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What do you do when the Celtics and the Lakers lose a home game on the same night but otherwise wow you throughout the course of a week?

Nothing.

There can be no change in the top two spots of ESPN.com's NBA Power Rankings when the Celtics offset the damage of Friday night's home defeat to Denver with come-from-behind home victories over Toronto and Atlanta and an overtime road win over the improving Milwaukee Bucks. L.A. had indeed set itself up to reclaim the No. 1 overall ranking from Boston with an impressive back-to-back road sweep of Dallas and New Orleans -- in the first challenging sequence of the Lakers' schedule -- until it lost Friday night to Detroit, persuading the committee (of one) to leave the summit of the rankings untouched.

Turns out that the top four spots in our weekly, fully unautomated pulse check of the league remain unchanged, with the Pistons and Denver Nuggets making the most notable surges into the top six. Click here to rank the teams yourself or click here to comment.

Tune in Tuesday to "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see this week's U.S. Army Power Rankings.

2008-09 Power Rankings: Week 3
RANK (LAST WK)		TEAM	REC.	COMMENT
	1 (1)	Celtics	9-2	I hear folks chirping about Boston's recent lackluster starts and thinking they've found vulnerability. Fine. We prefer to focus on the strong finishes that netted a 7-1 record during a sapping span of eight games in 12 days.
	2 (2)	Lakers	7-1	Seemed headed back to No. 1 after the way they mowed through the Mavs and Hornets. Yet that home loss to Detroit reminds you, amid all the runaway hype, that L.A. has lots to prove against teams that can bang.
	3 (3)	Cavaliers	8-2	Ever since the committee (of one) had an audience with King James recently and gently chided him about his early lack of scoring, LeBron has averaged a mere 34.1 ppg ... and his Cavs are 7-0. We're just saying.
	4 (4)	Suns	8-3	Good weekend, in the end, for the Suns. They fumed when Nash was suspended and T-Mac wasn't, but Houston lost with T-Mac in the lineup Friday. Phoenix beat Sactown sans Nash, then Detroit in Nash's return.
	5 (9)	Pistons	7-3	We figure Detroit can live with its 3-3 start to the Iverson era after going to L.A. and knocking the Lakers from the ranks of the unbeaten. But check back after this week's back-to-back games against Cleveland and Boston.
	6 (12)	Nuggets	6-4	Victory in Boston, a 5-1 start to the Billups era and now a move into the top 10, blemished only by a loss to the hottest team in the league at Cleveland? Sounds like the Nuggets are your U.S. Army Team of the Week.
	7 (10)	Magic	7-3	Early road success, if you'll recall, is what unexpectedly propelled Orlando into the top 10 before Thanksgiving last season. The Magic just showed us they remember with a 3-0 trip, including their first W in Dallas in a decade.
	8 (5)	Hawks	6-3	They were one stop away from an epic win in Boston that would have forced us to stamp them as legit top-five material. Now? After back-to-back losses to the Nets, it's official: Atlanta misses the injured Josh Smith.
	9 (11)	Rockets	6-4	Look at the mighty Southwest Division, starting with your first-place (and annoyingly inconsistent) Rockets. Dare we say none of the five teams in what is supposed to be the NBA's toughest division is happy with its start.
	10 (6)	Hornets	5-4	Much of the conference that has owned this millennium, Lakers aside, is in flux . . . starting right here. You certainly can pardon losses to the Hawks, Lakers and Rockets if you wish, but, well, our Hornets bar is pretty high.
	11 (14)	Trail Blazers	6-4	Q: Will Roy's buzzer-beating heave to beat Houston go down as the shot that started Portland's season? Q2: Shouldn't the injury-obsessed media be making a much bigger deal about Oden's two straight quality showings?
	12 (8)	Jazz	6-4	Won't overanalyze a 1-4 trip impacted by so many high-profile absentees. Our dismay stems from the fact that D-Will is back on the shelf after being rushed back ... after we all were told that he wouldn't be rushed back.
