The race for the highest positional placing is tightening up in the Eastern Conference, and as the games between the Philadelphia 76ers and Brooklyn Nets are under a tight microscope, it’s growing likelier by the day that the Sixers will finish with the best record in the East. Brooklyn is mulling their options on whether to give that extra push and fight for the No. 1 spot in the East with home-court advantage through the playoffs to boot or resting their most integral championship-winning parts in the waning weeks of the last full month of the regular season, but below the two, Milwaukee, Boston, Atlanta, and New York have relatively kept their distance amidst the current standings but are inching closer as the season winds down.
That being said, the same could transpire for the West-leading Utah Jazz, who are going through their own myriad of injuries. Donovan Mitchell will have to miss a few games due to an injured right ankle and without him so far, the Jazz lost to the Lakers in a thriller where they just went flat in extra time, scoring a mere five points in a 127-115 road loss. They currently hold a 2.5 game lead over the Phoenix Suns but are eeking by as winners of six of their last 10.
Another thing to watch: at season’s beginning, the Wizards were an afterthought, always appearing as an inefficient, talent-anemic team with its reigns carried by both an initially struggling Russell Westbrook and offensive aficionado Bradley Beal. Not so much now. Washington has won four straight games and if the season were to end today, would be smack dab into the mix as a participant in the play-in tournament — thanks to Russell Westbrook returning to his old triple-double-acquiring form.
The final four weeks of the season are upon us, so let’s get to this week’s Power Rankings and see where all 30 teams lie.
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1. Philadelphia 76ers (39-18, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)
Philly got some insurance on their lead over Brooklyn in the Easter standings this past week per their downplay and outside circumstances leaning toward their benefit, and over the past seven days, they’ve moved an entire three games ahead of the Nets with only 16 games left on the schedule.
The Sixers have looked, at more times than not, the NBA’s most efficient offensive and defensive team, due to their ample spacing, an MVP candidate in Joel Embiid scoring on whoever, Ben Simmons playing as the clear Defensive Player of the Year favorite, and as a team, have possessed the league’s best net rating from April 10-18. But they’re not exactly out of the woods just yet.
Two duels in a series with the Milwaukee Bucks will be their litmus test of just how dominant they can be before the season ends, and especially so considering they’ll have to outlast either Milwaukee or Brooklyn to advance to the Finals this year.
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2. Utah Jazz (43-15, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)
Utah went 1-1 on the short week, but more importantly, they’ll be tasked with finding a contingency plan to deal with the temporary loss of Donovan Mitchell, who sprained his right ankle after going for a loose ball against the Indiana Pacers. They haven’t had difficulty in adjusting without him, since the Jazz are 3-1 in games without him this year.
Their only loss? Though some heroics by Jordan Clarkson by way of a spot-up three-ball with mere seconds on the clock sent Saturday’s tightly-contested game to overtime, the Lakers kept the perimeter-swinging Jazz to only five points in OT and gave Utah their 12th road loss on the year. That game was a back-to-back and not quite exactly a game the Jazz were sweating since they rested both Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert, but their grip on the West’s best record is slipping a bit heading into their final 16 games.
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3. Phoenix Suns (41-16, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)
Though it ended abruptly against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night, Phoenix’s 10-game winning streak was one to marvel. At one point during their streak, they stood at arm’s length and at the cusp of touching the top-seeded Jazz to claim the No. 1 seed in the West.
Chris Paul should likely land some MVP votes for how he has revitalized this franchise, dare stated, overnight, as the Jazz are primed to make the postseason with home-court advantage for the first time in 11 years. Paul also passed Maurice “Mo” Cheeks on the all-time steals list, further adding to his legacy as one of the best guards in the history of the game on both ends of the court. Another thing to mention: CP3 passed Magic Johnson on the all-time assists list last night against the Bucks in a 128-127 barnburner.
