to their loss on Friday against the Knicks and a loss against the Blazers one game later. Currently, a Tom Thibodeau-coached team ranks fifth in defensive rating, which is totally something you’d say in the year 2021, right?

Though it’s unlikely for that regard to uphold itself, there is a noticeable improvement for the Garden’s team this season – evident in the play of rookie Immanuel Quickley. This season, he’s taken over the lead guard role off the bench and looks comfortable having the offense run through him, as he’s averaged 15.8 points, 3.5 assists, and 2.2 rebounds in the last six games.

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21. Orlando Magic (8-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)

Let’s just say things would be a lot worse for the Orlando Magic if Cole Anthony wasn’t playing for them. They’d be in the midst of a nine-game losing streak had it not been for his heroics against Minnesota, in which the 19-year-old guard out of UNC splashed a last-second fadeaway three in the corner during a quick sideout action. They ended up also beating the Hornets a few nights later to regain some of their early-season form and have the Kings and Raptors coming up next on the schedule.

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22. Chicago Bulls (7-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)

Chicago stays put in this week’s rankings and doesn’t move below where they’re at thanks to Zach LaVine, who is keeping the Bulls in reaching distance of a .500 record. He’s averaging a career-best 26.8 points, 5.4 assists and 5.2 rebounds per game, keeping Chicago in the running with its longest winning streak in over a year before their two-game skid with losses coming from Los Angeles and Boston.

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23. Charlotte Hornets (7-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)

Gordon Hayward is thriving in his new uniform and is showing why Michael Jordan did right by the Butler swingman in signing him to a massive 4 yr/$120M deal. He’s continuing his impressive run in his first few weeks as a Hornet, averaging 28.7 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.7 assists in Charlotte’s last 6 games. They got out of a four-game losing streak by beating the Magic on the road, before splitting the series against Orlando Monday night.

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24. Oklahoma City Thunder (7-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)

Though they’re only two games away from obtaining a .500 record, Oklahoma City’s played hard, and have been negatively impacted by injuries and missed time from their most reliable pieces. Al Horford hasn’t played in the last three contests, mainly due to personal reasons (newborn child!) and their schedule is getting increasingly difficult with trips to Phoenix (and a reunion with Chris Paul) and a home game against the intimidating Nets next on the schedule. Again, this season should be taken with a grain of salt, since OKC likely won’t resemble the team fans saw last year advance to the playoffs as a fourth-seed with Chris Paul leading the charge. It’s a roster in development, so passing judgement about this team will lack context.

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25. Houston Rockets (6-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)

That’s now 11 different starting lineups Stephen Silas has experimented with within the span of 15 games, and it’s been rather metaphorical of the entire organization’s turnaround now that it’s been a full week that James Harden has been a Brooklyn Net. Between that drama, the roster’s had injury and COVID-19 protocol impact their season, and it’s done both good and bad for them. On the bright side, young players like Jae’Sean Tate are getting more minutes and game by game, look like guys worth keeping around to develop. Conversely, it’s yet to be configured if Victor Oladipo and DeMarcus Cousins are still worthy of being in a starting five.

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26. Sacramento Kings (6-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)

There isn’t a whole lot of movement for the Kings this week, who have lost five of their last six games and just ended a rough losing skid with a home win over the visiting Knicks. Again, for another week, Tyrese Haliburton looks more and more like a future starter, as their win over the Knicks may have made Knicks fans reconsider taking Obi Toppin in this year’s draft to pick Haliburton instead. They’ll resume basketball activities soon since their next two games against Memphis that they were planning to build a winning streak on were postponed per the health and safety protocols.

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27. New Orleans Pelicans (5-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)

It might sound harsh, but this roster is poorly built together. At least, that’s how Stan Van Gundy is making this team look as discombobulated as ever. Their losses to Utah in which they were in it for the most part behind Zion Williamson’s dominance around the basket and Brandon Ingram’s scoring adeptness were expected since the Jazz are streaking at the moment, but the loss to a Minnesota team that had been resting D’Angelo Russell and still were without Karl Anthony-Towns due to him getting the virus has to be nauseating for Pels fans to digest.

Currently, rumors are surfacing about the Pelicans potentially blowing this thing up already, as both Lonzo Ball and JJ Redick are reportedly in trade talks and will be dealt if traction is gained on a pair of good deals.

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28. Minnesota Timberwolves (4-12, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)

A record doesn’t quite indicate context as to how things have started to unravel, as is the case for these T’Wolves. Despite losing Karl Anthony-Towns for an undisclosed time due to the star big man getting COVID-19, they’ve stayed in some games and have gotten blown out in others, but they’re 29th in total defensive efficiency and 27th in total offensive efficiency. Moreover, first-round selection Anthony Edwards is shooting a little under 23 percent from the field to start his NBA career.

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29. Washington Wizards (3-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)

Leading up to Sunday’s embarrassing (but on-cue) loss to the Spurs away from the Capitol One Center, it had been two weeks since the Washington Wizards had a regular week of basketball activity, as there was a serious COVID-19 breakout that crippled the organization as a whole.

In their contest against the Spurs, however, they could only trot out weight available players with a league-high six players and additional staff members being held out to mitigate the spread of the virus from the team. Russell Westbrook didn’t look like himself in the 121-101 loss, as the new Wizard only scored nine points off 27 percent shooting. This is a team that’s in dire need of its most integral pieces, and while Bradley Beal gets some much-needed rest, so did the rest of the team during their proverbial waiting period.

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30. Detroit Pistons (4-13, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)

Rookie Killian Hayes remains out due to a hip injury and will continue to be out for eight more weeks. And after suffering four more losses this week, the Pistons matched their worst start to a season in franchise history. Still, they earned a home win against Eastern-best Philadelphia in a game where Jerami Grant continued to build his Most Improved Player resume, leading all scorers with 25 points while also dishing 5 assists and grabbing 8 rebounds in the upset win.

What a wild week that was.

As the current season progresses into its fourth week, we’re starting to get a feel of who will play the role of contender after a tumultuous period of deals and trades, most notably the massive four-team trade that sent James Harden to the Brooklyn Nets via a Houston-Indiana-Brooklyn-Cleveland trade. The seismic shift felt ’round the world signifies a championship-or-bust opportunity for Brooklyn, now that Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving get one of the most elusive scorers in NBA history to add to their increasingly impressive arsenal.

For the rest of the league, top teams still stand above all on the league’s totem pole, as the Los Angeles Lakers still have the best record in the NBA and are defending at high efficiency. The Clippers are racking up wins and are not too far behind them in the West, while teams like Atlanta, New York, Cleveland, and Memphis fall back down to earth.

It’s been an eventful season so far, full of surprises and slow starts alike. Let’s cut to the chase and get to this week’s power rankings. We will be adding in scores and occurrences from Martin Luther King Day games as well in this week’s rankings, since a lot of teams were not able to play three games this week.

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1. Los Angeles Lakers (11-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)

Standing at 7-0 on the road and a seamless 11-3 on the year, Los Angeles proved this week their defensive woes early on in the season had nothing to do with ability, but rather effort and the old “want to” on the other end of the floor. They rank No. 1 in overall net rating (11.0), rank first in overall defensive rating, only giving up opposing 104 points per 100 possessions, and have won four straight games by an average margin of 17 points. Offensively, they’re rolling, peaking at the fourth spot in terms of offensive rating, and are led by the ageless play of MVP favorite LeBron James, who is averaging 28 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists for his per 36 off 50/40/73 splits.

Now yes, their MLK Day loss to the Warriors by two points gave them their fourth loss at home, and fourth loss overall, but more importantly, they’re dominating opponents while LBJ and Anthony Davis, who is averaging a little above 18 points, are doing so with James as the two are getting appropriate rest with averages of 18 minutes per game each.

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2. Los Angeles Clippers (10-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)

Make no mistake about it – their record stands above everything else. But it’s the defensive concerns that Clips fans have that the team should be adamant about fixing. Yes, they finished off the week with some statement blowouts over the Pacers and Kings, winning by an average of 30 points in both contests. But, they still have the 20th ranking defensive rating in basketball and have won some closer-than-expected games against (respectfully) inferior opponents like the Pelicans.

Paul George and Kawhi Leonard averaging 24 points each is a rudimentary expectation, but the bench, very much chastized in preseason predictions by a variety of media personalities, are stepping up to the plate. Luke Kennard seems to have taken over the sixth man role as Lou Williams continues to struggle, averaging an eye-popping 17 points on 70 percent shooting from three-land this year.

