One full week removed from the All-Star Break isn’t quite exactly the most telling variable when determining if a team is serious about keeping their spot in the playoff race, but it isn’t to be ignored. Usually, we praise teams that hit the ground running fresh off of the break, while chastizing teams that are playoff bound and a little slower coming out of the gates, but by going off of that same logic, we’d be putting the league-worst Atlanta Hawks on a pedestal due to their 2-1 record after the break’s end while tearing down teams like the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies, who haven’t won a game since Jaren Jackson Jr. went down.
Much of the playoff seeding won’t see drastic change, but for the bottom of both conferences, the fight for those seventh and eighth seeds are up for grabs as we approach the final two months of the regular season.
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1. Milwaukee Bucks (48-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)
It’s smooth sailing for the Milwaukee Bucks, who still own the league’s best record and average scoring margin against all opponents. They’re still on-pace for 70 wins, and after Saturday night’s stomping of the Philadelphia 76ers, they have broken the 2016-17 Warriors record for the fastest clinched playoff spot in NBA History with their 48th win throughout a scale of 56 games, and it’s only January. Also, Giannis Antetokounmpo currently leads the NBA in both fast-break points per game and points in the paint per game.
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2. Los Angeles Lakers (43-12, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)
The Lakers got off to a strong start as soon as the All-Star break ended, and remain the West’s most dominant team, further supplanting that with a rousing victory over the Boston Celtics while coming up with a key defensive adjustment to silence Jayson Tatum’s fiery second half and 41-point performance. LeBron James was the one to pay the ultimate tribute to the late, great Kobe Bryant at the end of Sunday’s game with a signature turnaround fadeaway with 37 seconds left that was reminiscent of Bryant’s doings during his playing career.
The attention now turns to the Staples Center on Monday, as the public memorial of Kobe Bryant will be broadcasted on national airwaves at 1 p.m.
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3. Toronto Raptors (42-15, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)
Toronto has been on a tear in the past two months, winning 17 of their last 18 games with some unique lineup combinations that have found ways upon ways to close opponents out both inside of the Scotiabank Arena and on the road. On Sunday night, these Raps displayed yet another masterclass of offensive and defensive proclivity, beating the Indiana Pacers for a third-straight time and by the largest margin of victory against any opponent in franchise history. It is becoming clear and obvious that Toronto is not to be messed with, currently possessing the NBA’s third-best record and second spot in the Eastern standings.
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4. Boston Celtics (39-17, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)
Boston was literally a pinky’s distance away from knocking off the Los Angeles Lakers for the second time this year, thanks to an “I have arrived” 41-point offensive showcase by Jayson Tatum as he became the youngest Celtic in franchise history to have scored 40+ points in a Lakers-Celtics rivalry game since a 23-year-old Paul Pierce did it in 2003.
In his last eight games, Tatum has averaged an insane 30 points off 50 percent shooting and in his last 40 games since November 18, he has averaged a little over 23 points per game while improving his finishing ability inside the restricted zone, now putting in 63.9 percent of his contested layups. When it seemed the five starters around him weren’t able to remain healthy in the month of February, the 21-year old has staked a further claim that he is capable of holding the title of a premier franchise player.
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5. Denver Nuggets (39-18, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)
The healthy streak continues for the Nuggets, who on Sunday night added another W to the win column to their 2-0 start to the post-All-Star break with a 12-point victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. It looks like Mike Malone is becoming more secure in formulating his postseason rotation with all of his guys getting healthy at the most opportune time and now will have more incentive to make sure that they lock down the No. 2 seed with a tough three-game slate involving Detroit, Toronto and another date with the Clippers this week.
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6. Los Angeles Clippers (37-19, Last Week’s Ranking: 6)
Chemistry has been severely missing from this Clippers squad, and it has become increasingly worrisome for Clippers fans and the players alike, now experiencing the worst losing streak of their season at three games. A clip of Kawhi voicing his on-court frustrations via an uncharacteristically animated expression towards a non-cutting-to-the-basket-for-a-wide-open-layup Landry Shamet went viral on Saturday during the Clips’ loss to the Kings, and now that health isn’t the only issue on the table for the Clippers, integration of their new pieces in Marcus Morris and Reggie Jackson onto a team that is still learning how to play together is going to be a topic of salience as we reach the final weeks of the season.
