NBA Rankings - 31 Jan

The hottest team in the NBA over the past few weeks has surprisingly been the Charlotte Hornets, who have won 5 games in a row and 8 of their past 11, and have now moved up to #15 in my rankings, and are projected to make it to the play-in. The coldest team has been Utah, which has lost 9 of 10 and is projected to finish with the sixth-worst record in the league. Here are my full current rankings and playoff picks:

				Record		Proj
Rank	LW	Team	Rating	W	L	W	L	Seed
1	1	Oklahoma City	-10.04	38	11	64	18	W1
2	2	Houston	-5.479	29	17	54	28	W3
3	3	Detroit	-5.152	35	12	58	24	E1
4	5	San Antonio	-4.744	32	15	55	27	W2
5	4	Boston	-4.675	30	18	52	30	E2
6	7	New York	-3.867	30	18	51	31	E3
7	8	Minnesota	-3.719	30	19	50	32	W5
8	9	Phoenix	-3.396	30	19	50	32	W6
9	6	Denver	-3.198	33	16	51	31	W4
10	11	Golden State	-2.559	27	23	46	36	W8
11	12	Cleveland	-2.495	29	21	49	33	E4
12	10	Miami	-1.725	26	23	46	36	E6
13	14	Toronto	-1.014	29	21	46	36	E5
14	13	Philadelphia	-0.663	26	21	44	38	E7
15	21	Charlotte	-0.232	21	28	38	44	E10
16	17	LA Lakers	0.145	29	18	46	36	W7
17	15	Orlando	0.163	25	22	43	39	E8
18	16	Atlanta	0.356	24	26	41	41	E9
19	19	LA Clippers	0.364	22	25	39	43	W10
20	18	Portland	1.117	23	26	39	43	W9
21	20	Memphis	1.833	18	28	33	49
22	24	Chicago	2.349	23	25	36	46
23	23	Dallas	2.893	19	29	31	51
24	22	Milwaukee	3.356	18	28	32	50	OUT
25	27	New Orleans	5.186	13	37	24	58
26	25	Brooklyn	5.615	13	34	24	58
27	26	Utah	6.619	15	34	25	57
28	28	Indiana	6.794	12	36	22	60
29	29	Sacramento	7.436	12	38	21	61
30	30	Washington	9.009	12	35	19	63

Playoff Picks

Play In

(7) 76ers over (8) Magic

(9) Hawks over (10) Hornets

(8) Magic over (9) Hawks

(8) Warriors over (7) Lakers

(9) Trail Blazers over (10) Clippers

(7) Lakers over (9) Trail Blazers

First Round

(1) Pistons over (8) Magic in 5

(2) Celtics over (7) 76ers in 6

(3) Knicks over (6) Heat in 6

(4) Cavaliers over (5) Raptors in 7

(1) Thunder over (7) Lakers in 4

(2) Spurs over (8) Warriors in 6

(3) Rockets over (6) Suns in 6

(4) Nuggets over (5) Timberwolves in 7

Second Round

(1) Pistons over (4) Cavaliers in 5

(2) Celtics over (3) Knicks in 7

(1) Thunder over (4) Nuggets in 5

(2) Spurs over (3) Rockets in 7

Conference Finals

(1) Pistons over (2) Celtics in 7

(1) Thunder over (2) Spurs in 5

NBA Finals

(1) Thunder over (1) Pistons in 6