NBA Rankings - 8 May

The hottest team over the past two weeks has been the Portland Trail Blazers, who have won 6 of 7 to move up into 6th place in the West, which would keep them out of the playin tournament, and gave them the tiebreaker over the Lakers, who are projected to end up tied with Portland. Those Lakers have been one of the coldest teams lately, winning only twice in their past 10 games, one of which was over Orlando, who gave up on the season long ago. Another cold team has been Utah, who were somehow swept by Minnesota in their season series, but are still the top team in the rankings because of the huge lead they had built up from their long hot streak earlier in the season. Here are my current rankings and playoff picks:

				Record		Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	Seed
1	1	Utah	-8.248	49	18	53	19	W1
2	2	LA Clippers	-5.933	45	22	49	23	W3
3	3	Phoenix	-5.272	48	19	51	21	W2
4	5	Philadelphia	-5.007	46	21	50	22	E1
5	4	Milwaukee	-4.867	43	24	47	25	E2
6	6	Denver	-4.493	44	23	47	25	W4
7	7	Brooklyn	-3.263	43	24	46	26	E3
8	8	LA Lakers	-2.026	37	30	40	32	W7
9	12	Dallas	-1.973	39	28	42	30	W5
10	9	Atlanta	-1.937	37	31	40	32	E5
11	13	New York	-1.657	37	30	40	32	E4
12	10	Boston	-1.32	35	32	38	34	E6
13	19	Portland	-0.758	38	29	40	32	W6
14	14	Golden State	-0.439	34	33	37	35	W8
15	11	Memphis	-0.357	33	33	36	36	W9
16	18	New Orleans	0.217	30	37	32	40
17	15	Toronto	0.285	27	40	29	43	OUT
18	17	Miami	0.419	36	31	38	34	E7
19	16	Indiana	0.735	31	35	34	38	E9
20	20	San Antonio	1.023	32	34	34	38	W10
21	21	Chicago	1.267	28	39	30	42
22	22	Charlotte	1.667	33	34	35	37	E8
23	23	Washington	2.044	31	36	33	39	E10
24	25	Sacramento	3.39	29	38	31	41
25	24	Detroit	3.563	20	47	22	50
26	27	Minnesota	5.839	20	47	22	50
27	26	Cleveland	7.199	21	46	22	50
28	28	Orlando	7.203	21	46	22	50
29	29	Houston	7.508	16	51	17	55
30	30	Oklahoma City	8.149	21	46	22	50

Playoff Picks

Play In

(7) Lakers over (8) Warriors

(9) Grizzlies over (10) Spurs

(8) Warriors over (9) Grizzlies

(7) Heat over (8) Hornets

(10) Wizards over (9) Pacers

(8) Hornets over (10) Wizards

First Round

(1) Jazz over (8) Warriors in 5

(2) Suns over (7) Lakers in 5

(3) Clippers over (6) Trail Blazers in 5

(4) Nuggets over (5) Mavericks in 7

(1) 76ers over (8) Hornets in 4

(2) Bucks over (7) Heat in 6

(3) Nets over (6) Celtics in 6

(4) Knicks over (5) Hawks in 6

Second Round

(1) Jazz over (4) Nuggets in 6

(2) Suns over (3) Clippers in 7

(1) 76ers over (4) Knicks in 5

(2) Bucks over (3) Nets in 6

Conference Finals

(2) Suns over (1) Jazz in 7

(2) Bucks over (1) 76ers in 7

NBA Finals

(2) Suns over (2) Bucks in 7