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7. Houston Rockets (36-20, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)
Small ball works. There, I said it. Upon adopting this center-deficient style of play, the Houston Rockets are now known as devout defense collapsers off the dribble in their 5-out and 4-out, 1-in halfcourt sets, only losing one game since they started 6’5 Forward PJ Tucker at Center. The Robert Covington acquisition has been the perfect addition for these Rockets, making them a top-15 defensive team in the league and while adding some double-digit wins over the Lakers, Celtics, Warriors and Jazz during these past two weeks to the belt, have put the West on notice.
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8. Miami Heat (36-20, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)
Barring Miami letting Trae Young explode for his career-high 50 points just nights ago, Miami has both Cleveland and Minnesota on the schedule to open the week, which only spells good things for Tyler Herro and Jimmy Butler’s rehabilition and re-integration back into the starting lineup. Of course however, Heat fans’ attention was turned to more salient news: Dwyane Wade’s jersey three-day jersey retirement ceremony concluded this past Saturday night in exciting fashion with Miami’s win over the Cavaliers.
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9. Utah Jazz (36-20, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)
So much for going 19-2. The Jazz have gone 4-7 since their fiery winning streak conceded, and have certainly lost some steam, more specifically on the defensive end. They have let up 115.1 points per 100 possessions, which is the league’s eighth-worst defensive mark, and players like Royce O’Neal has certainly added to that negative statistic. Whenever O’Neale is on the floor, he has posted up an abysmal 118.0 defensive rating, the worst on the roster. Disregarding an upcoming match-up with a visiting Boston on Wednesday night, Utah can get back on track with Phoenix and Washington coming up on the schedule this week.
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10. Oklahoma City Thunder (35-22, Last Week’s Ranking: 11)
Hey Thunder fans: You’ve got a squad. A marquee win on prime time television against the Denver Nuggets this past week supplanted two evident realities: Chris Paul is righteous in taking over Dwyane Wade’s Father Prime Pseudonym, as the 35-year-old put on a vintage 29-point display in a huge win against the West’s second-best team.
While on the cusp of prolonging their eight-game winning streak, Paul has been instrumental in finishing out games in the clutch, ranking 1st in total clutch points (128), overall 4th quarter +/- (+147) and 2nd in 4th quarter steals (25). With him and young guys like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dennis Schroeder, they are a serious threat to any team that has to play them in their final 25 games of the year.
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11. Dallas Mavericks (34-23, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)
The chemistry between Luka Doncic, Kristaps Porzingis, and others is still a work in progress, but as the West’s seventh seed, the work that the first-time All-Star has done in finding a source of synergy with new pieces has been quite commendable. While sharing the floor, Doncic and Porzingis have outscored opponents by 38 points in the 55 minutes since Doncic returned from his sprained ankle that kept him out for over a week. And finally, Porzingis looked as if he’s rounding into the shape that Knicks fans fell heads over heels for with his combined 25.5 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 5 assists in Dallas’ last two outings.
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12. Philadelphia 76ers (35-22, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)
Things have suddenly gotten from bad to horrifying for the Sixers, and that’s little to do with their homely 9-20 road record. It’s currently being reported that Ben Simmons’ back injury re-aggravated in his five short minutes against Milwaukee on Saturday night. He is to undergo further testing on a back and according to a report from John Clark from NBC Sports Philadelphia, Simmons was reportedly “emotional” leaving the x-ray room, with further speculation leading to concern over a serious back injury that could sideline him for much more than Monday night’s game against Atlanta.
With Simmons’ lingering injury and Philly’s lack of depth at the guard position, they’ve reached a point where any additional mishap at home or failure to better their road record before season’s conclusion could spell trouble and a missed opportunity to have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
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13. Indiana Pacers (33-24, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)
For a team with such upside, especially when accounting the return of their superstar point guard Victor Oladipo, Indiana sure has fallen flat on their face while trying to acclimate him into the lineup, only getting a win against the Knicks after the break ended. The Pacers were then walloped by the Toronto Raptors in a 46-point beheading that saw Jeremy Lamb suffer three season-ending knee injuries of a torn ACL, torn Meniscus and fractured left knee. But in a showing of courage that was downright Kobe-esque, Lamb drilled two free throws on his ailing leg before he exited Sunday’s contest.
