NBA Rankings - 5 Nov

After a little over 2 weeks, most teams are performing about as expected to this point, but there are several surprising teams in both directions. The biggest surprises play out west, where Portland is currently in first place, despite being projected to finish second from the bottom of the conference, obviously buoyed by the return of Damian Lillard. Meanwhile, the Golden State Warriors are struggling, starting the season 3-7 after winning the championship last season. Here are my full current rankings and playoff picks, with rising teams in green and falling teams in red:

				Record		Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	Seed
1	5	Cleveland	-11.49	7	1	69	13	E1
2	4	Phoenix	-8.715	6	2	64	18	W1
3	10	Milwaukee	-6.912	8	0	61	21	E2
4	7	Dallas	-6.697	5	3	59	23	W2
5	13	Toronto	-6.614	5	4	57	25	E3
6	14	New Orleans	-6.29	5	3	58	24	W3
7	1	Boston	-4.857	5	3	54	28	E4
8	18	Utah	-4.285	7	3	54	28	W4
9	8	Memphis	-3.302	6	3	51	31	W5
10	17	Chicago	-3.105	5	5	48	34	E5
11	29	Portland	-2.776	6	2	50	32	W6
12	3	Philadelphia	-1.831	4	6	44	38	E6
13	15	New York	-0.689	4	4	42	40	E7
14	11	Atlanta	0.6182	5	3	40	42	E8
15	19	Brooklyn	1.0004	3	6	37	45	E9
16	16	Denver	1.2655	5	3	38	44	W7
17	9	Miami	1.271	4	6	36	46	E10
18	28	Oklahoma City	1.896	4	4	35	47	W8
19	12	Minnesota	2.044	4	5	35	47	W9
20	22	Washington	3.3735	4	5	32	50
21	27	Orlando	3.5235	2	7	29	53
22	25	Indiana	3.7668	4	5	30	52
23	20	Charlotte	4.11	3	6	29	53	OUT
24	23	Sacramento	4.4648	2	5	28	54
25	2	Golden State	4.818	3	7	27	55	OUT
26	6	LA Clippers	4.9401	5	4	29	53	W10
27	24	San Antonio	4.9668	5	4	29	53
28	30	Houston	5.8284	1	8	24	58
29	21	LA Lakers	5.8529	2	6	24	58	OUT
30	26	Detroit	9.7712	2	8	16	66

Playoff Picks

Play In

(7) Knicks over (8) Hawks

(9) Nets over (10) Heat

(8) Hawks over (9) Nets

(7) Nuggets over (8) Thunder

(9) Timberwolves over (10) Clippers

(8) Thunder over (9) Timberwolves

First Round

(1) Cavaliers over (8) Hawks

(2) Bucks over (7) Knicks

(3) Raptors over (6) 76ers

(4) Celtics over (5) Bulls

(1) Suns over (8) Thunder

(2) Mavericks over (7) Nuggets

(3) Pelicans over (6) Trail Blazers

(4) Jazz over (5) Grizzlies

Second Round

(1) Cavaliers over (4) Celtics

(2) Bucks over (3) Raptors

(1) Suns over (4) Jazz

(2) Mavericks over (3) Pelicans

Conference Finals

(1) Cavaliers over (2) Bucks

(1) Suns over (2) Mavericks

NBA Finals

(1) Cavaliers over (1) Suns