Updated: February 11, 2013, 1:27 PM ET

Power Rankings: Spurs still No. 1

Week:
 
Team:
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Monday, Feb. 11

There isn't a whole lot of change where it matters most in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings. San Antonio, Miami and Oklahoma City -- in whatever order -- are the league's consensus top three teams.

The real twist in the conversation, for those of you who dare to take your eyes off the forthcoming Feb. 21 trade deadline, is the way LeBron James has somehow managed to take his game up a notch or three since the calendar flipped to February. And how San Antonio's Tony Parker and Houston's James Harden are doing the same in their own right.

Parker's brilliance, amid the ongoing injury interruptions faced by Tim Duncan (knee) and Manu Ginobili (hamstring), has kept the Spurs atop the rankings for the third successive Monday. LeBron, meanwhile, has nudged the defending champs from Miami ahead of the equally excellent Kevin Durant's Oklahoma City Thunder with his hard-to-fathom numbers this month. As for Harden: Durant's bearded buddy, with his own gaudy numbers lately, has willed the Rockets into the top 10 for just the second time all season.

The rankings, as always, were compiled with peerless assisting from ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau. Click here to rank the teams yourself.

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

2012-13 Power Rankings: Week 15
RANKTEAM / RECORD TRENDINGCOMMENTS
1
--

Last Week: 1		The good news: For the fourth time in the Pop era, San Antonio is the first team to win 40 games. The bad news: Only one of the past seven teams to do so (Boston in 2007-08) reached the NBA Finals. The best news: Tony is playing the best ball of his life ... with or without Timmy and Manu.
2
Miami
34-14
1
Last Week: 3		We're no dummies here. If LeBron James keeps shooting 70 percent from the field and 60 percent from the 3-point line, like he's doing in this fairy-tale February, any previous suggestions (here or otherwise) that Kevin Durant had nosed past The King in the MVP race are fully null and void.
3
1
Last Week: 2		The previous week was about as bad as it ever gets for OKC thanks to an L in Cleveland and the Russell Westbrook blowup that preceded it. So how do the Thunder respond? Four straight W's by 21 or more, building some decent momentum to take into the Valentine's Day biggie with Miami.
4
Denver
33-19
--

Last Week: 4		Before its triple-overtime heartbreak in Boston, Denver won nine straight games and reached the 100-point plateau in all of them to rise to No. 4 in the West at last. You have to rewind all the way to the 1987-88 season for the last time that the Nuggets pulled that off.
5
1
Last Week: 6		The Clips have slipped to seventh in offensive efficiency and sixth in defensive efficiency after those l-o-n-g nine games without CP3. They were on the short list of teams in the top five of both categories, alongside San Antonio, before all the injuries. So let's see how long it takes 'em to return.
6
Indiana
31-20
1
Last Week: 7		The joy of sweeping the NBA's only back-to-back-to-back set of the season -- after we saw 42 of 'em in 2011-12 following the lockout -- was slightly diluted by the OT loss at home to Toronto that gave the Raps some payback for the way Indy stole one on their floor back on opening night.
7
Memphis
32-18
1
Last Week: 8		The ball movement has picked up since Rudy Gay's departure. The team's attitude has been a lot better, too, since Lionel Hollins finally came out Friday and admitted that it's incumbent on the coach to set the moving-on tone for his team. No more time to waste given how hot Denver is.
8
3
Last Week: 5		So much for prosperity. After Andrew Bogut's return vaulted the Dubs into the uppermost crust of these rankings last Monday, their ensuing 0-4 road trip -- after Golden State had gone .500 or better on every previous multigame trip this season -- made it a very short stay in the top five.
9
Houston
28-25
3
Last Week: 12		James Harden never gave us a chance to revel in the one-year anniversary of Linsanity because he's having the best February of anyone not named LeBron or Tony Parker. And the Rockets, following his bearded lead, are blitzing teams again to jump to eighth in average point differential (plus-3.0).
10
--

