Power Rankings: Introducing the Super Six ... and the Other 24

Team Archives:

By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

It's official.

NBA

The committee (of one) has officially decreed that there are six elite teams in the NBA ... and thus in the ESPN.com NBA Power Rankings.

New Jersey erased any doubt by adding victories over Phoenix and Miami to its recent conquest of Detroit and stretching the league's longest active win streak to 12 games. Reaffirming their top-shelf status so emphatically moves the Nets to a season-high No. 3 in our weekly poll, with Detroit -- after beating the Mavericks and Suns last week -- seizing the top spot from San Antonio. It's the 15th time, in 22 regular-season Mondays, for the Pistons to sit at No. 1.

Read on to see where your team ranks, and click here to send me feedback. You also can click here to read my latest around-the-league weekend edition of the Daily Dime.

2005-06 Power Rankings: Week 22
RANK (LAST WK) TEAM REC. COMMENT
1 (2) Pistons 59-14 Beating Heat, Mavs and Suns in relatively quick succession takes Pistons to 9-4 against the rest of the top six ... and takes them back to No. 1.
2 (1) Spurs 57-16 Maybe he is feeling better: Duncan has scored 20 or more points in seven of the past 11 games. Before that? Just four times in all of 2006.
3 (5) Nets 44-28 Just a hunch: If Nets keep holding teams to 81 ppg, as they have been during their 12-game unbeaten run, this is going to wind up being bigger than a hot streak.
4 (3) Mavericks 55-19 Van Horn's broken hand means he's likely lost for the year. A 10-8 malaise means No. 1 in the West is looking all but lost as well for banged-up Mavs.
5 (4) Suns 49-24 Suns are just 7-7 since that 11-game win streak. But it's not as if they're going to panic now, remembering how they recovered from a 4-5 start.
6 (5) Heat 48-25 Thursday vs. Detroit is Heat's last chance to wow us before the playoffs. Sunday's loss to Nets dropped Miami to 2-11 against the committee's top five.
7 (10) Cavaliers 44-29 Don't know whether surging Cavs have the gas for a 6-3 finish ... but if LeBron can get them to 50 wins, he might just force himself into the MVP reckoning.
8 (7) Nuggets 41-33 The bad news? Nuggets are just 4-8 against the West's top three. The good news: They're also on the verge of the franchise's first division title since (gasp) 1988.
9 (9) Clippers 42-30 Only 10 games left, but we'll see Clips in potential playoff previews against both teams -- Denver once and Dallas twice -- they can be matched up with in Round 1.
10 (8) Grizzlies 42-32 Want more evidence that there's more to Pau's game than ever? The bearded Spaniard averaged almost six assists a game in March.
11 (11) Lakers 40-35 What a difference a Zenmeister makes? Last season's Lakers went 8-24 after the All-Star break. These Lakers are 14-9 and sure to finish over .500 now.
12 (13) Wizards 37-35 Wiz couldn't quite pull off a season sweep of Spurs, but a 3-3 trip out West -- painful as the last two games were -- keeps them in the lead for the No. 5 seed.
13 (15) Bucks 37-36 Turning that 15-zip start at Detroit into a win would have made it Bucks' best week of the season. But it was still pretty good, with wins over Suns and Pacers.
14 (14) Kings 38-36 Hate to spoil the mood, but the West's supposed spoilers are 5-5 since a 7-1 start to March and 21-12 since the Artest trade. In other words: good, but not yet fearsome.
15 (12) Pacers 35-37 Here's something no one can blame on Artest: Indy is an unforgivable 0-9 against Hawks, Raps and Celts, which is far worse than its current 6-12 slide.
16 (17) 76ers 34-38 Since that March 5 home collapse vs. Indy, Sixers are 4-9. What's left of Philly's lead goes if it can't win at least one of this week's two Sixers-Bulls ''showdowns.''
17 (18) Bulls 33-40 Bulls began their latest playoff ''push'' with a home loss last Tuesday to Orlando, but they sure picked the right race to be in because Philly keeps giving Chicago life.
18 (20) Hornets 35-37 Lord Byron's honesty isn't remembered fondly in Jersey, but it's working with Hornets, who are 3-0 since he said lots of them ''just quit'' in a rout at Utah.
19 (19) Jazz 35-38 AK-47 found a good way to get us to stop talking about his spouse, averaging five blocks in the past seven games to go with 18.9 ppg, 10.3 rpg and 4.6 apg.
20 (22) Magic 29-44 Brian Hill insists that his Magic are still in the playoff hunt. As limp as Sixers and Bulls look, it might not even be an exaggeration.
21 (25) Rockets 32-41 Almost no one knows Rockets' future GM, but Daryl Morey did attend Northwestern and MIT. Which, if nothing else, leads to an obvious nickname: Rocket Scientist.
22 (21) SuperSonics 30-43 Tough times: Wilcox averages a mere 14 and 6 in the five games after his two-game eruption ... and Hollinger brands Sonics ''worst defensive team ever.''
23 (23) Celtics 30-43 It's not an easy East for everybody: Since Pierce told his teammates they'd need a 15-6 finish to reach the playoffs, Celts are 4-8.
24 (26) Timberwolves 31-42 The other drama for KG's Wolves? Every loss increases their odds of landing a top-10 pick. If it's lower than No. 10, it goes to Clippers (gulp) as part of the Cassell deal.
25 (16) Warriors 30-42 So how do Warriors follow up road wins over Dallas and Sacto and 10-spot rise I'd like to take back? With a four-game losing streak, three of the losses at home.
26 (24) Raptors 26-47 Thank you, Toronto. The committee (of one) is touched to report that we haven't received one e-mail attacking our man Pape for the Bosh injury.
27 (27) Hawks 22-50 Hawks, I'm told, already have called the league office to make the request: More than four games against Indiana next season, please!
28 (28) Bobcats 20-54 The difference between Bobcats and the two teams below? Charlotte is still trying, as evidenced by the sudden release of Kareem Rush for not working hard enough.
29 (30) Knicks 19-53 No matter how bad it gets, ESPN research ace Michael Jackson always wants to talk Knicks. Which always makes me wonder: Do Knicks care as much as he does?
30 (29) Trail Blazers 20-53 Blazers have four wins since Feb. 1 ... in 30 tries. Which means I can't even put them ahead of a Knicks team that had four wins in March.

ESPN Conversation


Find Tickets:

Season tickets or single game tickets, all the best seats are here.

See all tickets