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3. Brooklyn Nets (9-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)

Deservedly so, the Nets climb up 12 spots on the weekly rankings ladder, and not just for winning all three of their games this past weekend. Adding their cherry on top of their sundae, the Nets saw some roster adjustments as they traded away Jarrett Allen, Rodions Kurucs, Caris LeVert and Taurean Prince to pick up disgruntled Rockets star James Harden from the four-team trade last week. Pairing Harden with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant gives the franchise a massive facelift, if his first game as a Net wasn’t any indication of that.

He dropped 32 points and racked up a triple-double, while Durant, alongside him for the first time since 2012 where the young duo started their careers in Oklahoma City as teammates, became the first Net to score 25+ points in nine straight games during their win over Orlando on Saturday. During Monday’s highly-anticipated showdown between them and Milwaukee, Harden continued his hot start with Brooklyn, scoring 34 points and dishing 12 assists in the 125-123 home victory.

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4. Utah Jazz (9-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)

The Jazz seem to have finally gotten things back on the rails, for when the season started, that was not the case. Two convincing wins over the Cavs and Hawks followed a notable handling of the Nuggets on Sunday, and during this five-game winning streak, Donovan Mitchell and Mike Conley are getting hot at the right time to stay afloat in the West. Their hot streak is rubbing off on the entire team, especially from deep as they are shooting 46.8 percent from downtown and on the other side of the ball, Utah has the sixth-best defensive rating in the NBA.

Bench scoring is a strength and a major catalyst to their winning streak, and Jordan Clarkson is a reason why Quin Snyder’s second and third units have been so strong. Over the course of the season, Clarkson is averaging a little over 20 points and 6 rebounds off 45 percent shooting from deep.

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5. Milwaukee Bucks (9-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 6)

Milwaukee is continuing to put on a historic offensive pace while their seventh-best defensive rating is slowly improving. A 3-0 week and four-game winning streak featured the likes of wins over Dallas, Detroit, Cleveland and Orlando, and during this light stretch, Giannis Antetokounmpo has averaged 27.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists in 4 games.

His All-Star cohort Khris Middleton might garner All-Star votes again, as he has averaged 21.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 5.3 assists in 4 games. Though he was inches from knocking down a game winning jumper, the Bucks suffered a road loss on MLK Day in a game-of-the-year qualifier, as Middleton scored 25 points and Antetokounmpo did his part with a 34-point outing.

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6. Boston Celtics (8-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)

Per health and safety protocols, Boston could only play two games. And those two games were complete and opposite performances, judging by their standards. On Saturday, the C’s, without Jayson Tatum and two others pending some positive COVID-19 tests, blew out the Orlando Magic by 27 points behind a double-double from Jaylen Brown, and then proceeded to get eviscerated by 30 points against the Knicks at home one day later in Kemba Walker’s return. Losses like that happen every now and then, and in Boston’s perspective, it was one of those outliers that didn’t help their respectable top-15 defensive rating, as they’ve allowed 109 points per game per 100 possessions.

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7. Philadelphia 76ers (9-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)

Barring two embarrassing losses to the Atlanta Hawks and the Grizzlies on the road, Phily was able to grab consecitive wins against Miami, led by an MVP effort from Joel Embiid in their first game that went well into OT, as he scored 45 points in the win and took every shot in the late period, scoring 10 points in unguardable fashion. However, the two-point loss to Memphis, who did not have Ja Morant, saw the Sixers commit a nauseating 22 turnovers (and seven from Ben Simmons) in the loss with Joel Embiid not in the lineup.

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8. Indiana Pacers (8-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)

In what hopefully should not turn into a botched acquisition, the Pacers recently traded away Victor Oladipo in exchange for Caris LeVert as a part of the four-team trade but LeVert will be out indefinitely due to a mass found on his kidney. It’ll be a gradual process replicating the outings of Oladipo and LeVert by committee, but them going 2-2 over the course of last week helps. Malcolm Brogdon is still averaging 19.5 points and eight assists while burgeoning star Domantas Sabonis scored 22 points, 13.5 rebounds and 5 assists per game over the four-game stretch.

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9. Portland Trail Blazers (8-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 11)

A productive 3-1 week was soured due to some injuries to two of Portland’s most integral stars in Jusuf Nurkic and CJ McCollum, as Nurkic would be diagnosed with a wrist fracture that’ll keep him sidelined for two months in their loss to Indiana, and McCollum suffered a sprained right ankle during their loss to the Trail Blazers which will keep him out for a few weeks. Enes Kanter showed some defensive and rebounding fortitude in the win over Atlanta a couple nights later, scoring 12 points and grabbing 15 rebounds with five blocks.

Still, team defense continues to plague them, regardless of injury to their top guys, as they let Clint Capela score 25 points and grab 15 rebounds in a tight win. A 21-point loss to the Spurs on MLK day was bad enough, but now the Blazers have learned that they’ll be without CJ McCollum for four weeks as he tends to a broken bone in his foot.

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10. Phoenix Suns (7-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)

Consider the Suns as another team that’s slowly falling back to earth, and as a team that’s played only one game this week due to health and safety protocols, they did not show up in their one chance to improve their record, having lost in an conducive manner to the Washington Wizards without Russell Westbrook and Thomas Bryant in the active lineup. They cooled off from deep, scoring only 4 of their 27 attempted threes in the loss. They lost a close one on MLK Day, losing by four against a Grizzlies team that’s undermanned, but improving in the health department to close the week.

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11. San Antonio Spurs (8-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)

Isn’t it on brand for a Spurs team led by Greg Popovich to appear somewhere in the top three in the defensive ratings? Currently, San Antonio is the second most-efficient rating on defense over the last six games and their uptempo pace is reason to consider why they’ve been so adamant about suffocating offenses in the half-court. Moreover, the production from their younger pieces of Keldon Johnson and Lonnie Walker have helped to contribute mightily, as Johnson has averaged 19.3 points over the course of last week.

He scored a career-high 29 points in the loss to the resilient Houston Rockets who had traded Harden just hours earlier. They capped off a successful week with a confidence-boosting 21-point win over Portland on the road, as LaMarcus Aldridge led them in scoring with 22 points.

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12. Dallas Mavericks (6-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)

After a week of uncertainty surrounding the positive COVID tests that have struck the Mavericks, cancelling their week-opening game against New Orleans, they resumed basketball activities and played a road game against the Milwaukee Bucks, which resulted in a tight loss, but an encouraging one nonetheless. Over the course of this season, amidst the struggles of Luka Doncic and the rest of the Mavs’ rotation and losing several players to health and safety protocols, key returns and spectular performances by Doncic have kept the Mavs at the top of the Soutwestern division.

Kristaps Porzingis made his return, but looked a little rusty as he averaged an inefficient 17.3 points and 7.3 rebounds off 26 percent shooting in three contests. But, it was the return to MVP form for Luka Doncic that made Dallas’ week, as the Slovenian superstar put up averages of 32.7 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 12.3 assists off a siginificantly-improved 44 percent shooting from downtown. Yet, losing to the Raptors in Tampa on Monday showed that a lot of that rust needs to be oxidized before these Mavs will pose as serious contenders in the West.

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13. Denver Nuggets (6-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)

Dropping a spot in these ratings are the Nuggets, who found a way to outlast Stephen Curry in a win over the Warriors at home but were blitzed against the Kevin Durant-led Nets, as they struggled to close the tightly-contested game and equally struggle to score down the stretch. Nikola Jokic has looked like a surefire MVP candidate, averaging 25.8 points, 11.5 rebounds and 8.8 assists in the past four games but defensively, trading away Jerami Grant will prove to be injurious to a team on the cusp of seriously contending in the West as they’ve allowed 112.5 points per 100 possessions.

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14. Golden State Warriors (7-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)

Also dropping a spot in this week’s rankings are the Dubs, for reasons of little improvement from last week. They dropped consecutive contests to Denver and Indiana due to dying offense in the waning moments in both games as they couldn’t get any open good looks or, in general, any clean looks to fall, even with Stephen Curry on the court. Kelly Oubre and Andrew Wiggins are getting the hang of co-habitating in a Steve Kerr offense, but still struggle to remain consistent, averaging a suboptimal combined 15.1 points off a 40.7 shooting percentage.

