Happy belated New Year! The first Power Rankings sheet of 2021 might be the most abnormal ranking we’ve done in a while, as is the second week of every new season. A bunch of odd losing and winning streaks come and go, but in a shortened season, it’s clear as day that whoever can get hot will remain hot, and those that get out of the blocks slowly hardly ever recover.
The 72-game season will not be so kind to teams who don’t clean up and execute the simple things, since there won’t be enough time in the day to make the proper adjustments there could be made in a regular 82-game campaign. However, certain teams that were preseason playoff locks coming into this year who are experiencing a downturn in productivity shouldn’t fret, since they have all the pieces that need to work through the kinks this early in the year.
Both the Lakers and Clippers stayed strong and resilient atop the rankings for another week, while the Brooklyn Nets, devastated by the news surrounding Spencer Dinwiddie’s season-ending (for all we know) ACL tear, have dropped 4 of their last 5 since their win on Christmas against the Celtics. It’s a big shakeup in week 2’s Power Rankings, so let’s get into the chaos for another week.
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1. Los Angeles Lakers (5-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 2)
Consider it a small sample size that doesn’t quite tell the whole story, but the Lakers are quite the squad, as we’ve all come to expect. Aside from only losing two games at home this year, the Lakers are rolling on the road, now a perfect 3-0 away from the Staples Center, and as always a good offense is engineered by a suffocating defense, and the Lakers are posting the sixth-best defensive rating in the NBA at the moment. LeBron James is starting to look like the guy who finished second in MVP voting last season, as the four-time Finals MVP casually put up a triple-double against the Spurs and continued his greatness with 22 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists against the Grizzlies.
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2. Los Angeles Clippers (5-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)
Talk about an adjustment. The Clips, salivating of a comeback-to-relevancy win to regain some credibility as a serious threat to the Lakers in the West after blowing a franchise-worst 51-point loss to the Mavericks last week, got back on the saddle in their second week of play. How’s bludgeoning the Trail Blazers and Timberwolves by 23 each sound? Paul George is back to his regular-season stat sheet filling ways, evident in his 39-point extravaganza against the similarly 5-2 Suns that garnered some chippiness from Devin Booker and the Clippers’ Pacific division rivals. However, big leads continue to be an issue to keep, and once teams start to go on runs against them, they can’t keep up or stop them from letting those leads build.
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3. Philadelphia 76ers (5-1, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)
Consistent offense seems to be a problem the Doc Rivers-led Sixers have yet to solve, but what hasn’t hurt them has been their stifling half-court defense, now especially since the 76ers have flexed their defensive prowess with the league’s best defensive rating. It’s become an evolutionary tale for a Sixers team that last year was as proficient on the opposite end of the floor since they finished third in the league last year in the category and behind Ben Simmons’ overtly adequate skill of stopping guards that want to beat him off the dribble as well as challenging slashers and bigs under the bucket as a 6’10 mismatch proves to be something the league’s most shifty creators cannot get around in the start of this season.
But, we’ll see how good this Sixers team can be with a tough five-game stretch against five teams that are really good at scoring the basketball – Brooklyn, Denver, Atlanta, and two games against Miami await the 5-1 Sixers to start 2021 for them.
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4. Phoenix Suns (5-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)
Hopefully, this isn’t too much of deja vu from last year – the Suns got hot and put the league on notice with a .500 record that was constructed by the immaculate play of Devin Booker, Kelly Oubre, Ricky Rubio, Mikal Bridges, and the rest of the 2019-20 Suns and were promptly humbled from a hard schedule and lack of true talent other than the four mentioned. It’s different this time around, and with Chris Paul to accompany him, the spacing is apparent and being put to use as Booker and others like DeAndre Ayton are cooking defenses left and right to help the Suns claim the second-best record in the NBA, for the time being at least.
Aside from a comeback bid falling short against the Clippers, the Suns are showing they belong in the West, and a balanced scoring effort is working out for them, not just in their starting lineup, but off the bench as Cameron Johnson and Cameron Payne lead the second unit in scoring.
