NC Power Rankings: The Cavaliers, Grizzlies Have Come to Contender Corner

Feb 8, 2015; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) celebrates on the court in the second quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

This was an exciting week in the NBA, with Atlanta beating Golden State in their titantic showdown, Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins hitting game winners, Russell Westbrook going for 45, 9, and 9, and Durant shooting molten lava from 3. It was also a sad week, with Blake Griffin being sidelined for a while by injury, and potential injuries to both of Dallas’ Tyson Chandler and Monta Ellis.

The result is weird and drastic movement all over this week’s power rankings. As top 5 staples the Clippers and Mavericks fall, several teams scramble to take their spots, including the red hot Cleveland Cavaliers, who finally have come together the way we hoped they would. The Bulls, Wizards, Rockets, and Spurs, too, have stopped sliding and finally settled into a reasonable spot, after impressive games from each squad.

These rankings are also a reminder that single games don’t determine the season, or even close to it: Atlanta may have beaten Golden State, but the Warriors have beaten everyone else they’ve played by 20+ points per 100 possessions lately, and while the Hawks certainly haven’t struggled lately they’re not beating bad teams by the margin they used to. The same goes for the Thunder and Pelicans. These rankings are about the long haul, so to speak.

Let’s check em out.

The Top Ten

1. Golden State Warriors: The Warriors lost to the Hawks, but after two losses last week have seemed to more or less get it back together now, winning every other game by around 20 points per 100 possessions or more. They still got docked for that Hawks loss pretty bad, but it turns out when the best offense and defense in the NBA is playing at or near potential they’re still the best team in the league.
2. Atlanta Hawks: The Hawks are sooooo good, and it’s so painful to have to put them in second place week after week, especially when they have a week like this one where they “dethroned” the Warriors. They’ve had a somewhat milder week otherwise though, where they’ve struggled to really put away other teams to the same degree they did in the middle of their win streak. That said, they’re still the runaway second best team in the league.
3. Memphis Grizzlies: While most of the other staples in the top 5 have faltered — the Mavericks and Clippers are now hurt on top of their slumps, and the Blazers are still trying to figure themselves out with these semi-hurt pieces — the Grizzlies have risen triumphant, screaming bloody murder on the corpses of their rivals. That may seem drastic, but this team is angry, ferocious, and has no time for mercy for the teams stumbling around them. They got discounted for the time around Z-Bo’s injury, but they’ve figured it out now. Watch out.
4. Cleveland Cavaliers: The Cavaliers keep getting better and better, a terrifying thought for teams like the Hawks who thought that they might be able to squeak by them — or avoid them entirely — easily in the playoffs. LeBron is back to shooting 73% around the rim over his last month, Kyrie Irving is a monstrous scoring demon, JR Smith is shooting great from everywhere and making plays, Mozgov has been a smart roll man and rim protector, and Kevin Love is regaining his 3 point form a bit. Watch out.
5. Oklahoma City Thunder: The Thunder really struggled last week, but they’ve played much better ball over their last week, even with their loss to the Pelicans, including an absolute smashing of the Griffin-less Clippers. This team very clearly has a lot of work to do and I imagine won’t be this high next week, but for now they look good.
6. Milwaukee Bucks: The Bucks just keep climbing, and are almost top 10! What a fun team and a fun story, a group of youngsters playing like a borderline elite organization behind their future franchise player who’s starting to go nuts. What a cool story. I’d hate to be the team that has to play the Bucks in the first round.
7. Portland Trailblazers: The Blazers are still floundering a bit as they try and weather Damian Lillard’s awful cold streak and the team figuring itself out around everyone’s injuries. Even with Robin Lopez, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Batum all playing, they’re all still shaking off rust if not worse. The All-Star break can’t come too soon for these guys.
8. Dallas Mavericks: Tyson Chandler and Monta Ellis were added to injured reserve for the Mavericks on top of Rajon Rondo who’s still managing his broken eye socket. There’s no word on how long either will be out, but that’s definitely not good news. It’s hard to get a read still on this team, who are as unpredictable as ever with Rondo not playing, getting a huge win over the Blazers in overtime and getting killed by the Griffin-less Clips.
9. Los Angeles Clippers: Griffin is out, and how the rest of their season goes is largely dependent on when he can get back. Their big win against the Mavs stopped a desperate slide downward for this team, and hopefully they can keep up that momentum going forward.
10. Detroit Pistons: With Jennings out, this team has become so absurdly bipolar. They beat good teams and bad teams by huge margins, but then get blown out by the likes of the Wolves. Their point differential has them at 10th, but boy, this is a weird team.