Additionally, GSW’s -10.8 net rating and 92.8 offensive rating over the past few contests (not to mention their 24th offensive rating of 106.4) causes reason to believe things may not stay the same in the active lineup with the trade deadline approaching. However, if there is cause for concern, that does not absolve any good that the Warriors do. In fact, they knocked off the top team in the West with a 115-113 win over the Lakers for the final game on MLK Day, led by Stephen Curry’s 19-point second half and 26-point, 7-assist night.

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15. Oklahoma City Thunder (6-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)

Are we going to go through this again? An Oklahoma City team, awash with youthful, impressionable talent blended with notable veterans, causing shockwaves in the West and threatening to swipe a playoff spot with a positive .500 season so far? Sure, only one win came to them this week, but their one win came in comeback fashion as the Thunder were down 10 points and stormed all the way back against the struggling Bulls, and behind the effort of soon-to-be-All-Star-someday Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who scored a career-high 33 points and dished 10 assists in the win, OKC is replicating the success they found all last year, and Luguentz Dort is confident shooting the ball at a high clip, evident from his 10-of-23 shooting from deep in the win.

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16. Memphis Grizzlies (7-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)

The Grizzlies jump 11 spots in this week’s rankings, as they went 3-0 on the week and saw their coveted 2019 first-round pick Ja Morant return from a sprained ankle suffered three weeks ago. Shaking off the cobwebs seemed easier said than done for the 21-year-old, who looked as if he was getting back into the swing of things during Saturday’s win over Philadelphia, but he proved he was back with a 17-point, 6-assist night in the home win over an Embiid-less Sixers team that wasn’t too adept at winning road games.

This is still a young team in development, but they saw some flashes of what is to come in the future following some impressive usage of minutes from the likes of rookies Desmond Bane and Xavier Tillman, and vets Brandon Clarke, Grayson Allen and Dillon Brooks. Additionally, they saw some positive contributions from the latter mentioned in a tight 108-104 win over the Phoenix Suns on their annual MLK Day game.

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17. Charlotte Hornets (6-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)

Charlotte has looked strong for their standards in the short duration of this season so far, and picked up only one win before suffering back-to-back losses to the Toronto Raptors on the road. Gordon Hayward has resembled his Utah self, averaging 25.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists in three games, and has looked as if he has been liberated in James Borrego’s offense as a primary initiator while LaMelo Ball continues to gain more knowledge of running an offense alongside an intelligent playmaker in Hayward. Ball has filled the stat sheet as a do-it-all combo guard, but as rookie should every now and then, he’s gone into a shooting slump, shooting the three ball at 33 percent and shooting from the field at an underwhelming 29 percent.

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18. Toronto Raptors (5-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)

Early-season mishaps and losing streaks aside, Toronto finally looks as if they’ve shaken the bad juju out of the system with some key wins over the Hornets for a 2-1 week. Defensively, the loss of Marc Gasol to the Lakers and Serge Ibaka to the Clippers has yet to do any good for them, as they are the 22nd-ranked team when it comes to locking down opposing offenses, but they are doing enough offensively to scrape away some wins.

In their 2-0 series over Charlotte, they made a combined 41 three-pointers in both contests and Chris Boucher has been playing the best ball of his career, averaging 21.7 points 9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in three games. They’re streaking now, beating the Mavericks handily to finish the week, now possessing a three-game winning streak in the effort of turning things around.

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19. New Orleans Pelicans (5-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)

An incomplete roster and lackluster outside shooting have the Pelicans out of their 17th spot from last week’s rankings. While Nickeil Alexander-Walker poured on a career-high 37 points on 5-of-8 shooting from deep in a close loss to the Clippers, they looked as if nothing carried over from last game with a blowout loss from the Lakers was handed to them in a back-to-back. Still, Zion Williamson looked as if he was back playing High School basketball for the Spartanburg Griffins, scoring 31 points on an unbelievable 15-of-18 shooting night as driving lanes looked more open than all-night drive thru’s in New Orleans’ bounce-back win over Sacramento.

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20. Cleveland Cavaliers (6-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)

The Cavs offense looked incomplete in their inability to generate backcourt points this week without Darius Garland and Collin Sexton in the lineup, but Andre Drummond showed why he has been one of the best bigs in the league with a monster 33-point, 23-rebound performance in Friday’s win over the Knicks. While Sunday’s game against the Wizards was postponed, Cedi Osman has looked pretty good with more offensive responsibility with JB Bickerstaff and Koby Altman trusting one of their more tenured players evove into a potential 20/10 player, as he averaged 18.7 points and five assists per game for the week. The team was recently shaken up by the latest news surrounding Kevin Porter Jr.’s outburst, and will likely move on from the 2019 second-round pick out of USC.

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21. New York Knicks (7-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)

If there’s been any positives surrounding the Knicks, it’s been Immanuel Quickley and how well the rookie has performed tis season. Immanuel Quickley has taken NBA Twitter by storm, averaging 19.7 points and five assists on 47 percent 3-point shooting over his last three games off the bench, and has catapulted himself into Rookie of the Year talks. But, since then, Julius Randle has done everything he can and more to get the Knicks wins, but those efforts have not resulted in the Knicks staying above .500.

A blowout win against a Celtics team who were playing a back-to-back, but prior to that win, they were fresh off of losses to the Cavaliers (who were without Garland and Sexton) and the Hornets have proven that this roster is still ineffiently pieced together. And following their win over Cleveland, they beat Orlando by seven behind Julius Randle’s 21 points and 17 rebounds.

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22. Chicago Bulls (6-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)

After last Tuesday’s postponement against the Wizards, Chicago split two games against the Thunder and Mavericks, earning a double-digit win over Dallas following a loss to the Thunder. Lauri Markkanen is getting his bearings amidst having his names thrown in trade talks, averaging 22.5 points and eight rebounds in 34 minutes in both games. However, Zach LaVine cooled off from his fiery performances last week against the Clippers and Lakers, as he and Coby White only scored 10 points off 1-of-13 shooting in their win over Dallas.

Chi-town’s win over visiting Houston signified that the shooting slump many thought LaVine to be in was exaggerated, as the former UCLA Bruin scored 33 points in 37 minutes for the team’s third-straight win.

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23. Houston Rockets (4-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)

Hours after the James Harden-Brooklyn deal was finished, the Rockets, marred in controversy, earned a hard-fought victory over the Spurs for the nine guys remaining in the locker room and subsequently were handed a sobering loss to that very same Spurs team one night later. Until John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and the rest of the players return from injury as well as health and safety protocols, Christian Wood will have to hold down the fort. So far, he’s doing just that, averaging 25.5 points, 16.5 rebounds and three blocks in the two games after Harden was dealt.

It’s a matter of health, and for a team that looks as if they’ve prioritized the future by acquiring pieces like Victor Oladipo and Rodions Kurucs to accompany John Wall, Eric Gordon, and DeMarcus Cousins, they can still remain somewhat competitive while having enough capital to kickstart their rebuild in the offseason. They gave Oladipo the minutes against the Bulls, and he delivered in a losing effort, scoring 32 points in his first 33 minutes as a Rocket.

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24. Orlando Magic (6-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)

Since losing Markelle Fultz, the Magic, who started the season 4-0, have only won two games and are currently in the midst of a six-game losing streak. Losses to Milwaukee were understandable, but having to face the Nets, who had literally activated James Harden via the Houston trade just minutes before, have just been unlucky. Add in a loss on MLK day to the Knicks on the road and being stomped on by an undermanned Celtics team by 27, and you can see how things just have not gone their way this year. Their defensive efficiency has been grotesque to watch, as the team has surrendered 123.4 points per 100 possessions in the past five games. And even if they gave up only 91 points to the Knicks on MLK Day, it was in a loss.

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25. Sacramento Kings (5-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)

So let’s just get the bad news out of the way: the Kings are on pace to have the worst defensive rating in the history of the National Basketball Association, having allowed an average of 120 points in each of the past eight contests, and opponents are getting whatever they want against the defensive coverages devised by Luke Walton and his coaching staff’s defensive schemes. The good news? De’Aaron Fox had an amazing week, averaging 26.8 points, 7.8 assists off 43 percent shooting from downtown.

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26. Detroit Pistons (3-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)

Consider the Pistons getting the short end of the stick as a reason to believe that their league-worst 3-9 record was caused by that, but at least they’ve competed well so much that their record does not indicate how they’ve played. Jerami Grant is proving that an offense can be built with him as a focal point, averaging 23 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 2.5 blocks in Detroit’s 1-1 week.