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4. Brooklyn Nets (38-19, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)
The Nets are undergoing a bit of turbulence, which explains why they’ve fallen out of the top 3 in the Power Rankings for the first time in months. Let’s go down the list. First, they were quite undermanned and while they played until the final whistle, they couldn’t beat a fully healthy 76ers team in a marquee primetime showdown as the Sixers regained control of the East.
After that, James Harden would express further discomfort due to a hamstring strain and Kyrie Irving would miss a game due to a “personal issue” before returning to play against Philly one game later. Then, LaMarcus Aldridge, unknowingly, retires out of the blue due to an irregular heartbeat.
Finally, when it seemed like this black cloud flying over the heads of the Nets was finally passing, in came the thunder and lightning.
Kevin Durant scored eight points in nine minutes before leaving Sunday’s contest with a left quad contusion after it inadvertently made contact with Trevor Ariza’s knee on a routine drive to the hoop. The Nets then lost to the Miami Heat (who lost 3 of their last four games prior to Sunday’s contest) via a Bam Adebayo fadeaway jumper from 10 feet away from the rim.
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5. Los Angeles Clippers (40-19, Last Week’s Ranking: 6)
A seven-game winning streak came to an end this past Friday night, though it wasn’t quite a loss that the Clippers would be mulling over since star Forward Kawhi Leonard didn’t play. A fiery second-half comeback effort by the Clippers, led by Paul George’s 39 points on 14-29 shooting with four threes, came up short during their loss to the Sixers but quickly did these Clips ever rebound. Health is wealth to Tyronn Lue’s team, and the more rested they will be, the more optimal they’ll perform in the postseason.
That has to be the most emphasized point heading into the last four weeks of the season, and to see just how well they play when they’re at full strength, take a gander at what they did last night to the Timberwolves during their 124-105 home win where George scored a game-high 23 points off an efficient 9-of-17 shooting and four threes made in nine attempts. In his return, Kawhi Leonard scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds off 55 percent shooting.
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6. Los Angeles Lakers (35-23, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)
The Lakers rise a spot in this week’s rankings, thanks to a rather productive week that saw the defending champions go a pedestrian-but-acceptable 2-2 on the week. It was capped off with an upset over the top-seeded Jazz in a battle that expanded to overtime, but in that same week that they beat the Hornets and Jazz, they lost in embarrassing fashion to the Knicks and Celtics by an average of 11.5 points.
But still, Lakers fans should have their heads kept up high; Anthony Davis is making his return to the court in a matter of a few days, as his Achilles Tendinosis is all but healed up. The Lakers are already the NBA’s leader in defensive efficiency (105.8) and are still second in the league when it comes to opponent points scored per game (106.1 points allowed per 100 possessions). LeBron James’ return is also imminent, so the Lakers are likely content with finishing in the top-5 of the conference and running the table until they meet up with either the Jazz, Clippers, or Suns at some point in the playoffs.
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7. Milwaukee Bucks (35-22, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)
When it’s mentioned that the Eastern Conference is an impending dogfight just waiting to go down in the season’s last four weeks, that sentiment should not be taken lightly. Milwaukee is having one of those under-the-radar seasons where they’re in a position to knock off one of the top two seeds in their conference, but at the same time, look susceptible to succumbing to a lower seed in an early round of the postseason.
This is a big week coming up for the Bucks, who have won six out of their last 10 games and sit four games behind the first-place Sixers and two in the loss column behind the Nets. Consider this stretch of games their biggest of the season, for they’ll go against the 76ers in two games and battle the Hawks next, following their OT loss to the Suns. They have the potential to shake things up in the East down the stretch, and if this week goes according to plan for Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks, we’ll get a glimpse of just how good this team is and how serious their chances of coming out of the East as championship contenders are.
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8. Denver Nuggets (37-20, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)
What a horrible week to be a Nuggets fan, and that’s putting it lightly.
