NBA Rankings - 3 Feb

We've passed the midway point of the season, and there are a few teams that have made a huge push in recent weeks in preparation for the playoffs. Cleveland won 8 of the 9 games they played in the last 3 weeks, and 12 out of 13 overall, and have moved up 5 spots in my rankings and are now projected to finish 3rd in the East. New York has been just as hot, winning 10 of 11, including the last 9 in a row, and they are not behind only Boston in the East rankings. Here are my full current rankings and playoff picks:

				Record		Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	Seed
1	1	Boston	-8.28	37	12	63	19	E1
2	2	Oklahoma City	-6.79	34	15	58	24	W1
3	5	LA Clippers	-6.09	32	15	56	26	W3
4	3	Minnesota	-5.73	34	15	57	25	W2
5	8	New York	-5.1	32	17	54	28	E2
6	6	Denver	-4.4	34	16	55	27	W4
7	4	Philadelphia	-4.24	30	17	52	30	E4
8	13	Cleveland	-3.47	30	16	53	29	E3
9	7	New Orleans	-3.42	28	21	49	33	W5
10	9	Milwaukee	-2.78	32	16	51	31	E5
11	14	Sacramento	-1.46	28	19	46	36	W6
12	10	Indiana	-1.4	27	23	45	37	E7
13	18	Phoenix	-1.33	28	21	44	38	W7
14	12	Orlando	-1.21	26	23	46	36	E6
15	11	Houston	-1.14	23	25	41	41	W9
16	17	Golden State	-0.94	21	24	40	40	W10
17	15	Dallas	0.508	26	22	42	39	W8
18	19	LA Lakers	0.708	25	25	40	42
19	21	Utah	1.335	24	26	37	44
20	16	Miami	1.52	26	23	41	41	E8
21	23	Brooklyn	1.527	19	28	35	47	E10
22	24	Chicago	2.263	23	26	36	46	E9
23	22	Toronto	2.454	17	31	32	50
24	20	Atlanta	2.479	21	27	35	47	OUT
25	25	Memphis	4.094	18	31	31	51
26	27	Portland	6.155	15	34	24	58
27	26	San Antonio	7.068	10	39	18	64
28	28	Washington	8.43	9	39	17	65
29	30	Detroit	8.975	6	42	13	69
30	29	Charlotte	10.43	10	37	16	66

Playoff Picks

Play In

(7) Pacers over (8) Heat

(9) Bulls over (10) Nets

(8) Heat over (9) Bulls

(7) Suns over (8) Mavericks

(9) Rockets over (10) Warriors

(8) Mavericks over (9) Rockets

First Round

(1) Celtics over (8) Heat in 4

(2) Knicks over (7) Pacers in 6

(3) Cavaliers over (6) Magic in 6

(4) 76ers over (5) Bucks in 6

(1) Thunder over (8) Mavericks in 5

(2) Timberwolves over (7) Suns in 6

(3) Clippers over (6) Kings in 5

(4) Nuggets over (5) Pelicans in 7

Second Round

(1) Celtics over (4) 76ers in 6

(2) Knicks over (3) Cavaliers in 6

(1) Thunder over (4) Nuggets in 6

(2) Timberwolves over (3) Clippers in 7

Conference Finals

(1) Celtics over (2) Knicks in 6

(1) Thunder over (2) Timberwolves in 7

NBA Finals

(1) Celtics over (1) Thunder in 6