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27. Miami Heat (5-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)

Is it fair to drop Miami a whopping 18 spots in these rankings this week? Perhaps not, since they too have been rocked by COVID-19 holdouts and an incomplete starting five, as well as concurrent injuries to Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler. Two straight losses to the Philadelphia 76ers on the road, and a gut check from Adebayo to the rest of the roster on how they have not applied themselves to “Heat Culture” arise suspicion on whether or not their trip to the NBA Finals in the bubble was a fluke, but it’s rather premature to write off a team impacted by the pandemic so early on, so time will tell about this Heat team.

As shown in their 113-107 win over Detroit, where the returning Bam Adebayo scored a game-high 28 points and snatched a team-high 11 rebounds, they haven’t quite packed things in yet.

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28. Atlanta Hawks (6-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)

Dropping 10 spots this week is a Hawks team that grows more discombobulated by the day. Though they got a win against a shorthanded Sixers team, they were blown out by the Jazz and lost a close one to the Trail Blazers, in which their star guard Trae Young stayed in his shooting slump, scoring 4 points off 1-of-11 shooting in their loss to Utah. He’s averaged a little over 16 points off 26 percent shooting in the last three games, while his team has lost six of their last seven games. In their win over Minnesota on Martin Luther King Day, the Hawks guard scored 20 points on just eight shots, as only three of them fell.

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29. Washington Wizards (3-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)

After a shocking blowout handed to the Phoenix Suns, it’s been an entire week since the Wizards have played a basketball game due to the COVID-19 outbreak that has seven players on the roster testing positive for the virus. It’s caused them to pause all basketball activities until further notice. Since then, the Wizards have been underwhelming with the 29th defensive rating in basketball, but in their third win, they kept the Suns to under 108 points, the first time they’ve held an opponent under 110 points all season.

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30. Minnesota Timberwolves (3-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)

Karl Anthony-Towns recently tested positive for the virus, and it’s been anything but pleasant for this T’Wolves team that’s only played one game last week. They played an MLK game against Atlanta in which they allowed only 97 points in an 11-point win, while during the loss on the road, are playing only their second game of the two-week period since their game that was supposed to happen last Friday was postponed.

Photo Cred: Fox Sports 1430

We’re back with yet another edition of the weekly Power Rankings, and for another week, things have changed drastically around the NBA, and not just on-court.

The blemishes left from the risk of operating a full season in the midst of a global pandemic without a bubble is taking their toll on an uncharacteristic season full of its own surprises and unforeseen circumstances. Rarely is there ever conventionality, and that’s nary been more apparent than this week since a league-wide COVID-19 outbreak could be on the horizon. Commissioner Adam Silver has mentioned an apprehensiveness to pause the season for competitive purposes, as nearly 1/4 of the teams in the NBA have been affected by a player having to sit out as a result of health and safety protocols.

The season is young, and while losing a few bodies for the moment being isn’t too injurious for the entire league to garner another shutdown, in the long run, the bottom line is that the current plan of keeping the season going while being remissive of how this is affecting the fairness of the game may not be sustainable, pending the severity of the pandemic in the early wintry months of 2021.

Back to basketball for a second, the Golden State Warriors might not be of laughing matter anymore, as if they’ve ever been. The previous struggles both Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre had are starting to fade, and it is wearing off on the rest of the entire supporting cast and crew around Stephen Curry with them winning six of their last eight contests. As for the top of the Western food chain, the Lakers continue to reign as the league’s best team even with injuries stacking up. But for teams like the Nets and Hawks, a blend of chemistry issues and external distractions have led to their regression.

Now that we’re approaching the fourth week of play, let’s take a look at where each team stands.

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1. Los Angeles Lakers (8-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)

Excusing a loss to the San Antonio Spurs at home even with LeBron James and Anthony Davis combining for 50 points, the Lakers, whenever they feel like flipping the switch, still look like the league’s most dangerous team. Which is, of course, frightening, considering they’re getting better by the minute as soon as new pieces Dennis Schroder and Montrezl Harrel continue to get more acclimated to their new team. Following the loss to the Spurs, they survived a 35-point explosion from Bulls star Zach Lavine to hold on for a 117-115 home win, and remained perfect on the road by giving it to the Rockets in a home 120-102 blowout in which Markieff Morris and new Rocket DeMarcus Cousins were ejected after an altercation.

Their late-game defense is questionable, but always compensated for by game-breaking offense, and they’re not just getting it from their arduous LBJ-AD frontcourt; 2nd-year talent Talen Horton-Tucker had a breakout game against Houston on Sunday night, scoring 17 points, grabbing 5 rebounds, dishing 3 assists and swiping the defense loose for four steals in 21 minutes.

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2. Phoenix Suns (7-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)

For the team with the second-best record in the West, they could’ve very well overtaken the top spot had it not been for their failed comeback against the Clippers last Sunday. Still, they saw some good competition come their way, and they answered the call in exceptional fashion, going 3-0 against the Pelicans, Jazz, and Nuggets. Now winners of four of their last five, the Suns look like a well-oiled machine, and Chris Paul’s influence is not to be understated.

Ball movement is their M.O., evident in them going 2-1 in their last three games, as Villanova standout Mikal Bridges found his groove against the Pacers in this system revitalized by Paul’s presence. He would end up going off for a career-high 34 points off 12-18 shooting from the field and 6-8 shooting from downtown.

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3. Los Angeles Clippers (7-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)

Aside from the Clips going 3-1 this past week and avoiding blatant disaster in blowing a huge lead to the Suns, they’re still in the driver’s seat, getting solid contributions from the likes of Serge Ibaka and Lou Williams. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George are doing their part, obviously, but the help from new Clipper Nicolas Batum, who’s averaged 10.3 points and 4.5 rebounds off of 53 percent shooting from deep, has been greatly appreciated. Defense seems to be an issue, surprisingly evident in their loss of a 22-point lead against the Warriors, and their lack of a true point guard that is a consistent scorer is felt when their two stars get cold.

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4. Utah Jazz (6-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)

Well, it seems like Donovan Mitchell’s cold spell has worn off completely. Since his abhorrent start to the season, he’s averaged 26 points in the last three games he’s played. And with Mike Conley, who has picked up the slack for this low-scoring backcourt by averaging over 21 points and six assists on 47 percent shooting this past week, he’s finally getting the assistance he needs. Bojan Bogdanovic has snapped out of his cold streak, also going 6-of-7 from deep in a 28-point scoring effort against the Spurs.

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5. Philadelphia 76ers (7-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)

On Thursday, the Sixers possessed the league’s best record, and promptly, four days later, they’d only cycle eight players onto the court to create a makeshift Sixers team that was crushed by a visiting Denver Nuggets team, all due to the huge hit the team took from the health and safety protocols. Since last Thursday, they’ve dropped two consecutive games. When healthy, the 76ers are a sure-as-day top-three team in the NBA but now that they facing a few games without Ben Simmons, who is tending to a knee issue, things may get even more difficult. Barring postponement, a game against the struggling Hawks should get them back into winning shape.

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6. Milwaukee Bucks (6-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)

Though Giannis Antetokounmpo sat out in the Bucks’ 10-point win over Cleveland after sustaining a nasty fall against the Jazz a couple of nights before, the Bucks star scored a rousing 27 points in one half against the Jazz for a total of 35 points off 14-25 shooting. It’s been a rather gradual welcoming into the fold for new acquisitions Jrue Holiday, but the mindset of defensive tenacity stays the same. In fact, all of Milwaukee’s wins have come by a winning margin of 10 points or more.

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7. Boston Celtics (7-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)

It seemed as if the Celtics had got the ball rolling being led by their two superstar wings in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown (combined 25.1 ppg through 10 games) as they reeled in four straight convincing wins without a starting point guard. Only trailing the Philadelphia 76ers for the Eastern lead, the C’s then became included in the slew of teams impacted by the health and safety protocol fiasco, losing both Tatum and Brown as well as Robert Williams III and others due to a team outbreak likely caused by close contact with the reportedly-contagious Washington Wizards.

Two upcoming games of theirs against the Heat and Bulls have been postponed, and with Jayson Tatum recently testing positive for the virus, many bodies won’t be available for the next 2-to-3 weeks for a Celtics team that finally looked like it found its stride.