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5. Houston Rockets (2-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)
No joke – Christian Wood is putting in his bid for the MVP award this early in the new year. It seems like a change of scenery was the only necessary thing for the 6’10 Power Forward who was already putting up some respectable numbers in Detroit, as the former Running Rebel has scored 31, 23, 21, and 20 points in his first four games in a Rockets uniform, and has averaged 23.7 points per game under new head coach Stephen Silas.
He’s a double-double machine who’s per 36 of 23.4 ppg., 10.6 rpg., and 2.2 bpg. suggest that he’s only going to get better as the season progresses, and on another note, it’s likely James Harden remains a Rocket for the time being since the Rockets post a top-12 offensive rating that’s sure to improve with John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Wood and Harden grow more chemistry with one another. The minute they do…watch out.
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6. Atlanta Hawks (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 6)
Take Atlanta’s 145-141 loss to the top-heavy Brooklyn Nets with a grain of salt – a team that’s still rebuilding and developing hung in there with the best of em’ in the KD and Kyrie-led Nets and had one of the games of the year with Trae Young leading the charge as one of the league’s blossoming young talents. And also, take into account their redeeming win in convincing fashion against the Nets in the two-game series one game later, noteworthy of their offensive system clicking on all cylinders this early into the season. The Hawks are one of the most exciting teams to watch this year if you ever get a chance to see them, and their playoff goals look as attainable as ever with the fifth-best record in the Eastern Conference so far.
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7. Utah Jazz (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)
A lot of things are going wrong for the Jazz right now, like Donovan Mitchell’s abhorrent start, but that is being heavily outweighed by the amount of good that’s fallen upon Utah this early on. Last year, Jazz supporters and media prognosticators both hammered Mike Conley’s inability to transition into Quin Snyder’s system with ease, as the Grizzlies’ all-time scorer struggled mightily in his new city following his departure from Memphis last season.
That isn’t the case this season and the veteran point guard is picking up the slack for the struggling Mitchell, leading his team in scoring with 20.3 points per game as well as overall plus-minus. He’s getting into the flow of things and being the elusive, Ball-IQ-savvy floor general that makes his team better, appearing as second on the league assist list.
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8. Indiana Pacers (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)
At 4-2 and in the second seed within the Eastern Conference, you’re starting to see what staying in good health can do for a Pacers team that’s constructed well enough to challenge for a playoff spot. Coach Nate Bjorksen has these Pacers, well, pacing, down the floor and hustling on D with the seventh-best defensive rating in basketball, and quickly turns that into a breakneck offense that puts out the sixth-best scoring effort in the NBA.
Victor Oladipo and Malcolm Brogdon looking like a near-perfect pairing is one thing, but having the growing Domantas Sabonis who’s becoming more of an adept, confident scorer on a nightly basis, is another factor that plays into their favor. However, they are going to be one man short, as they’re temporarily losing TJ Warren for an extended period of time as he gets surgery done in a stress fracture on his left foot.
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9. New Orleans Pelicans (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)
The Pelicans find themselves in the top-10 of the Power Rankings for the first time this year after rebounding from an embarrassing blowout loss to the Phoenix Suns, and their 4-2 record has largely been as a result of Stan Van Gundy’s defensive approach of packing the paint with both shot-blocking aficionados Zion Williamson and Steven Adams closing off driving angles to the cup and the trio of Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram and Eric Bledsoe forcing opposing offenses to get theirs from outside the perimeter.
Call it a blast from the past and SVG’s bread and butter of relying upon his bigs as the backbone of the defense, but it’s paid off in dividends; in six games, the Pels are the fourth-best defensive team in the NBA and are a top-10 team in opponent three-point percentage, and additionally are only allowing 38 percent of opposing shots to fall from within the paint this season.
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10. Boston Celtics (4-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)
The Celtics drop two spots in this week’s rankings, mainly due to some uncharacteristic losses to lesser opponents in the Pacers and Pistons. Two series against the two Eastern foes told a couple of things about these Celtics: yes, the Jays are awesome together, but beside them, this poorly built team is truly suffering without a third scorer in the starting lineup. Injuries to both guards Kemba Walker (who’s scheduled to come back some time this month) and Jeff Teague really increase the volume of touches for Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, but what exists on their bench (Grant Williams, Semi Ojeleye, surprising rookie Payton Pritchard, and more) may not do the trick to get the Celtics back onto the track of the deep playoff runs they’ve experienced for the last few years.