As said last week, Denver saw whatever chance they had of having an extensive playoff run evaporated into thin air last week, as Jamal Murray tore his ACL on a typical hop-step into the lane, and awkwardly planted his left knee into the hardwood against the Golden State Warriors inside the Chase Center in San Francisco, California during what was a comeback attempt down six points with only but a few minutes to go.
The devastating blow to the Nuggets’ backcourt will be annoyingly and inconspicuously felt throughout the rest of the regular season and the postseason, for the Kentucky product is capable of dropping 40-50 points on a nightly basis as the team’s purest isolation creator at all three levels. And while Nikola Jokic is playing like the easy choice for the MVP award this year and Aaron Gordon fulfilling the role of being the 3-and-D wing stopper and lengthy floor stretcher on the other end, it’s really hard to produce in the playoffs without your main bucket getter who can break anyone down off the dribble when spacing is non-existent.
Mike Malone has no other choice but to throw Michael Porter Jr. into the role of that No. 2 guy slot and will have to run the offense through the second-year player out of Missouri as their primary shot creator.
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9. Portland Trail Blazers (32-24, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)
Though previously hypothesized that the Blazers would’ve done better with all of their pieces fully healthy, the outcome of that experiment is anything but what was predicted. They’ve lost six of their last nine, and are only two games ahead of the Dallas Mavericks for the seventh seed after an ugly 1-3 week that saw them lose to the likes of the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics, and Charlotte Hornets, in which they lost to on the road without Damian Lillard, who missed Sunday’s contest with a hamstring strain.
They’re likely looking at the play-in tournament spot for a second-straight year at this point, and certain questions arise on how the Blazers haven’t been performing to optimal standards: are opposing defenses finally catching up on how to stop Damian Lillard? Has his career-high usage (now at 31.9, previous highest usage was in 2016-17 at 31.5) finally caught up to him? They’ll have to adjust quickly if they’re to have a chance at making a deep playoff run like how they did in 2018 and last season in the bubble.
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10. Boston Celtics (31-27, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)
It’s been a long season of twists and turns, bumps and bruises, valleys and mountains, but finally, the Celtics can say that they’re playing the best ball of their season as winners of six straight.
They are a whopping 7-1 in the month of April and led by the wonderous offensive efforts of both Jayson Tatum (34.2 points, 8.8 rebounds, 3.8 assists off 55 percent shooting, and 50 percent shooting from deep with a 91 FT percentage in his past five games) and Jaylen Brown (28.4 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.8 assists off 56.7 percent shooting and 41.5 percent shooting from deep with a 71.4 FT percentage in the past five games) who have led the cavalry, it’s the resurgence of Kemba Walker that is the most salient topic.
Walker has averaged a little over 18 points and 6.4 assists with 6 rebounds in the same time span, a big step forward from his abysmal first three months of 2021 where he averaged an inefficient 17.6 points per game and was more of an offensive liability than an additional asset. The return of Marcus Smart has also done wonders for this Celtics team that needed leadership and a stern, galvanizing figure to set the tone defensively.
With a fourth-place finish in a stalemate of an Eastern Conference picture looking the Celtics dead in the face, their schedule is not the easiest, to put it lightly. After Monday night’s contest against the Zach LaVine-less Bulls which resulted in a loss, the Celtics will then have to compete in some back-to-backs against the Suns and Nets, while finishing their week against the Hornets.
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11. Dallas Mavericks (30-26, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)
In a week that saw the Mavericks survive against the Memphis Grizzlies with one of the more skilled and “lucky” game-winners you’ll ever see from the likes of Luka Doncic, the underlying issues plaguing this team that’s likely primed to be a play-in tournament team are starting to come forward at the most inopportune time. In blowing an opportunity to move up the rankings with a struggling 2-5 slump by the Trail Blazers, a 1-3 week done by these Mavericks didn’t help matters at all. Losses to the Sixers, Knicks, and surprisingly, the Kings, has Dallas in the seventh seed at the moment.