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8. Indiana Pacers (6-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)

Though not moving an inch in this week’s rankings due to a loss against the Suns in which they allowed Mikal Bridges to score a career-high 34 points, Domantas Sabonis has really shined, scoring 28 points and snatching 22 boards off the glass to become the first player since Jermaine O’ Neal in 2003 to post the 20-20 stat in a single game in a Pacers uniform. It’s a testament to the work he has put in to be one of the game’s youngest and most promising bigs, and with games against teams like Sacramento and Portland who are equally insufficient at defending the paint, more opportunities for achieving more personal records will arise.

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9. Miami Heat (4-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)

A 2-1 week with a career-high performance from Tyler Herro against the Wizards resulted in a murky future for the Heat, at least in the immediate sense. Though they were supposed to have a rematch against the Celtics on Sunday, the game got suspended and even worse, Avery Bradley’s status, for at least another game due to health and safety protocols, will be in doubt. Combined with the ankle ailment of Jimmy Butler, they face higher hurdles to climb with increasingly difficult scheduling with back to back games against Philadelphia coming up.

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10. Dallas Mavericks (5-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)

Alongside Luka Doncic, who seems to have turned the corner in overall productivity and consistency,  has been the play of Tim Hardaway Jr., who’s gained a lot of respect from his coaching staff and organization for his devotion and work ethic as well as his desire to not just be “the third or fourth option” on a talented roster. He’s stepped up during Dallas’ three-game winning streak and revival, first by scoring 30 points off 11-14 shooting against Houston, and then he had his highest-scoring game as a Dallas Maverick – a 36-point superstar showcase against the Magic. Dallas is one of the teams that will also have a game or two postponed as a result of the COVID outbreak affecting the league, since power forward Maxi Kleiber will be quarantined 10-14 days with a positive virus test.

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11. Portland Trail Blazers (5-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)

Portland’s backcourt can score, if that needed any further confirmation, and while it’s been a little inconsistent as both Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum take turns putting up all-world numbers on a nightly basis, both guards lead their teams in scoring nearly every night. Defensively, it’s been anything but stellar, now as the 23-ranked team in all of the NBA. Their second unit’s frontcourt also remain incapable of getting stops; Enes Kanter and Carmelo significantly lower the team’s defensive prowess, allowing 115.9 points per 100 possessions when sharing the court.

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12. Denver Nuggets (5-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)

Another team caught up in the web of the health and safety protocol problem, Denver was supposed to get Michael Porter Jr. back from a short quarantine period, only to end up losing him even longer because of protocol. Despite not having their third-best player, it hasn’t directly affected the Nuggets, since they’ve been able to win without him, now winners of four of their last five. Nikola Jokic still looks insurmountable as a matchup nightmare, Jamal Murray’s shot has finally returned from the bubble, and Gary Harris, whom they’ve announced would not be in trade talks, has been impressive, averaging 16.7 points, 3.3 rebounds and one assist in his last three games.

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13. Golden State Warriors (6-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)

The Dubs raise two spots in this week’s rankings, and for good reason. Imagine a world where Stephen Curry has the most forgettable performance from the field in his career…and the Warriors, down a backcourt compadre in Klay Thompson, win against a respectable opponent that could very well be in the playoffs a few months from now? That’s what’s happening in the good fortune of the Warriors at the moment, as Curry shot 2-for-16 from the field in a Warriors two-point win over visiting Toronto. The reason? Andrew Wiggins, now visibly gaining more confidence by the day, led them in scoring with 17. Winners of four of their last five, the only thing holding them back has been the rough outside shooting from Kelly Oubre, who is now 7-of-50 from downtown on the season.

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14. San Antonio Spurs (5-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)

The Spurs picked up a signature win up against the Lakers in the midst of their third week of play, but they’ll have to find a way to earn their sixth win without DeMar DeRozan, who in his own accord is having a noteworthy year worthy of praise. He is averaging 21.2 points per game off 49 percent shooting, and a true shooting percentage of 59.9 percent this year with a career-high 7 assists per game that he’s also putting up, but will not be in the Spurs’ rotation against Minnesota this week as he tends to personal matters. Also worth the mention, he’s confidently shooting – and making – as many threes in nine games this year that he made all year last season.

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15. Brooklyn Nets (5-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)

The Nets drop a spot in this week’s ranking, and it’s more to do with the behind-the-scenes drama mixed with the health and safety protocol holdouts to key pieces. Kyrie Irving, who sat out in consecutive contests for “personal reasons of not wanting to play” and Kevin Durant, who also sat out but for COVID-19 protocol reasons, missed three games in a row, are now having their work cut out for them as the Nets are now under .500 for the first time this year.

Caris LeVert has been responsible for picking up their workloads as the third best player on the team, averaging 23.2 points, 6.4 assists and 4.4 rebounds in the Nets’ last five games. If the Nets cannot get back to full strength soon, Denver, Orlando, New York and Milwaukee will make things harder for a Nets team that’s suddenly treading water.

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16. Houston Rockets (3-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)

Houston drops 11 spots in this week’s rankings, and James Harden’s recent struggles. Since returning from an ankle sprain, Harden’s been mediocre, per his standards, averaging 17.8 points off an underwhelming 39.8 shooting percentage. In three of those contests, his poor scoring performances have resulted in losses, and after being shellacked by the Lakers on Sunday night, another showdown with the Lakers await, as well as a back-to-back series duel with the Spurs.

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17. New Orleans Pelicans (4-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)

It’s been a rough go of it for the Pelicans, who had three very winnable games with multi-possession leads against the Pacers, (up six with 21 seconds) the Thunder (up four with 2:00 left) and the Hornets (up 18 at one point) but dropped all three. It also looks like, from a defensive standpoint, they struggle to understand and enact their defensive schemes against opponents. The outside shooting as a team (32.2) has been worrisome as well, as it’s greatly shrunk driving lanes and creation spots on the wings for both Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram this season.

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18. Atlanta Hawks (4-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 6)

It’s been a notable fall-off for Atlanta, who’s cooled off since their hot 4-1 start that put the league on notice in the season’s first two weeks. Injuries are becoming too overwhelming to overcome – Danilo Gallinari is still out with an ankle sprain, Rajon Rondo and Kris Dunn have played in a combined two games (Rondo’s played both; Dunn hasn’t suited up for them yet) and recently, Bogdan Bogdanovic suffered a fractured right knee and his timetable to return is unknown. Furthermore, Trae Young has a turnover problem, giving away 19 possessions in his past three games.

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19. Orlando Magic (6-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 11)

The Magic may have “run out of magic”, and have, more or less, become cursed in the past couple of days. After going 4-0 to open the week, they’ve gone a pedestrian 2-4 and have seen Markelle Fultz unceremoniously tear his ACL during last Wednesday’s win over Cleveland. They’re now down two starters with Jonathan Isaac suffering the same injury back in the bubble this past summer, and now have to rely on the tandem of rookie Cole Anthony and Terrence Ross to supply backcourt offense with quite possibly the worst cour game stretch of any team in the NBA right now – Milwaukee, two games against Boston and one game against Brooklyn is next up on the schedule.

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20. Charlotte Hornets (5-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)

Raising seven spots are the Charlotte Hornets, who have shown they’re better when they start their fourth overall pick LaMelo Ball, or just overall have him on the court. While matched up against the Pelicans and his brother Lonzo for the first time in the league, as well as being on a primetime ESPN broadcast, Ball dropped 22 and was the catalyst to the Hornets overcoming an 18-point lead to knock off the Pelicans on the road. One game later, he became the youngest player in league history to record a triple-double in a win against the Hawks.

The Hornets finished their week on a positive note, going 3-1 to finish it while being led by Gordon Hayward, who’s undergoing a career revival on a new team, as he has averaged 25.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 4 games.

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21. New York Knicks (5-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)

Though expected, the Knickerbockers have floated back down to earth, following two blowout losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder and an ugly home loss to the visiting Nuggets. However, Julius Randle, though a likely trade asset if all goes well and the Knicks end up as a tenth seed or lower in the East at season’s end, is playing like an All-Star, playing like a walking-double-double with averages of 23.4 points, 13.2 rebounds and 7.2 assists in 5 games.

