Okay, so by now it’s pretty clear just what franchises currently look to be affirmed as contenders now that we’ve almost passed the first full month of this season. Viable postseason locks look like as domineering as we expect them to, and well, those that have failed to meet expectations early on look subpar as they are looking more like locks to receive lottery picks in June.
Certain narratives about how a few of cellar-dweller teams may have finally got a glimpse of successful above-.500 basketball are beginning to die down as we near December and the new year, and conversely championship favorites that started their seasons out sluggishly are finally getting the hang of it, perched atop of rankings tracking every major traditional and advanced statistic.
Some teams were on the outside of the top 10 teams looking in to begin the year, and now look like automatic mainstays a month in. Teams like the Clippers and Mavericks started the year on rocky roads, potentially due to the health of their stars.
As disjointed as their starts were, both teams and more on this list look as if they can and will challenge for that Western NBA Finals bid right now. Yes, the Lakers may have dominated all discussions about who is the best team in the West, and perhaps the entire NBA, but best believe the Clippers and Rockets (and Mavericks, if we’re really debating things here) are breathing down their necks.
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1. Los Angeles Lakers (14-2, Last Week’s Ranking: 1)
The Lakers remain stagnant on this list, and for good reason. They’ve had a relatively easy schedule since last week, going 3-0 against teams that aren’t even at .500. Still, December will test LeBron and AD’s Lakers, for the real questions will be answered on just how serious these Lakers are to contend in the West as they go against the Mavericks, Nuggets, Jazz, Heat, Bucks and Clippers (on Christmas day) this upcoming month.
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2. Los Angeles Clippers (12-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 5)
It was only a matter of time since the Clippers got into the top two on the rankings list. They would’ve been No. 1 had it not been for their record, but now you know or have a clear-cut idea of what this Clippers team looks at full, optimal capacity. Paul George returning to the Clips’ lineup has done so much good for Kawhi Leonard and the rest of his new teammates, and it is showing. It’s raised the level of performance for natural scorer Lou Williams, thought the trio have only spent a total of 27 minutes together on the floor.
Down the stretch, as evident in their overtime win against the Celtics and their fourth-quarter extravaganza against the Rockets last Friday, this team is terrifying to stop and intimidating enough on defense to make you miss. Their net rating when all three are sharing the court: +27.5. They have also, for the first time as a team this year, arrived into the top-10 for overall defensive efficiency.
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3. Milwaukee Bucks (13-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)
Giannis Antetokounmpo is looking like an MVP candidate, and saying that this early in the season is the equivalent to saying water is wet.
The Bucks have won seven straight games despite not having Khris Middleton for the next couple of weeks, doing it by materializing the basic principle of making their defense their offense and outscoring their opponents by 9.6 points per game. Milwaukee is currently on pace to lead the NBA in scoring differential for the second season in a row. That mark will probably improve when they face the Jazz, Hawks, Cavaliers and Hornets.
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4. Denver Nuggets (12-3, Last Week’s Ranking: 6)
The Nuggets aren’t anything flashy, or anything overly dominant (I mean, Nikola Jokic is a whole different thing, considering he’s a wizard on the block with his passing prowess) but these Nuggets just win and do it with variety.
Denver played its best game of the year on Wednesday, defeating the Houston Rockets by a final of 105-95 behind standout efforts from Nikola Jokic and Torrey Craig. The latter helped hold James Harden under the 30-point mark for the first time since Nov. 3, but Denver’s entire defense deserves credit for elevating its focus and intensity against a hot Houston team.
They got a big win against the Suns on Sunday afternoon, clutching it down the stretch and with Washington coming to town and a quick road stop in Sacramento, their scoring punch can certainly be reclaimed.
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5. Boston Celtics (11-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 3)
For a change, it doesn’t feel saying the Celtics are more fun to watch without Kyrie Irving hogging up possessions and hoisting up low-percentage shots. These Celtics have been a delightful team to watch takeover the East in the season’s first month. They’ve shown that, while prescribed as underdogs in a lot of their high-profile matchups against teams like the Bucks and Clippers, they aren’t afraid to show heart, especially on the defensive end since the Celtics are the third-best defensive team in the NBA.
Jayson Tatum has the greenlight more than ever and has looked at times like the rookie who took the league by storm in the conference finals just two years ago, and with Kemba Walker and Gordon Hayward’s return coming soon, the ball movement with these C’s is likely to increase expeditiously.
