Power Rankings: Cavs, Magic move past Celtics

Team Archives:
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

Make that six straight Mondays atop ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The newsiest Week 20 developments are found elsewhere in the top 10, with Cleveland (No. 2) and Orlando (No. 3) bumping Boston down to No. 4, San Antonio inching back into the top five and Atlanta making an unexpected jump to No. 9 -- its highest position since Week 10 -- which dropped Denver to No. 11.

That's the Nuggets' lowest position since the second Monday of the regular season, just one week into the Chauncey Billups era.

You can click here to rank the teams yourself and click here to comment.

Also, check out John Hollinger's daily NBA Power Rankings.

Tune in Tuesdays to "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see this week's U.S. Army Power Rankings. The Hawks are the U.S. Army Team of the Week after sweeping three Western Conference playoff teams (New Orleans, Utah and Portland) at home in a 4-0 week.

2008-09 Power Rankings: Week 20
RANK (LAST WK) TEAM REC. COMMENT
1 (1) Lakers 53-13 They swept Houston and San Antonio back to back and see the West's top two presumed challengers (Spurs and Jazz) on course to beat each other up in the first round. I'd say the Lakers are over their Portland debacle.
2 (3) Cavaliers 53-13 Two reasons to look forward to Tuesday's duel with Orlando: LeBron is a triple-double threat every night now . . . and the Cavs have something to prove at a mere 2-5 against the Lakers, Magic, Celtics and Spurs.
3 (4) Magic 49-17 That deadline-day deal for Alston is looking better by the day. The Magic are 10-3 since they landed our buddy Jack's favorite player ... 10-1 if you throw out two games against the one team (Detroit) in their heads.
4 (2) Celtics 50-17 The ongoing injury crisis that could drop the champs to No. 3 in the East and restrict them to home-court advantage in Round 1 can't surprise you. The Celts were due for some turbulence after a wire-to-wire title run.
5 (6) Spurs 44-21 Can't see the Spurs losing their grip on the West's No. 2 seed no matter how much longer Manu sits. But second-best in the West is realistically San Antonio's ceiling if Manu and TD don't start moving smoothly fairly soon.
6 (7) Rockets 43-25 If trashing-talking Kobe into a fourth-quarter frenzy that robbed the Rockets of a nice home win over the Lakers proves to be the biggest problem Artest causes all season, I'm guessing Houston will live with that.
7 (8) Hornets 41-24 They look like the Hornets again with Chandler back -- 30-13 when he plays, 11-11 when he doesn't -- but you wonder how much Chris Paul and D-West will have left for the playoffs given the loads they're lugging.
8 (5) Jazz 41-26 Everyone's favorite sleeper in the West has three problems even when healthy. Utah's team D and ability to win on the road still are suspect ... and the Jazz still have no answer for Kobe even if they get that far.
9 (12) Hawks 39-28 Bad as it is to hear that Josh Smith and Woody are butting heads anew, we should probably note that Atlanta has quietly started 5-0 on its seven-game homestand, dropping Detroit, New Orleans, Portland and Utah.
10 (10) Trail Blazers 41-25 The Blazers were always too good at home to be in any real danger of slipping out of the top eight ... but they're also still too young and flimsy on D to be viewed as a threat to win a first-round series. Concur?
11 (9) Nuggets 42-25 Having nine more games against sub-.500 foes will help, but the Nuggets' true saving grace after that 3-8 nosedive might be the six straight wins (three this season) they've somehow managed in one-point games.
12 (13) Heat 36-30 The way D-Wade is balling, Miami might not need home-court advantage to win a round in the playoffs. Especially when you factor in all of his experience and the rest he'll get in the playoffs with no back-to-backs.
13 (11) Mavericks 40-27 On one hand, things can't be too bad if you're responsible for inflicting two of Portland's mere six losses at home. On the other hand, it can't be good at all that the Mavs still look like they can't deal with Golden State.