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22. Cleveland Cavaliers (5-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)

A 1-3 week is probably a good enough reason to drop the Cavaliers ten spots in this week’s rankings, as they’ve also fallen back down to earth with a fairly easy schedule including the likes of Milwaukee – who they lost to by 10 even with them not having Giannis Antetokounmpo on the court – Orlando and Memphis. Though Andre Drummond fought his hardest to compete with him scoring 26 points and grabbing 24 rebounds, Cleveland’s true lack of talent (that’s still developing) showed against good teams this past week.

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23. Oklahoma City Thunder (5-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)

It seems that the first year under Chris Paul that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had done a bunch of good for the confidence of the third-year guard of Kentucky. After expectedly starting the season 1-3, OKC went 4-1 away from Chesapeake Energy Arena, and during their recent road trip, SGA averaged 20 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 6.8 assists.

He capped off their road trip with a signature 31-point, 6-assist, and 7 rebound night against the Nets this past Sunday, and in retrospect, it feels like last year watching these Thunder; we are once again seeing a blend of young, impressionable lottery-pick players working with grizzled veterans to engineer some trap wins against top talent when teams who think they’re getting an easy game on the schedule are least expecting it. But, their upcoming schedule that includes the likes of the Lakers, Spurs and Sixers will likely curb their expectations.

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24. Sacramento Kings (4-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)

Sacramento drops three spots this week, and they’ve only won one game since their 3-1 start leftover from the beginning of the season. One thing that’s solid: new GM Monte McNair hit a home run with selecting Tyrese Haliburton in the first round of the 2020 draft. The Iowa State guard is a starter already, and scored 12 points off 5-8 shooting with eight assists in a 144-123 road loss to the struggling Raptors. His poise, control and equanimity as a rookie is exemplary, and Kings fans have to wonder how he slipped outside of the top-10 and to them in the draft.

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25. Chicago Bulls (4-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)

The Bulls have to be commended for how much they’ve stayed in games, but they, understandably, have problems closing those tight contests, and during their West Coast voyage, went 1-3 as a team while only beating the Blazers and losing to the Lakers, Clippers and Kings by a combined nine points. Zach LaVine has been the sole reason they’ve even been competitive, scoring 35 against the Lakers to lose by two points and subsequently dropping 45 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in the three-point loss to the Clippers two nights later. He’s set records during this hot scoring streak, becoming the second Bull since Derrick Rose to post a stat-line of 40-5-5 for five games in a Bulls uniform.

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26. Toronto Raptors (2-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)

It’s gone from bad to worse for the Raptors, who have more than struggled out of the gates for the worst start of the Nick Nurse era. Aside from slightly recalibrating with a 144-123 win over Sacramento, they’re well on the outside looking in as a fringe lottery pick team, or at least that’s what they’ve looked like.

The loss of Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol has really done them in, and they’re without both facilitation from inside the paint and rim protection with the both of them playing elsewhere. They’re still a competitive team, but without a true shot creator anywhere other than the guard spot, they cannot trust Pascal Siakam, who in all means is performing optimally with an averaged 24 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in the Raps’ last four games, to be that guy especially when he has such a limited scoring acumen.

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27. Memphis Grizzlies (3-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)

During what’s been a tumultuous period of turbulence on the Grizzlies’ season so far, injuries have ravaged a promising young team that is set to make a run for the playoffs. A bright spot for their dark times: Desmond Bane, the 3-and-D prospect out of TCU and their first-round pick, has done quite well in the beginning of his career, averaging 8.9 points while shooting 48 percent from deep – the second-best average of all rookies this season.

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28. Minnesota Timberwolves (3-7, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)

Dropping two spots in this week’s ranking are the Timberwolves, who got Karl Anthony-Towns back from a wrist injury. Prior to his return, the Wolves were still in the midst of an seven-game losing streak, and even with him coming back, they were unable to scrape away a win against the Spurs. Two games against the equally-unhealthy Grizzlies will tell the story on whether or not these Wolves can be taken seriously with their health improving by the day.

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29. Detroit Pistons (2-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)

The highlight of the Pistons’ week was a 110-105 win over the Suns at home after trailing by 23 points in the second quarter, but they’ve gone only a mediocre 1-3 since then. Jerami Grant is a walking highlight and Blake Griffin’s knee seems intact, but the rest of the roster is still in the process of developing, and aiding in the development of their younger teammates.

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30. Washington Wizards (2-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)

This is starting to look – and feel – like last season all over again, but way worse. 2-8 is pretty bad, and now Thomas Bryant, their starting center, is out for the season with a torn ACL. Bradley Beal cannot catch a break, and though the star is practically putting up 45+ points a night without any help (Russell Westbrook is going to be out “at least a week” with a quad injury) they continue to look lost on defense, now having the 27th ranked defense in the NBA.

Happy belated New Year! The first Power Rankings sheet of 2021 might be the most abnormal ranking we’ve done in a while, as is the second week of every new season. A bunch of odd losing and winning streaks come and go, but in a shortened season, it’s clear as day that whoever can get hot will remain hot, and those that get out of the blocks slowly hardly ever recover.

The 72-game season will not be so kind to teams who don’t clean up and execute the simple things, since there won’t be enough time in the day to make the proper adjustments there could be made in a regular 82-game campaign. However, certain teams that were preseason playoff locks coming into this year who are experiencing a downturn in productivity shouldn’t fret, since they have all the pieces that need to work through the kinks this early in the year.

Both the Lakers and Clippers stayed strong and resilient atop the rankings for another week, while the Brooklyn Nets, devastated by the news surrounding Spencer Dinwiddie’s season-ending (for all we know) ACL tear, have dropped 4 of their last 5 since their win on Christmas against the Celtics. It’s a big shakeup in week 2’s Power Rankings, so let’s get into the chaos for another week.

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1. Los Angeles Lakers (5-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)

Consider it a small sample size that doesn’t quite tell the whole story, but the Lakers are quite the squad, as we’ve all come to expect. Aside from only losing two games at home this year, the Lakers are rolling on the road, now a perfect 3-0 away from the Staples Center, and as always a good offense is engineered by a suffocating defense, and the Lakers are posting the sixth-best defensive rating in the NBA at the moment.  LeBron James is starting to look like the guy who finished second in MVP voting last season, as the four-time Finals MVP casually put up a triple-double against the Spurs and continued his greatness with 22 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists against the Grizzlies.

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2. Los Angeles Clippers (5-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)

Talk about an adjustment. The Clips, salivating of a comeback-to-relevancy win to regain some credibility as a serious threat to the Lakers in the West after blowing a franchise-worst 51-point loss to the Mavericks last week, got back on the saddle in their second week of play. How’s bludgeoning the Trail Blazers and Timberwolves by 23 each sound? Paul George is back to his regular-season stat sheet filling ways, evident in his 39-point extravaganza against the similarly 5-2 Suns that garnered some chippiness from Devin Booker and the Clippers’ Pacific division rivals. However, big leads continue to be an issue to keep, and once teams start to go on runs against them, they can’t keep up or stop them from letting those leads build.

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3. Philadelphia 76ers (5-1, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)

Consistent offense seems to be a problem the Doc Rivers-led Sixers have yet to solve, but what hasn’t hurt them has been their stifling half-court defense, now especially since the 76ers have flexed their defensive prowess with the league’s best defensive rating. It’s become an evolutionary tale for a Sixers team that last year was as proficient on the opposite end of the floor since they finished third in the league last year in the category and behind Ben Simmons’ overtly adequate skill of stopping guards that want to beat him off the dribble as well as challenging slashers and bigs under the bucket as a 6’10 mismatch proves to be something the league’s most shifty creators cannot get around in the start of this season.

But, we’ll see how good this Sixers team can be with a tough five-game stretch against five teams that are really good at scoring the basketball – Brooklyn, Denver, Atlanta, and two games against Miami await the 5-1 Sixers to start 2021 for them.

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4. Phoenix Suns (5-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)

Hopefully, this isn’t too much of deja vu from last year – the Suns got hot and put the league on notice with a .500 record that was constructed by the immaculate play of Devin Booker, Kelly Oubre, Ricky Rubio, Mikal Bridges, and the rest of the 2019-20 Suns and were promptly humbled from a hard schedule and lack of true talent other than the four mentioned. It’s different this time around, and with Chris Paul to accompany him, the spacing is apparent and being put to use as Booker and others like DeAndre Ayton are cooking defenses left and right to help the Suns claim the second-best record in the NBA, for the time being at least.

