NBA Power Rankings Update: The Los Angeles Clippers Don't Need a Star to Get Things Done
Teams Ranked 30th to 21st
The Orlando Magic hit a bit of a wall, the Utah Jazz continue to slide, and the Houston Rockets reappear in the bottom tier.
| Ranking | Team | Record | nERD | Last Ranking | Plus/Minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | Phoenix Suns | 4-17 | 17.3 | 30 | 0 |
| 29 | Atlanta Hawks | 5-17 | 19.8 | 29 | 0 |
| 28 | Chicago Bulls | 5-17 | 23.5 | 28 | 0 |
| 27 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 4-16 | 28.7 | 27 | 0 |
| 26 | New York Knicks | 7-16 | 31.3 | 26 | 0 |
| 25 | Orlando Magic | 10-12 | 40.1 | 22 | -3 |
| 24 | Washington Wizards | 8-13 | 40.4 | 24 | 0 |
| 23 | Utah Jazz | 10-12 | 41.4 | 21 | -2 |
| 22 | Miami Heat | 7-13 | 43.0 | 22 | 0 |
| 21 | Houston Rockets | 9-11 | 44.0 | 19 | -2 |
Risers
The Minnesota Timberwolves were the only team from last week's bottom-third to move up, and they jumped into another tier entirely. In other words, we're left without anyone to talk about in this section.
Fallers
This time last week, we were talking about how the Orlando Magic seemed to be putting things together, having won seven over a nine-game stretch. Seven days later, after losing four of their last five, they're back to being two games under .500 at 10-12. They still sit in eighth in the Eastern Conference, however, and their recent schedule has been pretty unforgiving, with their losses coming against top-tier teams like the Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, and Portland Trail Blazers. Things ease up a bit from here, so it's possible that they get back on track in short order.
The Utah Jazz continue to be fairly unimpressive, going 2-2 this week, and 3-6 over their last nine. On the positive side of things, they've managed to improve their defensive rating over the last seven days, going from an 18th-ranked 110.6 to a 12th-ranked 108.8. They're not quite at the levels of their impressive second-ranked 103.9 defensive rating from last season, but at least they're trending in the right direction on that end. Another reason to trust in the chances of a Jazz turnaround is the fact that they've had the second-hardest schedule to date in the Association, according to Basketball-Reference.com's strength of schedule (1.48).
The Houston Rockets finally managed to climb out of the basement of our power rankings in our last edition, thanks to a five-game winning streak. This week, however, they're right back in the bottom tier again, having lost four in a row. They now sit in 14th in the Western Conference with a record of 9-11, and it might be time to officially strip them of the contender status they built up last season. Their playoff chances have dwindled to 59.5%, according to our algorithms, and their title odds of 3.3% rank them ninth in the Association.