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14. Memphis Grizzlies (28-28, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)
The Grizzlies received horrible news from their training staff, as Jaren Jackson Jr.’s productive 2019-20 season will be put on hold due to a sprained right knee that will keep him in street clothes for two weeks. Also, the Rookie of the Year race is getting increasingly nerve-wracking for Ja Morant, who hasn’t had the best post-All-Star break outing. In consecutive losses to the Lakers and Kings, Morant turned the ball over more times than he dished assists, something he hasn’t done with the exception of in three other games this year. In his loss to the Kings, Morant posted his worst +/- of -25 since his NBA debut.
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15. New Orleans Pelicans (25-32, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)
The Pelicans jump up two spots in this week’s rankings, thanks to Zion Williamson making the rest of the NBA’s most arduous defenders look like ragdolls in Alvin Gentry’s spacious system that’s allowed this rookie to make scoring in this league ridiculously easy for him, now with his 10 games with 20-plus points in his first 12 appearances and averaged 22.8 points per game off 58.6 percent shooting in his first couple of weeks experiencing NBA action.
New Orleans, as a team, has won six of their last nine games and is currently on schedule to knock out Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies for the eighth seed in the West. And if that prophecy comes true, that could potentially set up a LeBron James vs. Zion Williamson 1st round of the playoffs…
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16. Brooklyn Nets (26-29, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)
The news surrounding Kyrie Irving’s season-ending shoulder surgery should come as a referendum for the other 13 Nets on the roster, now that their collective playoff lives — and tenures with Brooklyn for next year and beyond — are now on the line as the team may decide to go in different directions when reshaping this roster to better accommodate both Irving and the healing Kevin Durant, set to return next year.
There is slight optimism to be had amidst the dreaded misery of what may come in the season’s concluding weeks, as Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot led his Nets with 21 points in a 115-86 win over Charlotte. During that game, eight Nets nabbed scoring totals in the double digits. The next-man-up mentality is anything but an understatement now if they want to stay in the playoff picture.
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17. San Antonio Spurs (24-32, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)
This Spurs team has sputtered, and that sounds as euphemistic as it possibly can. Staring at 11th in the Western Conference and now facing the inevitability of missing out on the postseason for the first time since 1997, they came into the All-Star break and started their second half of the season by losing four of their last six. Their most recent 28-point scalping via the Oklahoma City Thunder came by way of a scoreless, 0-for-7 night by DeJounte Murray, who came into Sunday’s game against OKC averaging a little over 19 points per contest off 60 percent shooting in his last four games.
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18. Portland Trail Blazers (26-32, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)
Somehow, someway, the Damian Lillard-less Trail Blazers found the answer to their scoring question mark, barely squeaking by the Detroit Pistons in a 41-point performance by CJ McCollum that was the exact amount of offense they were sorely missing because of Lillard’s absence. Additionally, Carmelo Anthony chipped in with his own season-high of 32 points (the first time he scored 30 points in an NBA game in three years!) off 68.8 percent shooting and 55.6 percent from deep.
Still, even while being only four games out of eighth in the West, it feels like time is ticking a little faster on the seasonal clock, and time might be up before they know it. Damian Lillard presumably comes back this week, but there’s no telling if Portland’s favorable schedule will be to their benefit or not.
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19. Orlando Magic (24-32, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)
That’s now nine of the past 12 games that have resulted in losses for the Magic. They’ve gone 0-8 against playoff-bound teams, but are still holding on to their eighth seed in the playoff race with a three-game lead over Washington. Aaron Gordon has led his Magic in scoring with 22.3 points per game in the Magic’s last three wins over Charlotte, Atlanta, and Detroit, and they hope to keep afloat with a long four-game slate ahead of them against Golden State, OKC, Memphis, and Detroit.
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20. Sacramento Kings (23-33, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)
Though it’s probably a little too late to generate any momentum for a playoff push, the Kings have compiled an impressive 6-4 record in their past 10 games, including a shocking upset of the Los Angeles Clippers — their second time beating them this year. Still, the NBA’s longest remaining playoff drought will probably continue at the end of another season this year.