14 (14) Suns 36-31 After the way the week started, with Phoenix losing at home to Dallas and the Mavs following that up with a win in Portland, it looked like the Suns were fried. They actually still have a little bit of hope. Not much, but a little.
15 (15) Pistons 33-32 If Orlando winds up with the East's No. 2 record, Detroit will happily settle for the No. 7 seed. If Orlando gets the No. 3 seed, Detroit will be hoping for the No. 6 slot. Dare we say Orlando is wishing against both scenarios.
16 (21) 76ers 33-31 Philly must have been geeked Sunday to see a weary Wade, but we're ticked. It robbed us of an easy comment about the Sixers hoping to finish the season at the Spectrum after how the Chicago game turned out.
17 (22) Knicks 28-38 If there are any more nights like Friday in the Knicks' future -- they triumphed on the road in Minneapolis and the other five teams chasing No. 8 in the East all lost -- we wrote off their playoff chances prematurely.
18 (17) Bulls 30-37 Given how low the bar is -- as well as the fact that Chicago appears to have the easiest remaining schedule of any team trying to snag No. 8 in the East -- Rose might be docked ROY points if the Bulls don't make it in.
19 (20) Bucks 31-38 Looks like the Bucks, on top of their own bid to snag the East's final playoff berth, have a huge role to play in the race for the top three seeds. Of the 13 games left on Milwaukee's schedule, three are against Orlando.
20 (16) Bobcats 28-38 Larry Brown's kind of season: He has used 23 players and can make it 24 if Dontell Jefferson gets into a game for the Bobs before the end of his 10-day contract. The single-season record for one team is 27 players.
21 (18) Pacers 28-40 The double-digit lead blown at Atlanta tied Toronto's league-leading 14 blown double-digit leads. Not that Pacer People can even contemplate on-court matters when the team's future in Indy is suddenly so questionable.
22 (19) Nets 28-38 Losing tight road games to the Warriors and Clippers didn't eliminate the Nets from playoff contention. But they sure wiped out any remaining belief that this team is a much tougher out when it's not playing in Jersey.
23 (25) Warriors 23-43 They are better than you think at home (17-16) and a passable 9-7 when Monta plays. But it's pretty tough to take the Warriors seriously when Steve Nash plays just 23 minutes and the Suns still score 154 on them.
24 (24) Raptors 24-43 The Raps are only 3-8 since their big February trade. One theory: This team had pretty much checked out by the time Shawn Marion finally got to Canada. Says a fuming Mr. Matrix: "I didn't come here for this."
25 (23) Thunder 18-48 No one would dare claim for a second that the Thunder are better without Durant or that the competition during their 5-2 surge without him was as good as February's. OKC's defense was stingier without him, though.
26 (28) Grizzlies 17-48 Reading Professor Hollinger's claim that O.J. Mayo isn't even the best rookie on his own team hasn't quite sold me ... but it does make me feel better for pushing so hard to have young Gasol on the All-Star ballot.
27 (29) Wizards 16-51 The Wiz have their own quest now after dropping Sacramento to 0-26 against the East. They'll be the first team ever to go winless in divisional play unless they can beat Charlotte (March 25) or Miami (April 4).
28 (26) Timberwolves 20-46 It's true that the Wolves' 3-19 collapse started before Big Al went down, with six losses in the final seven games he played. But you can't change our minds. We will continue to lobby for McHale to stay on the bench.
29 (30) Clippers 16-50 The magic formula: All my Clips needed to finally break through for their first win this month was a Devin Harris injury, seven 3s -- including a buzzer-beater -- from Steve Novak and a scathing Simmons column.
30 (27) Kings 14-52 They almost beat the Cavs at home. But then they couldn't beat the Wiz on the road. Just admit it: The drama of the Kings' quest to finally win a game against Eastern Conference opposition has thoroughly sucked you in.

ESPN Conversation


Find Tickets:

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

See all tickets