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6. Houston Rockets (11-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 4)
James Harden has been amazing and is on a historic streak, averaging 37.9 ppg. in 37.3 minutes per game. The Rocket defense, however, has not looked great during their three-game losing streak, including a hard-fought loss to the Clippers and a 137-point giveaway to the Luka Doncic-led Mavericks just a night ago. With Danuel House and Eric Gordon still out, and Russell Westbrook struggling on the offensive end, Harden should expect more of the same pesky defensive coverages from here on out.
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7. Philadelphia 76ers (11-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 9)
The 76ers’ huge 27-point statement win over the Miami Heat supplanted themselves as an elite power in the East, as they should have been all season. As recent occurrences would have it, their 3-0 start was quickly abolished with suspension, growing pains with new lineup changes, and new role adjustments. All of which made Philly look like shells of their expectations.
Not anymore.
The tandem of Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons look like the most defensively oppressing frontcourt in the league as the Sixers post an 103.1 defensive rating and on offense, Philly is outscoring their opponents by 29 points per 100 possessions.
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8. Utah Jazz (11-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 7)
Donovan Mitchell has had a steady start to his 2019 season, but it’s been the inconsistent and ineffective play of new Jazz guard Mike Conley has been a big reason the Jazz rank 21st in offensive efficiency. Furthermore, it doesn’t help a whole lot that Joe Ingles has had difficulty adjusting to his new sixth man role since Bojan Bogdanovic has taken his starting spot.
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9. Dallas Mavericks (11-5, Last Week’s Ranking: 12)
It’s Luka Doncic’s world, we’re just living in it.
Let me rephrase that: We’re all just living, breathing mammals collectively living under the radiant sun that is the Slovenian Sniper’s ray of light that shoneth upon our souls.
Luka Doncic is on a historic run, and the fact that he’s only 20 is even more eye-opening. His 41-point, 6-rebound, 10-assist performance in Sunday’s road demolition of the Rockets wasn’t even his best game during Dallas’ five-game winning streak. He’s a literal walking 40-point Triple-Double. He just picked up a Western Conference Player of the Month Award, and we’re assuming there’s more where that came from.
It’s also really helpful that his cohort Kristaps Porzingis, who struggled as he chipped off rust early in the season, is looking more and more like the all star many expected him to be had his injury woes never happened. This week’s opening challenge against the stacked Clippers will be the ultimate litmus test for the 20-year old to see how far or close the Mavs are to looking the part of a contender.
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10. Toronto Raptors (11-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 10)
The 11-4 returning champion Toronto Raptors are a good team. Shocking. Their only losses this season have come against the league’s most elite teams – the Boston Celtics, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers and Dallas Mavericks – and since then they’ve been 9-0 when projected as sportsbook favorites.
Other pieces like Terence Davis, Chris Boucher and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson have covered the absences of Serge Ibaka and Kyle Lowry, and during the past four games, Norman Powell has contributed around 19.5 points per game on 54.4% shooting from the field to provide a stable scoring option on the wing and help keep the offense humming, while being quick enough on the defensive end to create chances in transition.
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11. Miami Heat (11-4, Last Week’s Ranking: 8)
Maybe it’s time to pump the brakes on seeing the Miami Heat as a team that is primed to challenge the best of the East.
A solid five-game winning streak was snapped by a hideous, nauseating loss to one of those postseason locks in the Philadelphia 76ers, as they stomped all over Jimmy Butler and the Heat. Aside from some easy, predictable wins expected for a team of that magnitude to win, Miami’s schedule has been really easy, and the loss to Philly had the feel of a putting-you-in-your-place game.
It’s probably a lot more credible assigning the 6th or 7th seed to this Miami team as the season progresses, for it will be hard seeing them topple the likes of a Boston, Philadelphia or Milwaukee this year.
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12. Indiana Pacers (9-6, Last Week’s Ranking: 13)
The Pacers have quietly reestablished themselves among the six teams to separate from the field in the Eastern Conference, especially on the defensive end. They have held their past five opponents to an average of 96.2 points per game, even with two of those games coming against the high-powered offenses of the Rockets and Bucks. They sit at a comfortable 9-6 record amid a slew of injuries to their most impactful pieces, though Malcolm Brogdon returns tonight against the Grizzlies at home.
