Larry’s injury sets the Cavs back.

You’d think it would be a lot easier to put together a power ranking with only four teams left in the NBA playoffs, but it’s not a breeze when teams look great one day and cooked the next. That said…

4. Cleveland Cavaliers — This is being written before Game 4. The Cavs are down 2-1, and now Larry Hughes is out with a torn plantar fascia. Daniel Gibson stepped his game up in Hughes’ place in Game 3, but can he maintain that for an entire game? Chauncey Billups is going to come at the kid hard, which may force Mike Brown to put Eric Snow on Chauncey. But then Snow hurts the Cavs on the offensive end. And you can’t do the offense-defense switch for 48 minutes.

3. Utah Jazz — Even if it weren’t being forced down our throats, we’d say Deron Williams is the breakout star of this round. At this point it’s hard to remember why Carlos Boozer was the only Utah player getting any MVP talk.

2. Detroit Pistons — It looked like the Pistons didn’t show any fire until the very latter stages of Game 3. Do they think they can cruise past the Cavs while half-asleep? If Cleveland takes Game 4, the Pistons have no choice but to wake up and pay attention when the series goes back to Motown.

1. San Antonio Spurs — Hate Manu Ginobili all you want (and the vast majority of the Dime office does), but he’s a very good player and he helps his team win championships. And how tough has Tony Parker had it this postseason? First Iverson, then Nash, now Deron Williams. And most likely after this, Chauncey Billups.