Who doesn’t love power rankings? Since it’s the weekend, we’re going to try to keep things short – one or two sentences per team.
1) Boston Celtics – Absolutely dominant because of Rajon Rando’s emergence into an All-Star point guard.
2) Cleveland Cavaliers – Big Z injury will hurt them in the short-term.
3) LA Lakers – The third great team in the league is dropped one because of loss to the lowly Kings.
4) San Antonio – Could transform into the fourth title contender if they stay healthy. This is high, based on their record, but they have the best big-3 in the league, and because of that, they’re in the four hole.
5) Denver Nuggets – I’m still really high on this team, but injuries to Carmelo and Kenyon Martin should really scare people.
6) Orlando Magic – Great win against the Blazers, but then lost to Jason Richardson and the Suns.
7) Houston Rockets – T-Mac’s back, but Artest is out. Yao will be out soon too.
8) Dallas Mavericks – They have come on strong lately, which begs the question: When will Josh Howard be traded?
9) Portland Trailblazers – Three loses this week mean trouble. Last night’s to the Clippers is a bad sign.
10 – New Orleans Hornets – Very disappointing this season, and the big problem with the team is that their wing players have simply been bad so far.
11) Phoenix Suns – The Richardson trade helps their team immensely, and also should mean that they will move up in the coming weeks.
12) Atlanta Hawks – Josh Smith is bad, but hasn’t been too effective lately. Give this time, and they should be very good later into the season.
14) Utah Jazz – They’ve treaded water for a while without Carlos Boozer. Paul Millsap, I think, has proved he is ready to take over for Boozer next year.
15) New Jersey Nets – Big game tonight against the Bulls in Chicago.
16) Miami Heat – Dwyane Wade has been great, but Beasley is going to have to be much better for them to do anything of consequence in the East.
To The Tin 