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13. Minnesota Timberwolves (8-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 15)
Karl Anthony-Towns looked as if he was taking a backseat to a Most Improved Player candidate in Andrew Wiggins, but now it’s clear that the former Kentucky Wildcat is kicking it into high gear. Though the record isn’t directly indicative of his effort on the offensive end, which stands at the big man shooting at 44.9 percent from deep as he averages over 26.4 ppg. Yet, the Wolves haven’t been close to impressive, losing four of their last five games.
They may continue to struggle if their shots keep clanking and they don’t find a way to get Karl-Anthony Towns the ball more often when it matters, considering the fact that he only took three shots in their most recent loss to the Suns.
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14. Phoenix Suns (8-8, Last Week’s Ranking:
The sun is starting to set on this Phoenix basketball team. It was a great start, a fiery one at that. But the loss of Aron Baynes, who is arguably the Suns’ most valuable asset in their frontcourt in his career-best season has been more injurious than another 2 or 3-win start to the season. That same injury bug that bit Baynes also took a chunk out of Ricky Rubio, and though it hasn’t affected Devin Booker as much as he’s doing everything in his power (again) to keep the Suns in the playoff hunt this early in the season, it’s still not a big help having 2/5 of his starting 5 on the bench.
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15. Brooklyn Nets (8-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 17)
Good news: Spencer Dinwiddie raked in enough votes to become the Eastern Conference Player of the Week. With Kyrie Irving out, the combination of Dinwiddie and Jarrett Allen have meshed well in securing the success of the Nets’ 3-1 stretch without Irving on the court, and Allen pitched in on the offensive end Wednesday against the Charlotte Hornets, scoring 22 points and 17 rebounds.
Sunday’s victory in New York got Brooklyn back to .500 and they’ll have a tune-up opportunity with a visit to Cleveland before their arduous road trip to Boston and Miami.
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16. Sacramento Kings (7-8, Last Week’s Ranking: 16)
Don’t look now, but the Kings pieced together a nice little winning streak last week, winning 7 of their last 10 contests. Bogdan Bogdanovic got the credit last week, and he deserves more after continuing to contribute to Sacramento’s success without De’Aaron Fox, who is still recovering from his ankle injury. His 31 points were significant in Tuesday’s win over the slipping Suns, and he has scored 52 points over the past two games.
Sacramento is 7-8 with a rough path still left to travel on during their trip out East. Boston tonight, Philadelphia on Wednesday. With Fox and Bagley probably coming back soon, the Kings will take their rocky start if it means prime midseason positioning for playoff projection when all 5 of their starters are healthy.
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17. Orlando Magic (6-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 19)
A favorable schedule with Detroit, Cleveland and Golden State could keep Orlando above water while Aaron Gordon and Nikola Vucevic nurse their ailing ankle injuries. This gives a litany of opportunity for Jonathan Isaac to start and put up some impressive numbers, just like how he did in Saturday’s loss to the Pacers with his 25 point, nine rebound, four steal and two block stat line. The Magic are 4-3 in their last seven games, and have a chance to improve that number this week.
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18. New Orleans Pelicans (6-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 26)
No. 8 overall pick Jaxson Hayes, a lean, high energy 19-year-old with significant long-term upside, has lived up to his responsibility as a first-round draft steal and responded well to recent starting duty with Derrick Favors who is dealing with injuries. Hayes has averaged 9.2 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks during his five-game stint as a starter.
New Orleans got 15 fourth-quarter points from Brandon Ingram on in a late 124-121 win against the Suns last Thursday and extended their winning streak to a season-best 3 games. Back-to-back road defeats to the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Clippers resulted in a 2-2 week, but things are looking up for New Orleans.
It’s only a matter of a few weeks before the phenom Zion Williamson debuts on a court and if his consistent style of play is anything like what we witnessed in the preseason, watch out.
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19. Oklahoma City Thunder (5-10, Last Week’s Ranking: 18)
The Thunder find themselves sitting at a perfect .250, losing 7 of 8 two-possession games this quarter. Their lone win against an above .500 team in the final two minutes of a game came a couple of weeks ago in a home upset win against the Sixers but since then, the Thunder seem to play two solid quarters and a decent fourth but fail to finish tight games, mainly in part to their inability to not come out flat at the end of a half.
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20. Portland Trail Blazers (5-12, Last Week’s Ranking: 20)
So, maybe the Carmelo Anthony experiment is more of a slow-cooker than a spontaneous combustion.
The Blazers’ losing streak has very little to do with the progressively improving Anthony and just about everything to do with the faulty health of Damian Lillard early on. CJ McCollum isn’t much of a primary scoring option but with two games against the Chicago Bulls and one home game against the Thunder, Rip City has the opportunity to pile on some wins leading up to Lillard’s eventual return to full health.