Last Week: 10		Charles Barkley keeps saying, over and over, that he's not a "Knicks believer." History, unfortunately, makes it hard to disagree with him, with New York averaging an NBA-high 29 3s per game and only two teams ever winning it all (Houston in '93-94 and '94-95) after leading in that category.
11
Chicago
30-20
2
Last Week: 9		It's getting harder and harder to resist projecting what the Bulls will look like when Derrick Rose comes back. One big reason for that: Chicago already has the best intraconference record in the East at a tidy 23-9. Which goes rather nicely with the East's best road record (15-9).
12
Boston
27-23
5
Last Week: 17		The mood is lighter and happier. The ball movement backs up both claims. Boston is bound to miss Rajon Rondo (and Jared Sullinger) eventually, but there's no denying that the Celts have found their team spirit without their All-Star PG in their first win streak this long since early in 2010-11.
13
1
Last Week: 14		The Lakers have 18 road L's before the All-Star break for the first time since 1977-78. They're also 6-10 without Pau Gasol this season, which suggests that their Hollinger Playoff Odds -- which had risen to nearly 50 percent early last week -- could well be heading south again with Pau freshly injured.
14
Utah
28-24
1
Last Week: 15		The good news: Utah has a league-leading 12 wins in games in which it trailed by at least 10 points. The bad news: Utah awoke Friday with the league's third-best record since Jan. 1 at 13-5, behind only Denver (14-3) and San Antonio (14-3), then lost both ends of a weekend back-to-back.
15
4
Last Week: 11		Joe Johnson has gone 10 straight games without scoring 20 points. Gerald Wallace is averaging 8.9 points per game after the Nets surrendered the pick that became Damian Lillard to acquire him from Portland. And Deron Williams? Shooting less than 30 percent from the floor in fourth quarters.
16
Dallas
22-28
3
Last Week: 19		Since the Mavs sank to 10 games below .500, they're 9-5 with losses you can live with to OKC (two), San Antonio, Portland (in a road heartbreaker) and Golden State (on the road with Dirk out). Hard to see, though, how they ever make it back to .500 to keep those beards out of ZZ Top range.
17
4
Last Week: 13		The Bucks aren't just tied with Sacramento, as noted here recently, for the new longest All-Star drought (dating to Michael Redd in 2004). More bad streak news: Milwaukee inherits the longest run of losing seasons against the West (14 in a row) if the Knicks beat four more West foes.
18
2
Last Week: 16		Unfair as it might seem to write the Blazers' playoff hopes off after one bad L, it's hard to resist in this case. On a crucial six-game trip leading into the All-Star break, Portland simply could not afford to fall in Orlando in the most inviting game of the six to dip below .500 for the first time in 2013.
19
Toronto
19-32
3
Last Week: 22		Rudy Gay has been needing lots of shots to get his points, but no one's complaining after the Raps halted Indy's 15-game home win streak AND convinced TNT's Kenny Smith to proclaim: "I believe in the Toronto Raptors more than the Lakers" when it comes to sneaking into the playoffs.
20
Atlanta
27-22
2
Last Week: 18		Just don't see it. Just don't see the Hawks dealing Josh Smith before the Feb. 21 trade deadline when we all know they want to pursue Dwight Howard in free agency come July. If they're going after Dwight, keeping his good buddy J-Smoove around as lead recruiter only makes sense.
21
2
Last Week: 23		I'm sure this only serves to torture @ESPN_RobKing, @HouseFromDC and every other Wiz fan, but you know what? With John Wall and Nene back, Emeka Okafor on the rebound and Martell Webster making shots, they look like the borderline playoff team they were always supposed to be.
22
2
Last Week: 20		Some things change for the Sixers: Milwaukee, not Boston, is suddenly the team they're chasing for the No. 8 spot now that the Rondo-less Celts have reinvented themselves. And some things don't: Philly will play its 50th game out of 50 minus Andrew Bynum when the Clips visit Monday night.
23
1
Last Week: 24		Here's why you shouldn't waste time worrying about Cleveland's record when you watch Kyrie Irving at All-Star Weekend: Kyrie's Cavs are a passable 11-12 since a Dec. 22 win at Milwaukee and now have Marreese Speights teamed up with Tristan Thompson to fill the Varejao Void.
24
Detroit
20-32
3
Last Week: 21		Rookie sensation Andre Drummond heads to the training room for the next four to six weeks with a back injury that inflicts great pain upon his legions of followers in the NBA's corner of the Twitter-verse ... and with eight double-doubles to match New Orleans' Anthony Davis for the rookie lead.
25
New Orleans
17-34
--

Last Week: 25		The first career triple-double for Greivis Passquez netted a win in Atlanta and a congratulatory tweet from Kevin Durant. Vasquez is now tied for the league lead in games with at least 10 points and 10 dimes at 19 with the injured Rajon Rondo, while Chris Paul -- just back from injury -- sits at 17.
26
2
Last Week: 28		The Kings' loud and loyal fans have been amazing lately, which only makes their plight sadder because they're essentially powerless in Sacramento's long-shot struggle to hang on to its NBA team. If these things were decided by what we think of a fan base, Seattle would've never been teamless.
27
Phoenix
17-35
1
Last Week: 26		After Tuesday's wholly unexpected win in Memphis, Phoenix's week cratered from there with a loss in New Orleans, followed by away-and-home poundings from OKC to sink all the way in the West cellar. In the latter, Sunday's 69 points marked the second-lowest total in team history.
28
1
Last Week: 27		If Ricky Rubio really broke off three straight double-digit assist games just because we called attention to his lack of them in this cyberspace last Monday, we'd say something to trigger Kevin Love's immediate return. Sota is 4-17 in 2013, better than only Charlotte (3-16) and Orlando (3-17).
29
Orlando
15-36
1
Last Week: 30		Even though Orlando just dealt a hammer blow to Portland's playoff hopes, let's be real. All those December cracks about how Orlando was winning (or at least leading) the Dwight Deal are a distant memory now with Big Baby Davis lost for the season and just three W's in the past 26 games.
30
1
Last Week: 29		Amid all the losing comes (ugh) more losing. Remember how Charlotte began the season as one of just two teams in history with a winning all-time record against the Lakers? Boston is alone on that list now after the Bobs blew Friday's 20-point lead at home to dip to 8-9 against L.A.
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