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11. Orlando Magic (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 11)
The Magic started off the season going undefeated at 4-0, but snapped back into reality and with their increasingly challenging schedule, things may not improve for a Magic team still missing some venerable pieces in their frontcourt, most notably Jonathan Isaac. After dropping two straight to the Sixers and Thunder, the hot start the Magic got on this year is starting to cool off now, and they’ll greatly need for their $40M asset in Markelle Fultz to get over his gripping inconsistencies — he is shooting just over 13-43 from the field in the past three games.
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12. Cleveland Cavaliers (4-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)
Bad news and good news follow the Cavs after two weeks of play. Bad news first: their fiery perfect start to the season finally concluded after two straight losses coming into this week, but the good news: they put on quite arguably their best performance of the season against Atlanta in which they held the league’s second-best offense to under 100 points and Collin Sexton seems to be turning the corner as a dangerous two-way threat, as he scored a team-high 27 points against the Hawks and extended his streak of games with 20+ points to 11 games, which of course has carried over from last season. The rebuild is off to a strong start in the third year of the post-LeBron era in Cleveland, and newly-appointed head coach J.B. Bickerstaff has done a phenomenal job in his first 17 games within the role.
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13. Milwaukee Bucks (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)
Just like the Lakers, a small sample size won’t foretell the story of the Bucks’ 2020-21 season in a nutshell, and quite frankly, their position on this list isn’t exactly warranted since the Bucks know and feel as if they’re better than their even 3-3 record, as told in their stampeding of the Bulls and split series with the Heat. But, with them dropping one to the team that beat them in five games back in the bubble’s Eastern Conference Semifinals, the questions surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo’s skillset and improvement from last season as a pure scorer in the halfcourt when defenses bring their wall coverages are still within conversations on whether or not he’ll be rewarded the MVP award for a third-straight time.
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14. Brooklyn Nets (3-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)
Oh, how fortune can flip in the matter of days.
Though the Nets started off their season in expeditious fashion cruising past Boston and Golden State and winning by double digits in both contests, lady luck just ripped the rug from right under the Nets, as they would go on to drop four of their last five contests. Those losses, largely incumbent upon the lack of the Nets having a true third scorer other than Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, are also due to the fact that from a team defense perspective, there just isn’t as much consistency from that of a championship contender.
A 107.3 defensive rating isn’t impressive — rather a middle of the pack rating, probable residue from giving up 141 points to the Atlanta Hawks in a barnburner — and their struggles have raised questions about their depth and decision making in the clutch.
It was said by a certain Kyrie Irving that he’s honored to have another guy next to him that can score whenever the team needed a bucket down the stretch, but per their loss to the Wizards, where both Irving and Durant had good looks to close out the Wizards at home and failed to do so, that was not to be. Now, they stare at a sub-.500 record with their backup guard Spencer Dinwiddie out for the year, and their star Kevin Durant out for at least a week as he follows COVID-19 safety protocols from being potentially exposed to the virus.
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15. Golden State Warriors (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)
If there was any phrase to act as a band-aid to the Warriors’ underlying ailments that’ll probably keep them out of the postseason this year if things don’t work themselves out this year, it’ll likely be these:
“Look at Curry man, so inspirational.”
Back to his style of making the dumpster smell sweet (not a slight, just wordplay) Stephen Curry earned his moniker of “Chef Curry” back in incredible fashion, scoring a career-high 62 points in the second meeting of a series with Portland and a near legacy-defining regular-season game.
The Warriors were staring 2-4 in the face, with concerns of shooting confidence seeping in the minds of Kelly Oubre and Andrew Wiggins.In dire need of some absolvement from their offensive woes, in came two-time MVP Stephen Curry flying his cape to save the Dubs from bottom-barrel irrelevancy with a marquee performance against those very Blazers that beat them two nights before.
The season is not lost for Golden State, they’ll just need to find a way to get back on track and get more from their wings to assist Curry, who will have to average 25+ nightly to supply for the lost Klay Thompson, who won’t suit up this season, and possibly a little into next year due to a torn left Achilles.
