Kevin Garnett (photo. Gary Land)

Our weekly NBA power ranking, from worst to first. Interestingly enough, the Six Degrees of Ricky Davis applies to both.

30. Los Angeles Clippers (1-8) — The Curse of Ricky Davis lives. At some point the rest of the NBA will catch on that every team Ricky goes to, no matter how good they look on paper, no matter how much or little he plays (21 minutes, 5.2 points per game this year), finds themselves looking up at the rest of the League. He’s the new Isiah Thomas.

29. Oklahoma City Thunder (1-9) — E-mail exchange during last week’s OKC/Knicks game:
Pat: “The World’s Biggest Goth Kid isn’t that bad.”
Austin: “Yes he is.”

28. Minnesota Timberwolves (1-8) — At least they’re losing close games. Mike Miller is shooting it well, knocking down 51% from the field and 42% from three, he’s just not shooting enough. In his last three games he’s averaging 9.3 points on 7.0 field goal attempts.

27. Washington Wizards (1-6) — Gilbert Arenas clearly hasn’t had a problem staying in the news. Nice work at $14.5 million annually if you can get it.

26. Memphis Grizzlies (3-7) — Four losses in a row, including one where they gave up 132 points to the Knicks at home. So how low do they have to go before Hamed Haddadi is allowed on the court? He’s gotta be able to block a shot or two.

25. Charlotte Bobcats (3-6) — Don’t look now, but Adam Morrison has been a solid scorer off the bench for them. Last week he averaged 15 points in three games, hitting 51% from the field. It’s entire possible this could be his ceiling in the NBA, so that technically makes him a bust for a No. 3 overall pick, but at least we know he can be a contributor.

24. Golden State Warriors (4-6) — Last summer Marco Belinelli was tearing up the summer league and looking like a threat to at least be an All-Rookie pick. A year later, who would have known Belinelli would become the Italian J.J. Redick? “Free Marco” shirts should be popping up in Oracle Arena crowd any day now.

23. Sacramento Kings (4-7) — Back-to-back losses at Arco to the Suns and Spurs by a combined four points that included backbreaking game-winning shots by Amare and Duncan, respectively. On the positive side, John Salmons has been thriving (again) in Kevin Martin’s absence, dropping 31 on the Spurs and 21 on Phoenix.

22. Dallas Mavericks (3-7) — Losers of five in a row before Dirk Nowitzki (39 pts, 15 rebs) put them on his back at MSG on Sunday to pull out a win.

21. San Antonio Spurs (4-5) — Bruce Bowen is rapidly heading toward that hockey-goon phase of his career, where his best bet is to hopefully agitate his opponent into getting kicked out of the game. This is known in basketball as the Frank Brickowski Zone.

20. Milwaukee Bucks (5-6) — Luke Ridnour (11.9 ppg, 5.4 apg) and Ramon Sessions (15.9 ppg, 5.3 apg) aren’t doing bad as the League’s smallest backcourt this side of Cleveland, but when Michael Redd comes back they’ll have to resume their battle for the starting point guard job.

19. Miami Heat (5-5) — Who’s playing better than D-Wade right now? He’s putting up 27.9 points, 7.3 dimes, 5.2 boards, 2.7 steals and 1.6 blocks per game, but an ankle tweak suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Raptors could slow him down this week.

18. Atlanta Hawks (6-3) — Hard to put them ahead of the Nets when they just lost to them twice in a row and made Devin Harris look like Nate Archibald circa 1973.

17. New Jersey Nets (4-5) — It’s pretty simple. Devin Harris has averaged 33.6 points in his last three games, all wins against ‘08 playoff teams. In the three-game stretch between those wins where he sat out with an ankle injury, the Nets went 0-3 against ‘08 Lottery teams.

16. Indiana Pacers (4-5) — It’s pretty simple. When they turn the ball over, they lose. When they protect the ball (or as Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro kept screaming during Saturday’s Chicago/Indy game, “VALUE THE BALL! VALUE THE BALL!”), they win.

