NBA Rankings - 29 Mar

The Spurs extended their winning streak to 16 games this week, just one shy of the all-time franchise record, and today they host a New Orleans team that, while hot lately, is not a match for San Antonio most days. The odds are against the Spurs making it past this week with the streak intact, with a schedule that also includes Indiana, Golden State, Oklahoma City, and Memphis, but there is no doubt right now that this is the league's top team. Here are my full current rankings:

Rank	LW	Team	Record	Rating	Predic	Ch	Seed
1	1	San Antonio	56-16	-8.84138	63-19	+1	1W
2	2	LA Clippers	51-22	-7.28004	57-25		3W
3	3	Houston	49-22	-6.04549	56-26	+1	4W
4	4	Oklahoma City	53-19	-5.21544	59-23		2W
5	5	Golden State	45-27	-4.25795	52-30		6W
6	7	Miami	49-22	-3.90386	56-26		2E
7	11	Memphis	43-29	-3.36292	49-33	+1	7W
8	6	Portland	47-27	-3.20892	53-29		5W
9	8	Toronto	41-31	-2.96182	48-34		3E
10	12	Minnesota	36-35	-2.52184	42-40
11	9	Dallas	43-30	-2.43293	48-34	-1
12	13	Phoenix	44-29	-2.41155	48-34	+2	8W
13	10	Indiana	52-21	-1.49613	57-25	-1	1E
14	14	Chicago	40-32	-0.40233	46-36		4E
15	15	Washington	37-35	-0.37842	43-39	-1	6E
16	16	Brooklyn	38-33	-0.35607	45-37	+1	5E
17	18	Charlotte	35-38	1.087643	41-41	+1	7E
18	20	Sacramento	25-47	2.416141	28-54	-1
19	21	New Orleans	32-40	2.523836	35-47	+2
20	17	New York	30-43	2.84837	33-49	-2
21	19	Atlanta	31-40	3.614135	37-45	-1	8E
22	23	Cleveland	29-45	4.443945	33-49	+2
23	22	Denver	32-41	4.560867	35-47
24	24	Detroit	26-46	5.28175	30-52
25	25	Boston	23-49	5.59559	27-55	-1
26	27	Orlando	21-52	6.026008	24-58	+1
27	26	Utah	23-50	6.731407	26-56	-1
28	28	LA Lakers	24-48	6.968459	26-56
29	29	Milwaukee	14-58	8.473603	16-66
30	30	Philadelphia	15-57	14.2657	17-65

The hottest team in the league this week was the Phoenix Suns, who won all 4 of their contests, pushing their winning streak to 6 with 8 wins in their last 9 games, and it all started at the same time that Eric Bledsoe returned from his knee injury. His return has also helped the Suns return to the playoff picture, where they are now projected to get the 8th seed and a matchup with their favorite first-round opponent, the San Antonio Spurs.

The Pelicans have also been hot this week, but it's too little too late. New Orleans has been officially eliminated from playoff contention, which is sad after seeing how they handled visits from Miami, Brooklyn, and the Clippers this week, each of which resulted in a win for the home team. The future is bright in Louisiana.

New York went from being the hottest team last week, sitting on an 8-game winning streak, to being the coldest team this week, losing 3 of 4, including losses to Cleveland and the Lakers, two teams that will not be playing once the regular season ends. The last two losses, to LA and Phoenix, each came by more than 20 points, and they still have 2 games left on their West Coast road trip.

Predictions

Upset picks are in italics.

NBA

Detroit at Philadelphia - Pistons by 4
LA Clippers at Houston - Rockets by 2
Atlanta at Washington - Wizards by 5
Sacramento at Dallas - Mavericks by 10
Miami at Milwaukee - Heat by 7
New Orleans at San Antonio - Spurs by 15

NCAA

(11) Dayton vs. (1) Florida - Gators by 10
(2) Wisconsin vs. (1) Arizona - Wildcats by 4

Prediction Results

NBA: 10-2 (.833) 720-364 overall (.664)
Upsets: 1-1 (.500) 104-106 overall (.495)
NCAA: 2-2 (.500) 42-18 overall (.700)
Upsets: 1-0 (1.000) 4-3 overall (.571)