NBA Rankings - 22 Dec

The Bucks are still narrowly holding on to the top spot in this week's rankings, but the hottest team of the last 2 weeks is one hoping to continue their decades-long streak of playoff appearances. The Spurs won 6 of their 7 games over the past 2 weeks, with the last 5 victories coming in blowouts of at least 25 points, and they now lead their division and are projected to grab the final playoff spot in the very competitive West. The team just ahead of them, the Clippers, went 2-5 over the last 2 weeks, losing all 5 of its games against potential playoff teams, while winning narrowly in 2 games against lottery teams. Here are my full current rankings and playoff picks:

				Rec		Proj
TW	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	MOV	SOS	PO Seed
1	1	Milwaukee	-7.563	22	9	62	20	1	17	E1
2	2	Toronto	-6.93	25	9	61	21	2	21	E2
3	3	Denver	-6.009	21	9	57	25	4	12	W1
4	6	Oklahoma City	-5.372	20	10	54	28	3	29	W2
5	4	Golden State	-4.339	21	11	53	29	7	13	W3
6	5	Boston	-4.328	18	13	52	30	5	24	E4
7	10	Indiana	-3.822	21	12	53	29	6	26	E3
8	8	Utah	-3.258	16	17	47	35	11	1	W4
9	22	San Antonio	-1.774	18	15	44	38	10	20	W8
10	16	LA Lakers	-1.676	19	13	46	36	9	15	W5
11	12	New Orleans	-1.594	15	18	42	40	14	7
12	11	Portland	-1.547	18	14	45	37	15	6	W6
13	19	Houston	-1.33	16	15	43	39	13	11
14	7	LA Clippers	-0.889	18	13	45	37	17	5	W7
15	13	Philadelphia	-0.859	21	12	47	35	8	28	E5
16	9	Memphis	-0.383	16	16	41	41	18	4
17	14	Charlotte	-0.357	16	15	42	40	12	30	E6
18	17	Dallas	0.0722	15	15	39	43	16	23
19	18	Sacramento	0.2108	17	15	42	40	22	3
20	15	Minnesota	0.3281	14	18	37	45	21	10
21	21	Detroit	1.5296	15	15	39	43	23	22	E7
22	24	Miami	1.6038	14	16	37	45	19	25	E8
23	23	Brooklyn	1.9376	15	19	35	47	20	27
24	20	Orlando	3.623	14	17	34	48	24	18
25	25	Washington	4.5609	12	20	30	52	25	19
26	29	Phoenix	7.0286	8	24	21	61	28	2
27	26	New York	7.1365	9	25	22	60	26	16
28	28	Cleveland	7.3366	8	25	21	61	27	9
29	27	Chicago	8.2185	8	25	21	61	30	8
30	30	Atlanta	8.9907	8	23	19	63	29	14

Playoff Picks

First Round

(1) Bucks over (8) Heat
(2) Raptors over (7) Pistons
(3) Pacers over (6) Hornets
(4) Celtics over (5) 76ers
(1) Nuggets over (8) Spurs
(2) Thunder over (7) Clippers
(3) Warriors over (6) Trail Blazers
(4) Jazz over (5) Lakers

Second Round

(1) Bucks over (4) Celtics
(2) Raptors over (3) Pacers
(1) Nuggets over (4) Jazz
(3) Warriors over (2) Thunder

Conference Finals

(2) Raptors over (1) Bucks
(1) Nuggets over (3) Warriors

NBA Finals

(1) Nuggets over (2) Raptors