NBA Rankings - 25 Jan

While the Milwaukee Bucks continue to cruise along as the top team in the league and the Lakers hold on just as easily to the top spot in the West, the rest of the league shuffles itself around a bit every day. The hottest team over the past 2 weeks has been the Utah Jazz, who moved up 3 spots while winning 13 of their last 14 games and 18 of 20. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Minnesota, who has lost 8 straight and has fallen completely out of playoff contention, leaving the race for the final seed in the West as a 4-team struggle, with San Antonio holding the upper hand right now. Here are my full current rankings and playoff picks:

				Record		Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	MOV	SOS	Seed
1	1	Milwaukee	-9.738	40	6	69	13	1	30	E1
2	2	LA Lakers	-7.397	36	9	64	18	2	7	W1
3	3	Dallas	-5.654	28	16	55	27	4	18	W4
4	4	LA Clippers	-5.365	32	14	58	24	5	8	W2
5	6	Boston	-5.039	30	14	56	26	3	29	E3
6	5	Toronto	-4.83	31	14	57	25	6	17	E2
7	10	Utah	-4.289	31	13	55	27	7	22	W3
8	7	Houston	-3.038	28	16	51	31	8	21	W5
9	9	Philadelphia	-2.447	29	17	51	31	12	14	E5
10	8	Miami	-2.425	31	14	54	28	9	23	E4
11	12	Oklahoma City	-2.338	27	19	49	33	13	11	W7
12	13	Indiana	-2.059	30	16	51	31	10	25	E6
13	11	Denver	-1.847	31	14	51	31	11	27	W6
14	14	Orlando	0.644	21	25	40	42	14	9	E7
15	15	San Antonio	1.001	20	24	38	44	15	15	W8
16	16	New Orleans	1.651	17	29	34	48	20	1
17	17	Portland	2.244	19	27	35	47	18	6
18	18	Phoenix	2.292	19	26	33	49	16	26
19	19	Memphis	2.484	21	24	35	47	17	20
20	21	Sacramento	3.137	16	29	31	51	22	10
21	20	Brooklyn	3.255	18	25	34	48	23	19	E8
22	23	Chicago	3.444	17	30	30	52	21	24
23	24	Detroit	3.595	17	29	31	51	19	28
24	22	Minnesota	3.979	15	30	28	54	24	12
25	25	Washington	4.977	15	29	29	53	25	13
26	28	New York	6.537	12	34	24	58	27	5
27	26	Charlotte	6.978	15	31	26	56	26	16
28	27	Golden State	7.545	10	37	19	63	28	3
29	30	Atlanta	7.709	11	35	22	60	29	2
30	29	Cleveland	7.913	12	33	22	60	30	4

Playoff Picks

First Round

(1) Bucks over (8) Nets in 4
(2) Raptors over (7) Magic in 5
(3) Celtics over (6) Pacers in 6
(5) 76ers over (4) Heat in 6
(1) Lakers over (8) Spurs in 4
(2) Clippers over (7) Thunder in 6
(3) Jazz over (6) Nuggets in 6
(4) Mavericks over (5) Rockets in 7

Second Round

(1) Bucks over (5) 76ers in 5
(3) Celtics over (2) Raptors in 6
(1) Lakers over (4) Mavericks in 7
(2) Clippers over (3) Jazz in 7

Conference Finals

(1) Bucks over (3) Celtics in 5
(1) Lakers over (2) Clippers in 6

NBA Finals

(1) Bucks over (1) Lakers in 6