And while Luka Doncic has averaged 30 points, 9 assists, and 6.3 rebounds in the Mavericks’ last four games, Kristaps Porzingis has not shown up the way Rick Carlisle has wanted him to do so. He’s still posting a horrible 110 defensive rating and is only a 47.3/35.9/85 scorer, which is, okay, but not to what the Mavericks are expecting of their second-best player.
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12. Atlanta Hawks (31-26, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)
Atlanta is in a dead-heat for the fourth seed with the likes of the Celtics and Knicks going into the final four weeks of the season, and while they’ve been productive thanks in part to a stretch of five games where they’ve gone 4-1, it hasn’t just been the Trae Young show.
While the former 3rd overall pick and Oklahoma standout guard has done everything and more to keep the Hawks within reach of the postseason for the first time since 2016, it’s been the return of Bogdan Bogdanovic and the All-NBA resume of Clint Capela built up this season. On Sunday, Capela posted 25 points and grabbed 24 rebounds against All-Star Domantas Sabonis and the Indiana Pacers, and after returning from injury, Bogdanovic has averaged 20.5 points (second behind Trae’s 25.4 points per game), 4.2 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game while shooting a little over 50.3 percent from the field and a startling 49.5 percent from deep on 8.1 attempts per game.
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13. Miami Heat (30-28, Last Week’s Ranking: 11)
When things started raining for the Heat, it started pouring. Up until the end of this week, however. They lost three straight, including an embarrassing loss to the Timberwolves. But the heroics of Bam Adebayo saved the day against Kyrie Irving’s Brooklyn Nets, as he gave Miami their 29th win of the year and kept them within reach of the fifth seed with a buzzer-beater of a 10-foot fadeaway jumper. Six of their next seven games are against teams with sub-.500 records, and with Adebayo continuously finding his confidence offensively, now averaging 19.3 points, 8.3 rebounds, and 3.7 assists over his last three games, Miami is certainly not off the radar just yet.
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14. New York Knicks (31-27, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)
What difficult schedule? These Knicks keep on winning during the Tom Thibodeau era, now winners of six straight and winners of seven of their last 10. And they aren’t just beating rinky-dink sub-.500 teams here; the Raptors, Lakers, Mavericks, and Pelicans were all put on the mantle inside the cabin of ol’ Thibs, who has given this Knicks franchise a new sense of identity as the league’s No. 1 defense who will make it known that any opponent will have to work to get their offense going.
The goal isn’t the play-in tournament any longer now — these Knickerbockers are legit and have the best chance they could hope for at this point in the season as a potential team that could finish with a top-6 record in the vaunted Eastern Conference, hanging with the likes of the Celtics, Bucks, Nets, and Sixers.
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15. Memphis Grizzlies (29-27, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)
Grayson Allen has found his place here in the NBA. Last week, the Duke standout averaged 18.5 points off 53.3 percent from the field as a veteran swingman off the bench and knocked down 20 threes out of 37 attempts in the Grizzlies’ 3-1 week. Still, this is a win-loss, results-driven league, and so he was subject to slander from both Grizz media and fans for bricking consecutive free throws with 2.2 seconds left on the clock, which was enough time to give the Grizzlies a buzzer-beating loss to Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks last Wednesday night.
You can’t hang your head with losses like that and they will have to put that mishap in the back of their minds, and quite frankly they have no other option for they’ll have a rough stretch of games up next against the Clippers with two games against the Trail Blazers, for their contest against the Nuggets ended in an undesirable way as they allowed Nikola Jokic to score 47 points and rack up 15 rebounds with eight assists to boot during a 139-137 OT loss.
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16. Golden State Warriors (29-29, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)
We have to say it again…
Look at Curry man, so inspirational.
