With the All-Star weekend eating up half of the week, no team played more than two games this week, and as a result Cleveland was able to complete its first undefeated week of the season, winning a very improbable game against the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, the same team that beat them by 55 points last month. San Antonio gave the top spot back to Miami with their loss to Chicago, which kept the two month long game of hot potato for the top spot intact. Here are this week's rankings, with team name followed by weekly record, overall record, rating, and previous ranking.
2. San Antonio (1-1) (46-10) -7.46 (1)
3. Boston (1-0) (40-14) -6.56 (3)
4. Orlando (1-0) (36-21) -6.32 (5)
5. Chicago (2-0) (38-16) -6.19 (6)
6. LA Lakers (0-2) (38-19) -5.67 (4)
7. Dallas (2-0) (40-16) -4.22 (7)
8. Oklahoma City (1-0) (35-19) -3.35 (10)
9. Denver (1-1) (32-25) -3.07 (9)
10. New Orleans (0-2) (33-25) -2.82 (8)
11. Memphis (1-0) (31-26) -2.34 (12)
12. Philadelphia (1-1) (27-29) -2.16 (11)
13. Portland (2-0) (32-24) -1.49 (15)
14. Atlanta (1-1) (34-21) -1.26 (13)
15. Houston (1-1) (26-31) -1.20 (14)
16. New York (1-0) (28-26) -1.06 (16)
17. Phoenix (1-1) (27-27) -0.26 (18)
18. Indiana (0-2) (24-30) -0.22 (17)
19. Utah (0-2) (31-26) -0.01 (19)
20. Milwaukee (1-1) (21-34) 0.53 (20)
21. Golden State (2-0) (26-29) 1.54 (22)
22. LA Clippers (1-1) (21-35) 1.96 (21)
23. Charlotte (1-1) (24-32) 2.09 (23)
24. Detroit (1-1) (21-36) 3.02 (24)
25. Toronto (0-1) (15-41) 4.73 (26)
26. Sacramento (0-2) (13-40) 4.91 (25)
27. Minnesota (0-2) (13-43) 5.02 (28)
28. New Jersey (0-2) (17-40) 5.19 (29)
29. Washington (0-1) (15-39) 5.43 (27)
30. Cleveland (1-0) (10-46) 8.76 (30)
In Hot
When Sacramento arrived in Oklahoma City, they were one of the hottest teams, having challenged three straight playoff contenders, including the Thunder, before beating the Suns in their next game. So when the Thunder dominated the Kings by 30 points, it showed that the Thunder could learn from their mistakes, and they jumped two spots in the rankings as a result, landing in the #8 slot, a season best.
At this point, any time the Cavaliers win it's impressive, but no one expected them to take down the Lakers just one month after they were completely embarrassed by the defending champs. Cleveland has now won two of their past three games, and their next three opponents are all average teams. I'm not going to say that they're starting a winning streak, but I wouldn't be surprised if they won again before the month is over.
Golden State won three straight games heading into the break, all over potential playoff teams, including a road win against the Jazz. Overall, they have won 7 of their last 9 and look like they could possibly make a run at the playoffs, with a record just 3 games under .500 as of today. Monta Ellis seems to be using his All-Star snub to score more points, hitting at least 30 4 times this month.
Out Cold
The Lakers ended their East Coast road trip horribly, getting blown out in Orlando and Charlotte before turning in their worst performance of the season in Cleveland, losing by 5 to a team that shouldn't be beating anybody. There are good signs, though. Kobe was named MVP of the All-Star Game this weekend, and Pau Gasol had 30 points and 20 rebounds against Cleveland. Now if they can just put it all together.
The Kings were looking so good just one week ago. They were coming off 4 straight good games against teams with playoff potential, then everything fell apart against Oklahoma City and Dallas, both of which handled Sacramento easily. It's bad timing for them to go cold, with a visit to both Florida teams coming up this week.
Washington may have won their first road game in Cleveland last week, but they didn't even come close to getting their second one this week. The Wizards were totally manhandled by Orlando in their final game before the All-Star weekend, which killed the momentum of two wins in three games for Washington.
Predictions - 21 Feb
Upset picks are in italics.
College Basketball
Oklahoma State at (2) Kansas - Kansas by 23
(20) Syracuse at (14) Villanova - Nova by 5
Prediction Results - 20 Feb
College Basketball: 6-0 (1.000) 468-107 overall (.814)
Upsets: 1-0 (1.000) 122-78 overall (.610)
No comments:
Post a Comment