NBA Rankings - 8 Dec

Milwaukee remained at the top of the rankings this week, even after posting a record of 3-3 over the past 2 weeks, but their lead over the #2 Raptors dropped by nearly 2.5 points, making them susceptible to losing their perch atop the rankings later this month. The hottest team lately has been Utah, which is coming off back-to-back blowouts of San Antonio and Houston, and the coldest team is Phoenix, which has lost all 8 of its games since its amazing upset of Milwaukee 2 weeks ago. 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	-8.54	16	8	62	20	1	19	E1
2	2	Toronto	-6.877	21	6	61	21	2	25	E2
3	3	Denver	-6.808	17	8	58	24	4	6	W1
4	6	Golden State	-5.246	18	9	54	28	5	21	W2
5	8	Boston	-5.148	14	10	54	28	6	17	E3
6	4	Oklahoma City	-4.967	16	8	52	30	3	28	W4
7	5	LA Clippers	-4.788	16	8	54	28	7	4	W3
8	16	Utah	-3.006	13	13	47	35	15	1	W6
9	11	Memphis	-2.826	15	9	49	33	9	7	W5
10	14	Indiana	-2.676	15	10	49	33	8	27	E4
11	7	Portland	-2.63	14	11	46	36	13	8	W7
12	9	New Orleans	-2.57	13	14	44	38	10	13	W8
13	18	Philadelphia	-1.561	18	9	49	33	12	23	E5
14	10	Charlotte	-1.526	12	13	44	38	11	24	E6
15	20	Minnesota	-1.177	13	12	42	40	17	12
16	13	LA Lakers	-0.674	15	10	42	40	14	26
17	19	Dallas	-0.638	12	11	41	41	16	22
18	15	Sacramento	-0.33	13	11	42	40	18	3
19	12	Houston	0.3609	11	13	38	44	19	9
20	23	Orlando	1.642	12	14	38	44	22	15	E8
21	21	Detroit	1.7008	13	10	38	44	20	29	E7
22	17	San Antonio	2.3243	12	14	34	48	24	11
23	22	Brooklyn	2.5236	9	18	32	50	23	20
24	24	Miami	3.1663	10	14	31	51	21	30
25	25	Washington	3.3552	11	14	34	48	25	16
26	26	New York	4.6682	8	18	28	54	26	5
27	29	Chicago	7.4197	6	20	21	61	27	10
28	28	Cleveland	8.0598	5	20	19	63	28	18
29	27	Phoenix	9.4322	4	22	14	68	30	2
30	30	Atlanta	9.9338	5	20	16	66	29	14

Playoff Picks

First Round

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

Second Round

(1) Bucks over (5) 76ers
(2) Raptors over (3) Celtics
(1) Nuggets over (4) Thunder
(3) Clippers over (2) Warriors

Conference Finals

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

NBA Finals

(1) Bucks over (1) Nuggets