The two-time MVP is playing some of the best ball of his 12-year career, and quite honestly, is emulating Kobe Bryant during his legendary 2006 season where it’s commonplace for him to score 40+ points with 10+ threes on a nightly basis. He did so last week and through Monday night, breaking Kobe’s record of 10-straight 30-point games by a player 33 or older. And in his last 10 games, Curry has averaged an astounding 40.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 4.4 assists in his last 10 games.
Kicking off the week with a 53-point explosion against the Nuggets, the Warriors survived a comeback attempt from Denver and a night after that, he dropped 42 against the lowly Thunder with 11 threes to help. Then, a 33-point performance against Cleveland followed that. To finish off the week, Curry went off on Saturday primetime, scoring 47 points and knocking down 11 threes in a loss to the Celtics.
Then on Monday night, Curry kept his streak going with an even-better 49-point showcase against top-seeded Philadelphia with 10 threes. The slew of six games in which Golden State went 5-1 in helped them find a silver lining in the wake of rookie center James Wiseman’s season-ending knee surgery.
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17. Charlotte Hornets (28-28, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)
Sunday’s win over the Damian Lillard-less Trail Blazers ended a free-fall of a four-game losing skid for the Hornets, and at the moment they are well in the fight of contending for the play-in tournament with a two-game winning streak. And while they’ve felt the blow of injuries piling up and hindering their chances of competing at full strength, they could possibly look forward to the next 7-10 games in which LaMelo Ball could come back and rejoin the team, since he’s 100 percent healthy and cleared to return to basketball activities. Terry Rozier has fared well as the primary shot creator with an increased role in the wake of Ball’s absence and Miles Bridges continues to show his upward development, now averaging a little over 24 points in his last four games.
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18. San Antonio Spurs (28-28, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)
San Antonio beat the Suns 111-85 after resting DeMar DeRozan, Patty Mills, and Jakob Poeltl, a decision that earned the team a $25,000 fine from the NBA for breaching the league’s player resting policy. San Antonio was a 12-point underdog going into the game against Phoenix but won by 26 points.
And then, they followed that with a 15-point win over the Pacers on Monday night, where Derrick White led all Spurs scorers with 25 points. While 4-6 in their last 10 games, they are smack dab in the middle of the play-in tournament picture as the 10th seed.
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19. Indiana Pacers (26-31, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)
It’s not uncommon to see significant discrepancies in a team’s record at home and on the road, but teams usually do much better in their own house. The Pacers aren’t your regular team this season. Indiana has a 9-17 home record, making it the only Eastern Conference team without a ten-win season, yet.
The Pacers, on the other hand, have 17 road victories, which makes them tied with Milwaukee and Philadelphia for the most in the East. They lost to San Antonio on Monday night, pushing them to ninth in the East but still within the middle of the pack for the play-in tournament.
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20. New Orleans Pelicans (25-32, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)
On Sunday, the Pelicans had a six-point lead with 1:48 remaining against the Knicks but lost in overtime, thanks in part to two poor plays on their behalf in the Knicks’ final play in regulation. It was the sixth time in Pelicans history that the team led by six points with less than two minutes remaining and failed to win. It’s also the Pelicans’ second such occurrence this season, since it happened on January 4 against the Pacers.
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21.Toronto Raptors (24-34, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)
The resilient Raptors aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Despite all of the team’s misfortunes in recent weeks, Toronto is back in the Eastern Conference’s final play-in tournament spot after winning three straight games last week. The Raptors’ schedule doesn’t get any easier as the season progresses, but if they want to finish 10th, they should be able to fend off Chicago and Washington.
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22. Washington Wizards (24-33, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)
Don’t look now, but the Wizards’ roller-coaster season is finally starting to turn around. And it came just in time. The Wizards have won four straight games and six of their last seven, thanks to Russell Westbrook’s triple-double revival. In April, Westbrook has recorded a triple-double in 11 of his last 13 games, averaging 22.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, and 11.6 assists. Bradley Beal is gaining a lot of traction, scoring 30 or more in the past four contests.