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21. Washington Wizards (20-35, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)
Washington looks hot and cold on any given night, never really resembling a team worthy of being able to hold a playoff spot due to their inadequacy of putting away bad teams, such as the couple of games against Cleveland and Chicago this past week. Bradley Beal posted a career-high 53 points in 39 minutes, but they still lost to the Bulls as the Wizards are still the worst defensive team in the NBA with their 115.2 defensive rating. Still, they’re not out of it, as Orlando only has a three-game lead over them for the eighth seed.
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22. Phoenix Suns (23-34, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)
Despite the Suns losing four of their last seven, DeAndre Ayton is living up to his No. 1 overall pick potential expected of him after draft day.Ayton has averaged 22.3 points and 13.9 rebounds in February and was two points and one rebound shy of a 30-20 game in Saturday’s win over Chicago.
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23. Chicago Bulls (20-38, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)
After Chicago’s survival of the Bradley Beal show in which Beal posted a career-high 53 points in the box score against the Bulls, rookie Coby White led his team in scoring with 33 points off the bench, making him the second rookie in franchise history to score 30+ points in consecutive games. The first to do so? Michael Jordan in 1984-85.
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24. Charlotte Hornets (19-37, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)
It’s been a tale of growing pains for such a young roster that James Borrego has had the task of molding into a respectable NBA lineup this year. Where there has been one leap of fortune, there’s been two slips of misfortune, and that’s just how the year has gone for these Hornets. Rookie PJ Washington and second/third year veterans in Miles Bridges and Malik Monkall helped the Hornets limit the Bulls to only 93 points last week, but then went on to get smacked by the Nets in a 29-point blowout on the road, as they shot 35.2% from the field while allowing a Kyrie Irving-less Nets team score 115 points on them.
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25. Atlanta Hawks (17-41, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)
Atlanta has been one of the hottest teams in the league since the break ended, going 2-1 and getting wins against some serious competition and playoff-bound squads in Miami and Dallas. Trae Young shot out of the gates like a cannon ball against the Heat, scoring a career-high 50 points off a respectable 12-of-25 shooting night. John Collins was the main scorer in their win over Dallas just nights later, matching his own career-high of 35 points and has six games with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in nine outings just this month.
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26. Detroit Pistons (19-40, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)
The Pistons are cleaning house, shipping both Markieff Morris and Reggie Jackson via buyout to both LA teams (Markieff to the Lakers, Jackson to the Clippers) in a move to get their younger guys some more playing time. But, the Pistons have lost six-straight games and don’t look favored in any of their future matchups for the rest of this year.
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27. New York Knicks (17-39, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)
Wayne Ellington’s decision to finish the season in a Knicks uniform is up in the air, but may happen this week as we inch closer to the March 1 waiver deadline. Ellington has appeared in only 28 games, shooting a career-low 35.8% from the field and is a considerable candidate to hit the market after signing a two-year, $16-million deal back in July.’
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28. Minnesota Timberwolves (16-39, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)
An entirely new rotation, Karl Anthony-Towns missing the next few weeks with a fractured wrist, and Ryan Saunders trying to materialize a new gameplan with all of these new variables hindering his T’Wolves’ ability to produce some positive results has been difficult, to say the least, but they’ve gotten good production from some of their newer add-ons, as Malik Beasley averaged 24 points per game and James Johnson turned in 14 combined steals and blocks over the past three games.
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29. Cleveland Cavaliers (15-41, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)
Isn’t it funny how one player or one coach can make you a title contender, and then in the blink of an eye, that coach or player leaves and then all of a sudden, you’re the worst team in your conference? That’s been the tale of these Cavaliers for the past two seasons, and even more so in the past couple of days as John Beilein stepped down from all coaching responsibilities while letting fellow assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff run all operations. Darius Garland and Collin sexton have struggled mightily in their first year together, and for a coach that was brought in to guide the young backcourt of the future, the Cavaliers are now on their fourth head coach in two seasons following Beilein’s resignation.
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30. Golden State Warriors (12-45, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)
While the Warriors look like the favorites to land the top draft pick in this year’s lottery, Steph Curry is eyeing his March 1 return. Obviously not for the reasons of a playoff push, but to probably see how well he meshes with the young pieces the Dubs have on the floor as a precursor to next year when they get Klay Thompson back from ACL rehab, and how the Splash Brothers gel with their new, drafted talent.
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