15. Philadelphia 76ers (5-5) — With the Wolves, Clippers, Warriors and Bobcats up next on the schedule, Philly has a good chance to put together a nice little run. They’ve already won three in a row.

14. Chicago Bulls (5-5) — They’re on the road for the rest of the month: Lakers, Portland, Golden State, Denver, Utah, San Antonio and Philadelphia. Big test for a young team and its young point guard.

13. New York Knicks (6-4) — Their record seems a little paper-thin; four of their six wins have come against the Thunder, Grizzlies, Bobcats and Wizards. We’ll see what the Knicks are made of when they travel to Boston tomorrow, the site of one of last season’s low points where they lost to the C’s by about 85 points.

12. Toronto Raptors (5-4) — There’s only one guy in the NBA currently averaging at least 25 points and 10 rebounds a night. Care to take a guess? Hint: It ain’t Hassan Adams.

11. Utah Jazz (5-4) — Deron Williams or no Deron Williams, a 2-4 record on the road that includes losses to the Knicks, Bobcats and Wizards does not look good for an alleged championship contender.

10. Denver Nuggets (6-4) — The team is 5-1 since the Chauncey trade, and that’s with Chauncey connecting on just 35% of his shots from the field. He’s been making them when they count, like the three-point dagger against the Wolves on Sunday, but when he really finds his shot the Nuggets will be real dangerous.

9. Orlando Magic (7-3) — Winning on the road the same night Dwight Howard plays the worst game you’ll see him play all season (4 pts, 6 fouls) and the rest of the guys shoot a collective 26% beyond the arc is actually a good sign. Or a sign of how bad the Bobcats are.

8. Portland Trail Blazers (6-4) — He’s not throwing up superstar numbers, but everyone in the Blazers organization would be thrilled to see Greg Oden continue putting up 12 points, 9.5 boards and 3.5 blocks for the rest of the year, as he’s done in the last two games, so long as he’s consistently on the court.

7. New Orleans Hornets (5-4) — A couple weeks ago we said the Hornets offense looked unstoppable. Then Josh Smith and the Hawks shut them down on Nov. 5, and since then New Orleans has only cracked 100 points once. In fact, they’ve only cracked 90 once.

6. Houston Rockets (6-4) — Against the Lakers and Spurs last week (losses), T-Mac shot 3-for-23. Against the Hornets and Suns (wins) he knocked down 16-for-30. He can find some consistency and have a week’s worth of good games against leaky defenses in Oklahoma City, Dallas and Washington.

5. Detroit Pistons (7-3) — Wasn’t Rodney Stuckey supposed to be killing it by now? Granted, he’s had some health issues along the way, but everyone (including the Pistons) had to be expecting more than 9.0 points and 3.1 assists per game.

4. Phoenix Suns (8-3) — Shaq and Amare are playing as well as any frontcourt tandem in the League, but they’ll be tested this week: Utah (Boozer, Okur, Millsap) tonight, the Lakers (Bynum, Gasol) on Thursday, and Portland (Oden, Aldridge) on Saturday.

3. Boston Celtics (9-2) — Between the Calderon incident and the Bogut incident, it seems we’re seeing a fan backlash against Kevin Garnett. He’s officially gone from lovable underdog to one of the privileged few that’s easy to hate on.

2. Los Angeles Lakers (7-1) — You didn’t expect them to run the table, did you? A single loss isn’t so bad; it’s more disturbing that we saw Bad Teammate Kobe come out during the Detroit game to replace Good Teammate Kobe. We’ll see how this plays out, but it’s always best for the next few days if Pau Gasol doesn’t drop any passes and Sasha Vujacic doesn’t do anything dumb.

1. Cleveland Cavaliers (8-2) — Believe it. Winners of seven in a row, with a big test coming up at Detroit on Wednesday. You don’t wanna make it all about LeBron, but have you seen him? An NBA-high 29.8 points, 8.0 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and one “If you like having a forearm, don’t even think about challenging this” dunk per game.