Bradley Beal is gaining a lot of traction, scoring 30 or more in the past four contests. And more importantly, they’re tied with Chicago in the standings and are one game behind Toronto in the win column, making the play-in tournament a real possibility.
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23. Chicago Bulls (24-33, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)
The Bulls defeated the Cavs on Saturday to end a five-game losing streak, but it didn’t take away the sting of losing All-Star swingman Zach LaVine for an undetermined period of time due to COVID-19 protocols. LaVine’s absence highlights how far this team has fallen since acquiring Nikola Vucevic just before the trade deadline. Since making the switch, the Bulls have gone 5-9, thanks in part to an upset over the Celtis on Monday night. Also, Lauri Markkanen is averaging just 8.4 points and 4.2 assists over 10 April games.
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24. Sacramento Kings (23-34, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)
The Kings showed some signs of life on the road on Sunday, defeating the Mavericks 121-107 in a game Sacramento never trailed in. Despite the fact that Luka Doncic outscored De’Aaron Fox 37 to 30, Fox had 12 assists and zero turnovers to Doncic’s 4-4 assist-to-turnover ratio. Still, this season is all but lost considering that the Kings are 1-9 in their last 10 games.
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25. Cleveland Cavaliers (20-37, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)
This week’s matchup between the Cavaliers and Warriors was a bittersweet reminder of how much has changed since their annual NBA Finals showdown. Though Stephen Curry (33 points) and Draymond Green (10 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks) came close to matching their previous performances, Kevin Love was Cleveland’s only relic, scoring five points on 2-for-10 shooting with six rebounds.
Speaking of a blast from the past, Matthew Dellavedova (3 assists) harkened back to that golden-but-not-so-distant age from back to 2015-2018.
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26. Oklahoma City Thunder (20-38, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)
The Thunder have lost 11 games in a row, their longest losing streak since their inaugural season in OKC in 2008 when they lost 14 games in a row (which, if you remember, resulted in head coach PJ Carlesimo being replaced by a young, bushy-haired Scott Brooks). It has reduced them to the league’s fifth-worst record, only a few games behind/ahead of the Magic for the fourth-worst.
But, as has been the case throughout the season, even in the midst of a slump, positive things are happening in OKC. Luguentz Dort set a career-high with 42 points against the Jazz, then added 26 against Detroit and 29 against Toronto.
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27. Orlando Magic (18-39, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)
During Wednesday’s victory, Wendell Carter Jr. avenged himself against the Bulls, who traded him last month as part of a package for Nikola Vucevic. Carter had 19 points and 12 rebounds in his first game in Orlando against Chicago, and he has continued to impress as this season winds down.
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28. Detroit Pistons (18-40, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)
Last week, the Pistons faced the Thunder and won, despite the absence of Jerami Grant, thanks to some outstanding performances. Josh Jackson, a former lottery pick, scored 29 points, and rookies Isaiah Stewart (15 points, 21 rebounds) and Saddiq Bey (18 points) contributed significantly. Additionally, Bey, the Villanova standout, led the Pistons in scoring during their home win over Cleveland with 20 points off 6-12 shooting.
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29. Minnesota Timberwolves (15-43, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)
Although the optimistic energy that accompanied D’Angelo Russell’s return has faded, the Wolves’ success under Chris Finch must be commended. They’ve played at a faster tempo, with more discipline, and with more structure. And, perhaps most importantly, Karl-Anthony Towns’ position is changing, with him being featured in space and as a creator atop the key, similar to how the Nuggets use Nikola Jokic.
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30. Houston Rockets (15-43, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)
Jae’Sean Tate, a 25-year-old undrafted forward who started his professional career in Australia, has been a bright spot for the Rockets during their difficult season, emerging as an All-Rookie nominee. Tate, along with Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball, has averaged 11.1 points, 5.4 assists, and one steal per game.
Photo cred: Fox Sports 1430.
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