NBA Rankings - 27 Dec

Only four teams went undefeated during the week of Christmas, which kept most teams from moving around too much. There were a few very surprising upsets, which made all the difference in who stayed ahead and who fell behind. So here it is, my final NBA ranking of the year 2010. Team name is followed by this week's record, overall record, rating, and previous ranking.

1. Miami (2-1) (22-9) -8.86 (2)

2. Boston (1-1) (23-5) -7.37 (1)

3. San Antonio (3-1) (26-4) -6.20 (3)

4. Dallas (2-0) (23-5) -5.81 (5)

5. LA Lakers (0-2) (21-9) -4.14 (4)

6. Chicago (3-1) (19-10) -4.01 (7)

7. Orlando (2-2) (18-12) -3.24 (8)

8. Utah (2-0) (21-9) -2.80 (6)

9. New Orleans (2-1) (18-12) -2.35 (10)

10. Oklahoma City (2-1) (21-10) -1.61 (11)

11. Denver (0-3) (16-13) -1.21 (9)

12. Houston (2-0) (14-15) -0.47 (13)

13. Atlanta (2-1) (19-13) -0.23 (15)

14. Portland (1-1) (15-15) 0.27 (17)

15. Memphis (1-1) (13-17) 0.31 (16)

16. New York (2-0) (18-12) 0.44 (20)

17. Philadelphia (1-2) (12-18) 0.68 (12)

18. Milwaukee (2-1) (12-16) 1.25 (19)

19. Indiana (1-1) (13-15) 1.37 (14)

20. Phoenix (0-3) (13-16) 1.56 (18)

21. LA Clippers (2-1) (9-22) 4.19 (23)

22. Golden State (2-1) (11-18) 4.38 (24)

23. New Jersey (1-1) (9-21) 5.14 (25)

24. Detroit (1-1) (10-20) 5.35 (26)

25. Toronto (0-1) (10-19) 5.80 (21)

26. Charlotte (0-2) (9-19) 6.61 (22)

27. Washington (1-2) (7-21) 6.96 (28)

28. Minnesota (1-2) (7-24) 7.15 (27)

29. Sacramento (0-2) (5-22) 8.92 (30)

30. Cleveland (0-3) (8-22) 8.93 (29)

Rising like smoke

Portland jumped three spots this week, but not necessarily because of their own work. They had an impressive win over the Milwaukee Bucks, but their loss to the Warriors, even though it was on the road, does not look good for a team struggling to make the playoffs. They moved up because the teams they passed, Indiana, Memphis, and Philadelphia, all struggled mightily this week, thereby making the Blazers look like monsters by comparison.

The New York Knicks bounced back from their 3-game losing streak with two straight home wins over top 10 teams, the Thunder and the Bulls. Maybe their big winning streak wasn't just a result of the easy schedule. Maybe Amare Stoudemire really did bring a winning attitude to New York. Only time will tell, but for now they look like they're for real.

Falling like snow

Last week I put the Philadelphia 76ers up at #12, despite their losing record overall, mostly due to their recent hot streak. That all changed the next night, when they lost to Chicago by 45 points. Their close loss to the Celtics and a win over the Melo-less Nuggets looked all right, but no good team should ever lose by 45.

The Indiana Pacers, despite some promise early in the season, have been slowly dropping all month long. In fact, they have yet to win two straight games during the entire month of December, and their only chance may be back-to-back games against the Wizards to end the calendar year.

The Toronto Raptors played only one game in the past week, and it sure wasn't the game you would want to be your only memory of a week. They lost by 22 points at home to the Detroit Pistons, who aren't exactly playoff material. They take a road trip to Memphis, Dallas, and Houston this week, so they most likely won't have many good memories of this week either.

Charlotte's two losses this week, by 33 to Washington and by 18 to Oklahoma City, were enough to cost legendary coach Larry Brown his job. This team made the playoffs last year, so the talent is there, but will Paul Silas be able to turn them around in time to avoid missing the playoffs yet again?

Side note

Utah's 2-spot drop this week despite not losing may look strange on paper, but the two wins were over Cleveland and Minnesota, and the average margin of victory in those two wins was only 8 points. Utah is still a quality team, and they will hopefully prove it this week when they take on the surging Trail Blazers and Clippers.

NBA Player of the Day

Rudy Gay - MEM - 30 pts, 8 reb, 5 ast, 5 stl, 11-20 FG, 3-3 3P, 5-5 FT

Gay led the Grizzlies in scoring and filled up most of the stat sheet last night, with a strong night rebounding and 5 steals out of his team's 7 overall. He also hit a 17-foot jump shot with just over 6 minutes left that gave the Grizzlies a 10-point lead that they never relinquished.

Predictions - 27 Dec

Upset picks are in italics.

NBA

Magic at Nets - Magic by 6

Pistons at Bobcats - Bobcats by 2

Hawks at Bucks - Bucks by 1

Hornets at Timberwolves - Hornets by 7

Mavericks at Thunder - Mavericks by 1

Raptors at Grizzlies - Grizzlies by 8

Wizards at Rockets - Rockets by 10

Trail Blazers at Jazz - Jazz by 6

Clippers at Kings - Clippers by 2

76ers at Warriors - 76ers by 1

NFL

Saints at Falcons - Falcons by 7

College Football

Air Force vs. Georgia Tech - Air Force by 6

College Basketball

Tennessee-Martin at (2) Ohio State - Ohio State by 43

(4) Connecticut at (6) Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh by 9

Northern Illinois at (10) Missouri - Missouri by 24

Morgan State at (25) Louisville - Louisville by 33

I hope that the UConn-Pitt game is a bit of a blowout, because I don't believe that UConn deserves the ranking they have, but if they win, they will most likely earn a spot it my top 10, because Pittsburgh has already shown it's a very solid team.

Prediction Results - 26 Dec

NFL: 7/12 (.583) 57/94 overall (.606)

NBA: 3/7 (.429) 191/261 overall (.732)

College Football: 0/1 (.000) 42/59 overall (.712)