NBA Rankings - 2 Dec

The Golden State Warriors lost to a bottom 3 team this week, and it knocked the defending champs from the top spot in the rankings, which allowed the Houston Rockets to slide up and fill the void. The Rockets have the best record in the West, and are only a game behind Boston for the best record in the league, despite not having Chris Paul for most of the season so far. Other teams making strong moves this week are the Jazz, who have won 5 in a row, and Cleveland, which is up to 10 straight. Here are my full current rankings and playoff picks:

				Rec		Proj
TW	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	MOV	SOS	PO Seed
1	2	Houston	-11.7	17	4	67	15	1	21	W1
2	1	Golden State	-11.5	17	6	65	17	2	16	W2
3	4	Toronto	-9.24	14	7	60	22	4	5	E2
4	3	Boston	-8.55	19	4	61	21	3	19	E1
5	7	Washington	-5.26	12	10	49	33	5	20	E5
6	5	Philadelphia	-5.17	12	9	51	31	13	1	E3
7	8	Detroit	-4.28	14	7	50	32	10	13	E4
8	12	San Antonio	-3.97	15	7	48	34	6	29	W3
9	10	Denver	-3.96	12	9	47	35	11	24	W4
10	6	Oklahoma City	-3.7	9	12	43	39	8	23	W8
11	16	Cleveland	-3.54	15	7	48	34	9	22	E6
12	9	Indiana	-3.41	12	11	46	36	15	2	E7
13	20	Utah	-3.32	12	11	43	39	12	26	W7
14	11	Portland	-2.96	13	9	44	38	7	30	W5
15	14	New York	-2.5	11	10	43	39	16	6	E8
16	17	Minnesota	-2.2	13	10	43	39	14	18	W6
17	23	Milwaukee	-1.09	11	9	40	42	17	17
18	15	Charlotte	-0.97	8	13	37	45	19	8
19	13	New Orleans	-0.9	11	11	39	43	18	14
20	19	Miami	-0.03	11	11	38	44	21	11
21	18	Memphis	0.471	7	14	33	49	25	4
22	25	Brooklyn	0.727	8	13	33	49	23	10
23	21	LA Clippers	0.746	8	12	33	49	20	25
24	22	Orlando	0.772	9	14	34	48	24	3
25	24	LA Lakers	1.382	8	13	31	51	22	27
26	27	Dallas	2.94	5	17	25	57	26	12
27	26	Atlanta	3.554	4	17	23	59	27	7
28	28	Sacramento	6.439	7	15	21	61	29	9
29	29	Phoenix	7.24	8	15	20	62	28	28
30	30	Chicago	7.783	3	18	14	68	30	15

Playoff Picks

First Round

(1) Celtics over (8) Knicks
(2) Raptors over (7) Pacers
(6) Cavaliers over (3) 76ers
(5) Wizards over (4) Pistons
(1) Rockets over (8) Thunder
(2) Warriors over (7) Jazz
(3) Spurs over (6) Timberwolves
(5) Trail Blazers over (4) Nuggets

Second Round

(1) Celtics over (5) Wizards
(2) Raptors over (6) Cavaliers
(1) Rockets over (5) Trail Blazers
(2) Warriors over (3) Spurs

Conference Finals

(2) Raptors over (1) Celtics
(2) Warriors over (1) Rockets

NBA Finals

(2) Warriors over (2) Raptors