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16. Portland Trail Blazers (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)
The season for Portland has been a series of ups and downs, but it could be worse with their .500 record six games into the season. Though some defensive lapses certainly have not gone their way, they have to like their position in the West for the time being, especially after picking up some key wins over the Lakers to open the week. Enes Kanter seems like one of the less-appreciated pickups in the offseason, and he and Carmelo Anthony have underwhelmed on the defensive end for a team that’s sorely needed healthy bodies and help on the opposite side of the ball. But, secondary scoring from CJ McCollum — 28 ppg. off 45 percent shooting — has been a sight for sore eyes, and his quick start is rather uncharacteristic since he usually never starts out this hot.
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17. Miami Heat (2-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)
Since the last week of play, Miami once again saw a split of games that told two different stories. In their first game against the Bucks, they perhaps one of their most embarrassing defeats in the history of the franchise in a 45-point loss, and one game after recollected and rallied to come back and beat the Bucks on a back to back. Their offense has looked sporadic when Jimmy Butler was off the floor, but when he was on it, it didn’t pop as it did in the bubble, considering that he hasn’t looked like himself stemming from the ankle injury he sustained at the beginning of the season. In their loss to Dallas on Friay night, the Marquette man didn’t even attempt a shot.
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18. New York Knicks (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)
Well, it goes to show that old “Thibs” knows how to get the job done. As the last coach of the Timberwolves, a squad that experienced success after a long playoff drought back in 2018, he looks to do the same with a youthful and promising Knicks organization. And he’s off to a great start. Julius Randle’s role on this team was very much an uncertain variable following the decision to stay young and draft potential Rookie of the Year prospect Obi Toppin, but the Kentucky product has come to stake his claim as a franchise centerpiece, for however how long that will last. Averaging a little over 21 points, 10,5 rebounds and 7.5 assists in six contests, he is surely playing the best ball of his career. While the Knicks have a long way to go in terms of building a playoff-caliber roster, they’re quietly making headlines and building a culture that will last, no matter who is in that locker room.
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19. Denver Nuggets (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)
A rocky start (pun intended) by these Nuggets was met with even more misfortune, as Michael Porter Jr. is being told to quarantine for a couple of games in compliance to the league’s health and safety protocols. But conversely, Jamal Murray is beginning to regain his shot from the bubble and Nikola Jokic is looking like the best pure big man in basketball right now. Jokic is nearly averaging a triple-double, and new acquisition JaMychal Green fits like a glove. They should get that record to look a little better in 2021, since eight of their 11 games on the road feature the likes of the slipping Timberwolves and Mavericks.
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20. San Antonio Spurs (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)
While the Spurs made history after appointing Becky Hammon to Head Coaching duties following Gregg Popovich’s ejection, the Lakers still walked into AT&T Center and promptly destroyed DeMar DeRozan and the Spurs. From LaMarcus Aldridge’s age looking as if it is going to be a liability to the Spurs’ plans of challenging for a playoff spot, Rudy Gay’s continued inefficiency from deep (now shooting less than 25 percent from three) and their youthfulness not being quite ready to contend against the likes of the West’s elite, the better option is to look at these next few games against both the Clippers and Lakers as chances to watch their younger players develop.
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21. Sacramento Kings (3-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)
That euphoric feel of a 3-1 didn’t last as long as folks expected for the Kings, who like a bunch of the lowly teams in the West, lack consistent presence of more than two All-Stars in the starting lineup. Dropping two straight games to a Western powerhouse in Houston that does have that All-Star presence and is a practical measuring stick to what they should model their roster after will cause that lack of success. But what has been a positive for them: rookie Tyrese Haliburton seems to be a pick that new GM Monte McNair may have knocked out of the park. His defensive intuition and decision-making is something to watch grow and develop, but he will be sidelined with a bone bruise in his wrist for at least a week.
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22. Dallas Mavericks (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)
Luka Doncic and the Mavericks wish they could have a do-over for this season’s opening. It’s been anything but good for these Mavs out of the gate, and Doncic has looked anything but an MVP candidate, now shooting an ugly 16 percent from downtown. Whether that is a conditioning thing following a short offseason and non-committment to an offseason fitness regimen or just a bad start that’ll probably blow over soon, it needs to be sorted out, and quickly, because the Southwest division with Houston and New Orleans is unforgiving and it will shun them if they don’t clean things up.