	13 (7)	Raptors	5-4	Encouraged as they are by J. O'Neal's three straight double-doubles -- and a fine fill-in effort from Will Solomon in Sunday's win over Miami -- it'll be tough for the Raps to enjoy much until they know Calderon is fully healthy.
	14 (15)	Bulls	5-5	Derrick Rose's team -- is it too soon to refer to the Bulls that way? -- heads out now on its infamous November Circus Trip with five wins. Know how many times that has happened since His Airness left in 1998? Zero.
	15 (18)	76ers	5-5	It worked for the Sixers just as it worked for Orlando: We called Philly out in this cyberspace for its unacceptable underachieving and the Sixers responded with a 3-0 week. So, America . . . whom should we blast next?
	16 (13)	Pacers	4-5	Dunleavy's ongoing absence hurts a lot, as did that 26-point blown lead at home to Philly. But the Pacers are making some progress, too. Only 4-25 last season when failing to score 100 points, this season they're 3-3.
	17 (21)	Bucks	5-6	An 82-78 win over the Spurs, no matter how banged up they are, has to be the early highlight of Scott Skiles' quest to toughen up the Bucks. In its past 74 games holding teams to 82 points or fewer, San Antonio is 72-2.
	18 (25)	Spurs	4-5	That's more like it. Even without Tony and Manu, these guys clearly were insulted by their humbling drop and are starting to resemble the Spurs again, holding four straight foes to less than 90 points in a 3-1 response.
	19 (23)	Nets	4-5	How do you bounce back from getting punked on YouTube by an English chap who hustled you in a sweater? If you're Devin Harris, you string together three consecutive 30-point games after never scoring 30 before.
	20 (16)	Knicks	6-4	I suppose we should point out that the six teams New York has beaten are a combined 18-37. But haven't Knicks fans suffered enough? Thanks to D'Antoni, this team is watchable again. That's enough for now, isn't it?
	21 (17)	Heat	5-5	Make that two Mondays in a row that the D-Wade Show checks in at .500. The reality check: Miami's five victims are a combined 18-28 and Beasley might be fourth in the ROY race thanks to Rose, Mayo and Fernandez.
	22 (24)	Mavericks	3-7	To all those fourth-quarter collapses you can add a fourth-quarter (plus OT) escape from New York. Yet this is still Dallas' worst start since last century, when the Mavs opened 2-8 in Nowitzki's rookie season in 1999.
	23 (27)	Warriors	4-6	Of all the Golden State madness lately, can anything top this Morrow kid upstaging Baron, Maggette and everyone else in the Warriors-Clippers reunion with 37 points ... after scoring 23 in his first three NBA games?
	24 (19)	Bobcats	3-6	Did the heat on D.J. Augustin just get raised? New Jersey's Brook Lopez hit Atlanta for 25 points, 9 boards and 4 blocks, Charlotte is trying to trade for a big man and Larry Brown pushed for Augustin over Lopez on draft day.
	25 (22)	Grizzlies	3-7	This was the first time in Memphis or Vancouver that the Grizz started 2-0 at home. The mojo didn't last, but Mayo's 210 points in his first 10 NBA games can be beat by only two active players: Shaq (238) and AI (224).
	26 (20)	Kings	4-7	There's no time to dissect home losses to Detroit, Phoenix and San Antonio by a mere 12 points combined, all without Kevin Martin, when co-owner Joe Maloof is so publicly (and loudly) putting heat on his coach.
	27 (28)	Wizards	1-6	Arenas blogs that it's too soon to panic since Novembers are always like this for the Wiz, insisting that "December is when we kick it in." Of course, Arenas says in the same entry that we likely won't see him before January.
	28 (26)	Clippers	1-8	My first question about what's happening in Clipperland: Why did it take a column in the Los Angeles Times by our buddy Bill Plaschke to get everyone sitting down and talking about what look like pretty obvious problems?
	29 (29)	Thunder	1-9	If a 1-9 start hasn't dampened local enthusiasm any, this might: Chris Paul arrives Friday night for an ESPN game as a visiting player when OKC's new kids face the team and lovable PG that used to belong to this town.
	30 (30)	Timberwolves	1-8	Don't want to alarm a fan base still coping with KG winning a title in his first season away from 'Sota . . . but the previous team to lose eight straight after starting 1-0 was the 2003-04 Magic, who went from 1-0 to (gulp) 1-19.