Other Teams of Note:

• Houston Rockets: Even with Dwight Howard out, the Rockets have been highly competitive in just about every game they’ve played, and credit goes to James Harden who does just about everything for this team. This team is ranked this highly because they’re really darn good, and they’re winning, too, and if they can keep it up for the rest of the season Harden should be a no-brainer MVP.
• Chicago Bulls: The Bulls have lost 4 of their last 5, including games against the Lakers and Magic, and only have a positive point differential over this stretch because of occasional blowout wins agains the likes of the Pelicans, like they did here. They keep winning against the league’s elite, so it’s hard to know where exactly they land, but they’re only this high because they embarrassed the Pels in the midst of their Davis-led streak. That embarrassment matters too though, and maybe is a sign of good things.
• Washington Wizards: They, like the Bulls, have only won 1 of their last 6 games, but that one win was a huggeee blowout, making it hard to really evaluate them. But, I mean, their point differential over the last 25 is actually pretty solid and blowouts matter. Maybe they shouldn’t be ranked this high, but maybe those huge wins mean about as much as the losing streaks.
• Toronto Raptors: The Raptors have been up and down these lists, largely because their game is so volatile and the gap between 10th place and 20th is so small. They’ve fallen now, behind a worse performance this week than last, but don’t be shocked if they move up again next week. They seem to have settled fairly comfortably as a “good, not great” team.
• New Orleans Pelicans: The Pelicans have won four of their last six, including an absolutely bonkers Anthony Davis 3-pointer to beat the Thunder. So it definitely feels like the Pels should be a bit higher. On the other hand, they lost badly to the Chicago Bulls, they lost twice this week, a major step down from last, and they don’t have the most inspiring point differential over their last 25. This will be a moment of reckoning for the Pelicans: if they can keep up the winning, they’ll shoot back up in no time, but was last week’s climb to the top 10 just a fluke?
• Brooklyn Nets: The Nets are so bad that they lost to the Wizards by over 40 points per 100 possessions, as their last game of the week, and the regression registered this week as an improvement over last week. That’s some serious badness. They’ve been a funny team lately though, beating horrible teams by only tiny margins and losing to good teams by only tiny margins. Some might even call them frisky.
• Minnesota Timberwolves: The Wolves have climbed not only out of the bottom 3, but all the way out of the bottom 6! Shocker, but the Wolves have been massively improved since getting Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, and Kevin Martin back from injury. They still don’t seem to be good, really, but they’re at least competitive, and they’re a sure sight better than they were. Fun Wolves are back!
• Sacramento Kings: This is the Kings’ first trip to the bottom 5, and that’s even including a bump for the George Karl hire. This team has been an abomination over their last 30+ games, and if you told me that they had a well over .500 record to start the season and I hadn’t seen it for myself, I would never believe you. Lets hope Karl can make a difference, because they need it. Badly.
• Philadelphia 76ers: The Sixers are still the second worst team here, but they’ve been pretty decent over their last bunch of games! They have a winning record over their last 7 games, including wins against the Hornets (a really good team!), Nuggets, Wolves, and Pistons. A lot of their losses are really bad, when they don’t have it, they really don’t have it, but they’ve turned a lot of nobodies into guys who would be real role player contributors for a contending team. They’re playing some fun basketball right now.