Aside from a comeback bid falling short against the Clippers, the Suns are showing they belong in the West, and a balanced scoring effort is working out for them, not just in their starting lineup, but off the bench as Cameron Johnson and Cameron Payne lead the second unit in scoring.

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5. Houston Rockets (2-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)

No joke – Christian Wood is putting in his bid for the MVP award this early in the new year. It seems like a change of scenery was the only necessary thing for the 6’10 Power Forward who was already putting up some respectable numbers in Detroit, as the former Running Rebel has scored 31, 23, 21, and 20 points in his first four games in a Rockets uniform, and has averaged 23.7 points per game under new head coach Stephen Silas.

He’s a double-double machine who’s per 36 of 23.4 ppg., 10.6 rpg., and 2.2 bpg. suggest that he’s only going to get better as the season progresses, and on another note, it’s likely James Harden remains a Rocket for the time being since the Rockets post a top-12 offensive rating that’s sure to improve with John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Wood and Harden grow more chemistry with one another. The minute they do…watch out.

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6. Atlanta Hawks (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 6)

Take Atlanta’s 145-141 loss to the top-heavy Brooklyn Nets with a grain of salt – a team that’s still rebuilding and developing hung in there with the best of em’ in the KD and Kyrie-led Nets and had one of the games of the year with Trae Young leading the charge as one of the league’s blossoming young talents. And also, take into account their redeeming win in convincing fashion against the Nets in the two-game series one game later, noteworthy of their offensive system clicking on all cylinders this early into the season. The Hawks are one of the most exciting teams to watch this year if you ever get a chance to see them, and their playoff goals look as attainable as ever with the fifth-best record in the Eastern Conference so far.

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7. Utah Jazz (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)

A lot of things are going wrong for the Jazz right now, like Donovan Mitchell’s abhorrent start, but that is being heavily outweighed by the amount of good that’s fallen upon Utah this early on. Last year, Jazz supporters and media prognosticators both hammered Mike Conley’s inability to transition into Quin Snyder’s system with ease, as the Grizzlies’ all-time scorer struggled mightily in his new city following his departure from Memphis last season.

That isn’t the case this season and the veteran point guard is picking up the slack for the struggling Mitchell, leading his team in scoring with 20.3 points per game as well as overall plus-minus. He’s getting into the flow of things and being the elusive, Ball-IQ-savvy floor general that makes his team better, appearing as second on the league assist list.

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8. Indiana Pacers (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)

At 4-2 and in the second seed within the Eastern Conference, you’re starting to see what staying in good health can do for a Pacers team that’s constructed well enough to challenge for a playoff spot. Coach Nate Bjorksen has these Pacers, well, pacing, down the floor and hustling on D with the seventh-best defensive rating in basketball, and quickly turns that into a breakneck offense that puts out the sixth-best scoring effort in the NBA.

Victor Oladipo and Malcolm Brogdon looking like a near-perfect pairing is one thing, but having the growing Domantas Sabonis who’s becoming more of an adept, confident scorer on a nightly basis, is another factor that plays into their favor. However, they are going to be one man short, as they’re temporarily losing TJ Warren for an extended period of time as he gets surgery done in a stress fracture on his left foot.

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9. New Orleans Pelicans (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)

The Pelicans find themselves in the top-10 of the Power Rankings for the first time this year after rebounding from an embarrassing blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns, and their 4-2 record has largely been as a result of Stan Van Gundy’s defensive approach of packing the paint with both shot-blocking aficionados Zion Williamson and Steven Adams closing off driving angles to the cup and the trio of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Eric Bledsoe forcing opposing offenses to get theirs from outside the perimeter.

Call it a blast from the past and SVG’s bread and butter of relying upon his bigs as the backbone of the defense, but it’s paid off in dividends; in six games, the Pels are the fourth-best defensive team in the NBA and are a top-10 team in opponent three-point percentage, and additionally are only allowing 38 percent of opposing shots to fall from within the paint this season.

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10. Boston Celtics (4-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)

The Celtics drop two spots in this week’s rankings, mainly due to some uncharacteristic losses to lesser opponents in the Pacers and Pistons. Two series against the two Eastern foes told a couple of things about these Celtics: yes, the Jays are awesome together, but beside them, this poorly built team is truly suffering without a third scorer in the starting lineup. Injuries to both guards Kemba Walker (who’s scheduled to come back some time this month) and Jeff Teague really increase the volume of touches for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but what exists on their bench (Grant Williams, Semi Ojeleye, surprising rookie Payton Pritchard, and more) may not do the trick to get the Celtics back onto the track of the deep playoff runs they’ve experienced for the last few years.

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11. Orlando Magic (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 11)

The Magic started off the season going undefeated at 4-0, but snapped back into reality and with their increasingly challenging schedule, things may not improve for a Magic team still missing some venerable pieces in their frontcourt, most notably Jonathan Isaac. After dropping two straight to the Sixers and Thunder, the hot start the Magic got on this year is starting to cool off now, and they’ll greatly need for their $40M asset in Markelle Fultz to get over his gripping inconsistencies — he is shooting just over 13-43 from the field in the past three games.

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12. Cleveland Cavaliers (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)

Bad news and good news follow the Cavs after two weeks of play. Bad news first: their fiery perfect start to the season finally concluded after two straight losses coming into this week, but the good news: they put on quite arguably their best performance of the season against Atlanta in which they held the league’s second-best offense to under 100 points and Collin Sexton seems to be turning the corner as a dangerous two-way threat, as he scored a team-high 27 points against the Hawks and extended his streak of games with 20+ points to 11 games, which of course has carried over from last season. The rebuild is off to a strong start in the third year of the post-LeBron era in Cleveland, and newly-appointed head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has done a phenomenal job in his first 17 games within the role.

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13. Milwaukee Bucks (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)

Just like the Lakers, a small sample size won’t foretell the story of the Bucks’ 2020-21 season in a nutshell, and quite frankly, their position on this list isn’t exactly warranted since the Bucks know and feel as if they’re better than their even 3-3 record, as told in their stampeding of the Bulls and split series with the Heat. But, with them dropping one to the team that beat them in five games back in the bubble’s Eastern Conference Semifinals, the questions surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo’s skillset and improvement from last season as a pure scorer in the halfcourt when defenses bring their wall coverages are still within conversations on whether or not he’ll be rewarded the MVP award for a third-straight time.

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14. Brooklyn Nets (3-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)

Oh, how fortune can flip in the matter of days.

Though the Nets started off their season in expeditious fashion cruising past Boston and Golden State and winning by double digits in both contests, lady luck just ripped the rug from right under the Nets, as they would go on to drop four of their last five contests. Those losses, largely incumbent upon the lack of the Nets having a true third scorer other than Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, are also due to the fact that from a team defense perspective, there just isn’t as much consistency from that of a championship contender.

A 107.3 defensive rating isn’t impressive — rather a middle of the pack rating, probable residue from giving up 141 points to the Atlanta Hawks in a barnburner — and their struggles have raised questions about their depth and decision making in the clutch.

It was said by a certain Kyrie Irving that he’s honored to have another guy next to him that can score whenever the team needed a bucket down the stretch, but per their loss to the Wizards, where both Irving and Durant had good looks to close out the Wizards at home and failed to do so, that was not to be. Now, they stare at a sub-.500 record with their backup guard Spencer Dinwiddie out for the year, and their star Kevin Durant out for at least a week as he follows COVID-19 safety protocols from being potentially exposed to the virus.

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15. Golden State Warriors (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)

If there was any phrase to act as a band-aid to the Warriors’ underlying ailments that’ll probably keep them out of the postseason this year if things don’t work themselves out this year, it’ll likely be these:

“Look at Curry man, so inspirational.”

Back to his style of making the dumpster smell sweet (not a slight, just wordplay) Stephen Curry earned his moniker of “Chef Curry” back in incredible fashion, scoring a career-high 62 points in the second meeting of a series with Portland and a near legacy-defining regular-season game.

The Warriors were staring 2-4 in the face, with concerns of shooting confidence seeping in the minds of Kelly Oubre and Andrew Wiggins.In dire need of some absolvement from their offensive woes, in came two-time MVP Stephen Curry flying his cape to save the Dubs from bottom-barrel irrelevancy with a marquee performance against those very Blazers that beat them two nights before.

The season is not lost for Golden State, they’ll just need to find a way to get back on track and get more from their wings to assist Curry, who will have to average 25+ nightly to supply for the lost Klay Thompson, who won’t suit up this season, and possibly a little into next year due to a torn left Achilles.

