NBA Rankings - 12 Mar

With just one month left in the regular season, the hottest team in the league right now is from the East, and it's not Cleveland. The Atlanta Hawks have won 5 of their last 7, with the only 2 losses coming on the road, one an 8-point loss at Toronto, the #2 team in the East, and the other coming at Golden State in overtime in an arena where the Warriors haven't lost in over a year. The Hawks are projected to finish #5 in the East, but they could just as easily fall anywhere between the third and eighth seed in the competitive second tier of the East. Here are my full current rankings:

				Rec		Proj
TW	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	PO Seed
1	1	San Antonio	-10.74	55	10	68	14	W2
2	2	Golden State	-10.02	58	6	72	10	W1
3	3	Oklahoma City	-5.553	44	21	54	28	W3
4	4	Cleveland	-5.396	46	18	59	23	E1
5	5	LA Clippers	-4.122	42	22	53	29	W4
6	6	Toronto	-3.425	43	20	55	27	E2
7	7	Boston	-3.292	39	27	49	33	E3
8	8	Atlanta	-2.792	36	29	46	36	E5
9	10	Charlotte	-1.904	36	28	47	35	E4
10	9	Indiana	-1.712	34	30	45	37	E6
11	14	Miami	-0.833	38	27	45	37	E7
12	12	Detroit	-0.679	33	32	43	39	E8
13	11	Portland	-0.597	34	32	42	40	W6
14	13	Utah	-0.468	30	35	39	43
15	15	Houston	0.6969	33	32	41	41	W7
16	16	Dallas	1.0784	33	32	40	42	W8
17	17	Memphis	1.1797	39	26	46	36	W5
18	18	Chicago	1.7291	32	32	40	42
19	19	Washington	1.9562	30	34	39	43
20	21	Denver	2.1371	27	38	34	48
21	20	Orlando	2.3766	28	36	35	47
22	22	Sacramento	2.5995	25	39	34	48
23	24	New York	2.6199	27	40	34	48
24	23	New Orleans	3.0131	24	40	32	50
25	25	Milwaukee	3.4242	27	38	34	48
26	26	Minnesota	4.4256	21	45	27	55
27	27	Brooklyn	6.6508	18	47	23	59
28	28	Phoenix	7.5448	17	48	22	60
29	29	LA Lakers	8.0934	14	52	18	64
30	30	Philadelphia	10.448	9	56	12	70

Playoff Picks

First Round

(1) Cavaliers over (8) Pistons
(2) Raptors over (7) Heat
(6) Pacers over (3) Celtics
(5) Hawks over (4) Hornets
(1) Warriors over (8) Mavericks
(2) Spurs over (7) Rockets
(3) Thunder over (6) Trail Blazers
(4) Clippers over (5) Grizzlies

Second Round

(1) Cavaliers over (5) Hawks
(6) Pacers over (2) Raptors
(1) Warriors over (4) Clippers
(2) Spurs over (3) Thunder

Conference Finals

(1) Cavaliers over (6) Pacers
(2) Spurs over (1) Warriors

NBA Finals

(2) Spurs over (1) Cavaliers