Starbury has the Knicks movin’ upTwo of the Hit List’s regular bottom-feeders have moved up after posting recent win streaks, while one of the usual Top 2 drops a spot … after losing to one of the bottom-feeders. Make enough sense? We’ll sort it all out in this week’s power ranking…
30. Memphis Grizzlies — It almost wouldn’t be fair if Kevin Durant or Greg Oden landed in the Western Conference. The Grizzlies need to win more games and lessen those Lottery balls to give the East a chance.
29. Charlotte Bobcats — Six straight losses, but at least Adam Morrison was shown a lot of love on his Northwest comeback tour. He scored 12 in Portland and 17 in Seattle. Both losses, of course.
28. Atlanta Hawks — Josh Smith recently became the youngest player in NBA history to crack 500 career blocks, currently sitting at 502 through Monday. And of those 502, a good 433 were of the spectacular variety.
27. Boston Celtics — Overtime wins over the Wolves and Nets puts the C’s at four straight wins through Monday. Reigning Eastern Conference Player of the Week Al Jefferson has been an animal: 23 ppg and 14 rpg during the win streak.
26. Milwaukee Bucks — It seems the only defender that can stop Michael Redd is the rim. When he gave the Bulls 52 points over the weekend, it was like he was shooting in a gym by himself despite having Kirk Hinrich draped all over him. When Redd went 3-for-16 the next night against Orlando, it wasn’t because of better D.
25. Golden State Warriors — They looked absolutely horrible until that win over the Pistons on Monday, getting 30-pieced by Chicago and 20-pieced by Milwaukee to lowlight a 7-game skid.
24. Portland Trail Blazers — LaMarcus Aldridge probably started a fantasy stampede when he dropped 30 points on the ‘Cats last week. Then he shot 1-for-12 in his next game.
23. Philadelphia 76ers — Four straight wins, including one over the Suns. Impressive. And don’t start having Terrapins flashbacks yet, but Joe Smith has posted double-doubles in his last two games.
22. Seattle Supersonics — Rashard Lewis is averaging 27 ppg in his last four. Which has to make Sonics fans sick that he turned down the team’s reported two-year, $25 million extension offer.
21. Minnesota Timberwolves — Between KG, Ricky Buckets, Mark Blount, Mike James, Randy Foye and Troy Hudson, they have the scorers. But who passes them the ball? Imagine how sick this squad could be with someone like Andre Miller distributing the rock?
20. Orlando Magic — Seven losses in their last nine. But every time you wanna write this team off, they do something like hang in there with Dallas until late in the fourth or beat the Spurs.
19. New York Knicks — With David Lee on the shelf (ankle), Renaldo Balkman stepped into his shoes, putting up 12 points and 13 boards in NYK’s last game. Meanwhile, Stephon Marbury has been killin’ on the low, putting up 28 points a night in his last five. You didn’t forget that Steph is one of the most talented players in the League, did you?
18. Los Angeles Clippers — Sneaking into the playoffs seemed impossible earlier this year, but the Clips are right there for that 8th seed out West.
17. Sacramento Kings — Kevin Martin’s Western Conference Player of the Week (29 ppg in his last five) was of course overshadowed by more Ron Artest drama.
16. New Jersey Nets — Consecutive losses to Boston and Philly was a bad way to go into a brutal Southwest road trip: Jersey has the Mavs, Rockets, Spurs, Grizzlies and Hornets coming up.
15. New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets — Tyson Chandler is on his way to being a solid 15-15 guy. If Chicago knew he could play like this, would they have traded him for what now amounts to P.J. Brown and couple second-rounders?
14. Indiana Pacers — Here’s what we said about this group last week: “Since Jan. 30, the Pacers have won three straight, lost three, won three, and currently are on a two-game skid. If that pattern holds, Indy will lose to Phoenix on Tuesday (its third loss in a row), then turn around and knock the Suns off this Friday. We’ll see.” Indy actually lost both games to Phoenix, then put up an Indiana Hoosiers-like 64 points in a loss to the Clippers. That makes five losses in a row.
13. Denver Nuggets — They’ve lost five of their last seven, but in the Nuggets’ defense, four of those Ls were to Houston, Dallas, Utah and San Antonio.
12. Miami Heat — The good news is that D-Wade plans to come back this year. The better news is that even if he can’t, Shaq is starting to round into Diesel mode. He was vintage in hanging 31 and 15 on the Pistons last week.
11. Toronto Raptors — An impressive win over the Rockets was followed by an inexplicable loss to the Bucks and a waxing at the hands of LeBron. We’ll learn something about the Raps when they play at Washington … and maybe even more when they follow that up the next day in a classic letdown game against Memphis.
10. Washington Wizards — Two wins in a row after getting Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler back, even if both Ws were by one point and that call against the Warriors was kinda iffy.
9. Los Angeles Lakers — Getting Kwame back doesn’t exactly make up for losing Lamar Odom, Luke Walton and Vlad “X-Games” Radmanovic. Someone needs to step up and alleviate the load on Kobe. It it Brian Cook? Smush? Scottie?
8. Cleveland Cavaliers — The boards and dimes are down, but LeBron has been filling it up at an Iceman-like clip lately: in his last eight games he’s scoring 33 points a night.
7. Chicago Bulls — Ben Gordon has been out of his mind lately. In his last five games he’s dropping 30 points a night, hitting 55 percent from the floor and 51 percent from deep. He was simply unstoppable in hanging a 48-piece on the Bucks over the weekend.
6. Houston Rockets — Yao is back, and Houston desperately missed him in recent losses to the Spurs (Duncan) and Raptors (Bosh). With Dikembo Mutombo playing at a high level and Juwan Howard turning back the clock every now and then, this front like just got very formidable.
5. Detroit Pistons — Top to bottom, when everyone’s healthy, who has a more talented starting five? Chauncey, Rip, Tayshaun, ‘Sheed and C-Webb have won 12 of their last 15.
4. Utah Jazz — As the great DJ Quik taught us, it’s all about Balance & Options. In winning 12 of their last 15 games, the Jazz get different guys to step up each night, from Deron Williams and Mehmet Okur to Matt Harpring and Derek Fisher. Even Gordan Giricek has balled out a couple times.
3. Phoenix Suns — Every time they lose, you can point to an injury as the culprit. Last week’s L in Philly came without Shawn Marion in the lineup. The three Ls previous were back when Steve Nash was out. When the Suns are fully healthy, who’s going to stop them?
2. San Antonio Spurs — Bringing Manu off the bench looks like a genius move for Coach Pop, but the real story here has been the defense. During San Antonio’s current 9-game win streak, they’ve allowed more than 82 points only twice. Bruce Bowen is the linchpin on this D; will he finally get his Defensive Player of the Year nod?
1. Dallas Mavericks — The first team to hit the 50-win mark has won 15 in a row going into Tuesday’s game against the Nets. They don’t play again until they travel to Kobe’s place on Sunday. Can too much rest be a bad thing when you’re this hot?
Related posts:
