NBA Rankings - 5 Apr

This was a week of streaks. Two historic ones came to an end, as Oklahoma City ended San Antonio's franchise-record 19-game winning streak two nights ago and Detroit ended Philadelphia's NBA-record 26-game losing streak by rolling over and playing dead last Saturday. The streak that is still alive belongs to Kevin Durant, who just reached 25 points for the 40th game in a row, tying Michael Jordan's record for the last 50 years, although it happened in a loss to Houston last night. Here are this today's full NBA rankings:

Rank	LW	Team	Record	Rating	Predic	Ch	Seed
1	1	San Antonio	59-17	-9.12705	63-19		1W
2	2	LA Clippers	54-23	-7.05618	58-24	+1	3W
3	4	Oklahoma City	55-20	-5.34725	59-23		2W
4	3	Houston	50-25	-4.65678	55-27	-1	4W
5	6	Miami	52-23	-4.49352	56-26		1E
6	5	Golden State	47-29	-3.92307	51-31	-1	6W
7	9	Toronto	44-32	-2.76088	49-33	+1	3E
8	8	Portland	49-28	-2.74188	53-29		5W
9	11	Dallas	46-31	-2.5889	49-33	+1	7W
10	7	Memphis	45-31	-2.58367	48-34	-1	8W
11	12	Phoenix	45-31	-2.00647	48-34
12	10	Minnesota	38-37	-1.96268	42-40
13	14	Chicago	44-32	-1.36258	47-35	+1	4E
14	15	Washington	40-36	-0.89313	44-38	+1	6E
15	16	Brooklyn	41-34	-0.24485	45-37		5E
16	17	Charlotte	38-38	-0.11011	41-41		7E
17	13	Indiana	53-24	0.017016	56-26	-1	2E
18	20	New York	33-44	1.25947	35-47	+2
19	18	Sacramento	27-49	2.785679	29-53	+1
20	21	Atlanta	33-42	3.158507	36-46	-1	8E
21	22	Cleveland	31-46	3.361575	34-48	+1
22	23	Denver	33-43	3.445826	35-47
23	19	New Orleans	32-44	3.770273	34-48	-1
24	24	Detroit	27-49	5.852769	29-53	-1
25	26	Orlando	21-55	6.504057	23-59	-1
26	28	LA Lakers	25-51	6.536183	26-56
27	25	Boston	23-53	6.702409	25-57	-2
28	27	Utah	24-52	6.769189	26-56
29	29	Milwaukee	14-62	8.806741	16-66
30	30	Philadelphia	17-59	12.5506	18-64	+1

New York continued their inconsistent play this week, going from hot to cold to hot again, this time getting a big win at Golden State and an even bigger win against crosstown rival Brooklyn on Wednesday. If form continues, they will go cold again this week, which coincides poorly with their schedule, which has only 5 games remaining, all against playoff teams from the East. Don't expect the Knicks to hold onto that final playoff spot.

Boston has been pretty bad all season, and things have only been getting worse up north. The Celtics have only won once in the past 4 weeks, somehow taking down the Heat a couple weeks ago, which doesn't make sense for a team in obvious tank mode. They must have gotten a little jealous of all the attention Philly got with their recent streak, so last night they chose to show the 76ers that they were bad too, allowing Philly their first road win since January 29th, also in Boston.

Indiana's ranking may not seem correct given their record, but when you look at the past month, this team looks like an easy out in the first round. The Pacers have gone 7-11 since March 2nd, when they held the league's best record, and have only won 3 times in the past 10 games. They have been especially bad on the road, going only 2-9 over that stretch, beating only Detroit and Philly. They need to pull things together or they will be sitting at home before the month ends.

Predictions

Upset picks are in italics.

NBA

Minnesota at Orlando - Timberwolves by 5
Chicago at Washington - Wizards by 3
Charlotte at Cleveland - Bobcats by 1
Boston at Detroit - Pistons by 4
Brooklyn at Philadelphia - Nets by 7
Toronto at Milwaukee - Raptors by 8

NCAA

(7) Connecticut vs. (1) Florida - Gators by 5
(8) Kentucky vs. (2) Wisconsin - Badgers by 2

CBI

Fresno State at Siena - Saints by 1

Prediction Results

NBA: 10-4 (.714) 762-378 overall (.668)
Upsets: 3-1 (.750) 112-110 overall (.505)