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23. Toronto Raptors (1-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)
What has happened to the once-defending champs? The argument could be made that these Raptors are capable to hang in there with other good competition, and rightfully could be 5-0 as every game they’ve margin of loss has been in the single digits, but 1-4 is their reality right now. Pascal Siakam is either not himself, or he’s regressed back to his G-League skillset, but either way his poor play is hurting the team and he has to right the ship soon. Big man depth continues to be a thorn in their side, but a favorable schedule — starting out with a banged up Boston team, and ending with a talent-deficient Warriors squad — should get them back on the winning track.
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24. Memphis Grizzlies (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)
Realistically, if injuries weren’t a variable into the Grizzlies’ equation, their record wouldn’t look like what it resembles right now. After losing Ja Morant to an sprained ankle for an undisclosed time, the Grizzlies, with Ja as an active participant for at least ten minutes on the rotation for a contest, have only earned one win against their opponents. While they were able to scrape away a win against the Nets when Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant weren’t playing, they’ve suffered consecutive losses to the likes of the Lakers, Celtics, and still have the Lakers, Cavaliers and Nets again at home to play with both Ja and Jaren Jackson Jr. at home on the couch.
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25. Washington Wizards (2-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)
Team defensive issues aside, the tandem of Bradley Beal and Russell Westbrook have really lit it up in 2020 and 2021, now a perfect 2-0 in the new year. They were able to scrap and claw for a win against the Timberwolves last week without Russell Westbrook, who was sat for rest purposes, and that resulted in Washington’s first win. They soon followed that performance with a nail-biting win against the Nets in which Irving and Durant both played, and with a new year on the horizon as well as the improving health of Rui Hachimura playing a role in his comeback, the Wizards have to be grateful for where they are right now.
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26. Minnesota Timberwolves (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)
Karl Anthony-Towns’ wrist injury completely deflated any chances of having momentum to enter the new year, and since his absence as been felt, they’ve lost four straight games. There is no remedy to replace KAT’s productivity, but they are using these games to observe and analyze just what each young player on this team needs to work on in order to be a better player and teammate, and they realize this is going to be a long, tedious process of developing a champion. So for Wolves fans, keep the expectations low.
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27. Charlotte Hornets (2-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)
LaMelo Ball has been the brightest star for this Hornets team that hasn’t exceeded expectations this year, which was understandable since this is a transitional year filled with weaving new pieces into the roster and getting younger players more comfortable with NBA minutes against top-tier competition. The rookie scored 22 points, grabbed 8 boards and passed for 5 assists in their upset win over the Dallas Mavericks. Team defense and inconsistency in scoring the basketball seems to be their issue, as they’ve given up a combined 235 points in their two losses to Memphis and Philadelphia.
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28. Oklahoma City Thunder (2-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)
This season wasn’t supposed to promise Thunder fans another trip to the playoffs, but rather a closer look as the gradual development of their youngest players as well as the roles of leadership undertaken by the likes of veterans Al Horford and George Hill. All of the best laid plans have all gone swimmingly, and they are winning a few games while instructing their young pieces and maintaining their confidence with a variety of minutes. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looks like he’s set to be an All-Star someday (maybe sooner than later) and for a majority of their losses, they’ve all been relatively close, which means this team can still compete.
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29. Detroit Pistons (1-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)
While Detroit earned their first win of the season against the Celtics on New Year’s Day — thanks to a 24-point explosion from new Piston Jerami Grant — their efforts of developing their young guys isn’t quite off to the strongest start. Killian Hayes has a ways to go until he can be an NBA-caliber point guard, but that’s why Derrick Rose is there to guide him. For the rest of them, winning tight games appears to be too difficult, as their 1-5 record suggests that injuries have piled up and guys aren’t talented enough to compete against the East’s best teams just yet.
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30. Chicago Bulls (3-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)
Chandler Hutchinson, Tomas Satoransky and a staffer all tested positive for the Coronavirus this past week, and while Ryan Archidiacono remains out with what’s likely the same diagnosis, depth has crucified a team that’s schedule looks almost insurmountable to overcome right now. Portland, and both Los Angeles teams await them this week….yikes.