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16. Portland Trail Blazers (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)

The season for Portland has been a series of ups and downs, but it could be worse with their .500 record six games into the season. Though some defensive lapses certainly have not gone their way, they have to like their position in the West for the time being, especially after picking up some key wins over the Lakers to open the week. Enes Kanter seems like one of the less-appreciated pickups in the offseason, and he and Carmelo Anthony have underwhelmed on the defensive end for a team that’s sorely needed healthy bodies and help on the opposite side of the ball. But, secondary scoring from CJ McCollum — 28 ppg. off 45 percent shooting — has been a sight for sore eyes, and his quick start is rather uncharacteristic since he usually never starts out this hot.

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17. Miami Heat (2-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)

Since the last week of play, Miami once again saw a split of games that told two different stories. In their first game against the Bucks, they perhaps one of their most embarrassing defeats in the history of the franchise in a 45-point loss, and one game after recollected and rallied to come back and beat the Bucks on a back to back. Their offense has looked sporadic when Jimmy Butler was off the floor, but when he was on it, it didn’t pop as it did in the bubble, considering that he hasn’t looked like himself stemming from the ankle injury he sustained at the beginning of the season. In their loss to Dallas on Friay night, the Marquette man didn’t even attempt a shot.

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18. New York Knicks (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)

Well, it goes to show that old “Thibs” knows how to get the job done. As the last coach of the Timberwolves, a squad that experienced success after a long playoff drought back in 2018, he looks to do the same with a youthful and promising Knicks organization. And he’s off to a great start. Julius Randle’s role on this team was very much an uncertain variable following the decision to stay young and draft potential Rookie of the Year prospect Obi Toppin, but the Kentucky product has come to stake his claim as a franchise centerpiece, for however how long that will last. Averaging a little over 21 points, 10,5 rebounds and 7.5 assists in six contests, he is surely playing the best ball of his career. While the Knicks have a long way to go in terms of building a playoff-caliber roster, they’re quietly making headlines and building a culture that will last, no matter who is in that locker room.

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19. Denver Nuggets (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)

A rocky start (pun intended) by these Nuggets was met with even more misfortune, as Michael Porter Jr. is being told to quarantine for a couple of games in compliance to the league’s health and safety protocols. But conversely, Jamal Murray is beginning to regain his shot from the bubble and Nikola Jokic is looking like the best pure big man in basketball right now. Jokic is nearly averaging a triple-double, and new acquisition JaMychal Green fits like a glove. They should get that record to look a little better in 2021, since eight of their 11 games on the road feature the likes of the slipping Timberwolves and Mavericks.

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20. San Antonio Spurs (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)

While the Spurs made history after appointing Becky Hammon to Head Coaching duties following Gregg Popovich’s ejection, the Lakers still walked into AT&T Center and promptly destroyed DeMar DeRozan and the Spurs. From LaMarcus Aldridge’s age looking as if it is going to be a liability to the Spurs’ plans of challenging for a playoff spot, Rudy Gay’s continued inefficiency from deep (now shooting less than 25 percent from three) and their youthfulness not being quite ready to contend against the likes of the West’s elite, the better option is to look at these next few games against both the Clippers and Lakers as chances to watch their younger players develop.

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21. Sacramento Kings (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)

That euphoric feel of a 3-1 didn’t last as long as folks expected for the Kings, who like a bunch of the lowly teams in the West, lack consistent presence of more than two All-Stars in the starting lineup. Dropping two straight games to a Western powerhouse in Houston that does have that All-Star presence and is a practical measuring stick to what they should model their roster after will cause that lack of success. But what has been a positive for them: rookie Tyrese Haliburton seems to be a pick that new GM Monte McNair may have knocked out of the park. His defensive intuition and decision-making is something to watch grow and develop, but he will be sidelined with a bone bruise in his wrist for at least a week.

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22. Dallas Mavericks (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)

Luka Doncic and the Mavericks wish they could have a do-over for this season’s opening. It’s been anything but good for these Mavs out of the gate, and Doncic has looked anything but an MVP candidate, now shooting an ugly 16 percent from downtown. Whether that is a conditioning thing following a short offseason and non-committment to an offseason fitness regimen or just a bad start that’ll probably blow over soon, it needs to be sorted out, and quickly, because the Southwest division with Houston and New Orleans is unforgiving and it will shun them if they don’t clean things up.

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23. Toronto Raptors (1-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)

What has happened to the once-defending champs? The argument could be made that these Raptors are capable to hang in there with other good competition, and rightfully could be 5-0 as every game they’ve margin of loss has been in the single digits, but 1-4 is their reality right now. Pascal Siakam is either not himself, or he’s regressed back to his G-League skillset, but either way his poor play is hurting the team and he has to right the ship soon. Big man depth continues to be a thorn in their side, but a favorable schedule — starting out with a banged up Boston team, and ending with a talent-deficient Warriors squad — should get them back on the winning track.

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24. Memphis Grizzlies (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)

Realistically, if injuries weren’t a variable into the Grizzlies’ equation, their record wouldn’t look like what it resembles right now. After losing Ja Morant to an sprained ankle for an undisclosed time, the Grizzlies, with Ja as an active participant for at least ten minutes on the rotation for a contest, have only earned one win against their opponents. While they were able to scrape away a win against the Nets when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant weren’t playing, they’ve suffered consecutive losses to the likes of the Lakers, Celtics, and still have the Lakers, Cavaliers and Nets again at home to play with both Ja and Jaren Jackson Jr. at home on the couch.

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25. Washington Wizards (2-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)

Team defensive issues aside, the tandem of Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook have really lit it up in 2020 and 2021, now a perfect 2-0 in the new year. They were able to scrap and claw for a win against the Timberwolves last week without Russell Westbrook, who was sat for rest purposes, and that resulted in Washington’s first win. They soon followed that performance with a nail-biting win against the Nets in which Irving and Durant both played, and with a new year on the horizon as well as the improving health of Rui Hachimura playing a role in his comeback, the Wizards have to be grateful for where they are right now.

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26. Minnesota Timberwolves (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)

Karl Anthony-Towns’ wrist injury completely deflated any chances of having momentum to enter the new year, and since his absence as been felt, they’ve lost four straight games. There is no remedy to replace KAT’s productivity, but they are using these games to observe and analyze just what each young player on this team needs to work on in order to be a better player and teammate, and they realize this is going to be a long, tedious process of developing a champion. So for Wolves fans, keep the expectations low.

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27. Charlotte Hornets (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)

LaMelo Ball has been the brightest star for this Hornets team that hasn’t exceeded expectations this year, which was understandable since this is a transitional year filled with weaving new pieces into the roster and getting younger players more comfortable with NBA minutes against top-tier competition. The rookie scored 22 points, grabbed 8 boards and passed for 5 assists in their upset win over the Dallas Mavericks. Team defense and inconsistency in scoring the basketball seems to be their issue, as they’ve given up a combined 235 points in their two losses to Memphis and Philadelphia.

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28. Oklahoma City Thunder (2-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)

This season wasn’t supposed to promise Thunder fans another trip to the playoffs, but rather a closer look as the gradual development of their youngest players as well as the roles of leadership undertaken by the likes of veterans Al Horford and George Hill. All of the best laid plans have all gone swimmingly, and they are winning a few games while instructing their young pieces and maintaining their confidence with a variety of minutes. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looks like he’s set to be an All-Star someday (maybe sooner than later) and for a majority of their losses, they’ve all been relatively close, which means this team can still compete.

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29. Detroit Pistons (1-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)

While Detroit earned their first win of the season against the Celtics on New Year’s Day — thanks to a 24-point explosion from new Piston Jerami Grant — their efforts of developing their young guys isn’t quite off to the strongest start. Killian Hayes has a ways to go until he can be an NBA-caliber point guard, but that’s why Derrick Rose is there to guide him. For the rest of them, winning tight games appears to be too difficult, as their 1-5 record suggests that injuries have piled up and guys aren’t talented enough to compete against the East’s best teams just yet.

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30. Chicago Bulls (3-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)

Chandler Hutchinson, Tomas Satoransky and a staffer all tested positive for the Coronavirus this past week, and while Ryan Archidiacono remains out with what’s likely the same diagnosis, depth has crucified a team that’s schedule looks almost insurmountable to overcome right now. Portland, and both Los Angeles teams await them this week….yikes.