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21. San Antonio Spurs (6-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 14)
It’s weird seeing Gregg Popovich’ Spurs lose eight games in a row, isn’t it? Of course, its like clockwork how an early-struggling Spurs team finds a magic path to get out of the mud midway through a season, pushing for a high slot in playoff seeding when all theorized them to finally miss out on the postseason.
They were able to grab a get-right win against the Knicks in the Garden, snapping that very eight-game winning streak but doesn’t absolve any issues for the league’s 27th ranked defense as they have to face off against both Los Angeles teams and Minnesota this week.
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22. Washington Wizards (5-9, Last Week’s Ranking: 28)
It’s a little bit of an improvement from last week, simply because of the precarious disparity between the Wizards’ offensive and defensive efficiency. On one end, it’s bucket after bucket, as Bradley Beal and Mo Wagner pile on points like they’re Autumn leaves on a tarp. On defense, they’re practically Swiss cheese, as the Wizards possess the 29th-best defense in the NBA.
Before Sunday, the Wizards had won three of four, and despite the continued atrocious defense, were flat outscoring opponents. That slowed against the Kings in a somewhat more defensive battle, and although being dealt a 113-106 loss, they still competed.
Washington has scored at least 120 points in five of its last six games but is just 2-4 in that span. Imagine if they start playing some competent defense…
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23. Memphis Grizzlies (6-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 24)
Memphis followed up a season-best three-game winning streak with win-less week 5. But hey, that’s expected with such a young, developing roster. 2nd overall pick Ja Morant has dazzled and is in a league of his own as it pertains to the Rookie of the Year Award, averaging 19.7 points and 6.0 assists in the three games they’ve lost.
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24. Charlotte Hornets (6-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 21)
Charlotte lost four-straight and had an opportunity to end that skid, had it not been for the Bulls’ Zach LaVine and Tomas Satoransky both drilling threes in the games final seconds to snatch a victory from the claws of James Borrego’s team. We’re going to either learn a lot about the heart of the Hornets team in the next couple of days as they play at Miami on Monday and end the week at Milwaukee on Saturday, with two additional games against Detroit.
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25. Detroit Pistons (5-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 22)
Detroit has lost six of their last seven, and it looks like they’ve come completely undone. They sandwiched a blowout win over the struggling Hawks with two ugly losses to the Bucks and Bulls last week. They do have a chance to better their record with home games against Charlotte, San Antonio and Orlando
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26. Chicago Bulls (6-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 27)
The Bulls haven’t had it easy on the floor and off it, with drama insinuating itself in the locker room between Zach LaVine and head coach Jim Boylen, who openly criticized LaVine’s lackluster defensive effort in a loss to the Pistons.
LaVine then gave reason for Bulls fans to cheer, even for a little while, with one of the most amazing, pulsating finishes you’ll ever see this year in a last-second fadeaway three from the right J in the game’s waning moments to win against the Charlotte Hornets. He finished with 13 threes and 49 points – two career-highs in one night.
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27. Cleveland Cavaliers (5-11, Last Week’s Ranking: 23)
Cleveland ended a six-game losing streak on Saturday, beating the slumping Trail Blazers 110-104, as the are now 3-9 in November.
On the year, the Cavs offense has been worse with Sexton and Garland on the floor than it’s been overall, which isn’t a great sign for that duo’s future, since the very reason they drafted Garland was for him to build chemistry with the second-year guard.
John Beilein benching them in their blowout loss to the Heat last week isn’t the best indication that the two are starting to get a hang of this NBA thing, either.
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28. Atlanta Hawks (4-12, Last Week’s Ranking: 25)
Trae Young has been the only bright spot for the Atlanta Hawks, who have lost nine of their past ten games. Only the Warriors have a worse record than their four wins.
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29. New York Knicks (4-13, Last Week’s Ranking: 29)
It’s more of the same for the bumbling Knicks, who stumble back into their 29th spot on this list. We thought that the Knicks had somewhat turned a small, baby corner based on the stretch of the previous four games. After their near-victory against the Philadelphia 76ers that saw the Knicks lead by five entering the quarter and lose all the same, the New York just can’t get out of its own way, even in another close loss to the Nets in a 103-101 loss on Sunday night.
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30. Golden State Warriors (3-14, Last Week’s Ranking: 30)
It’s just injury after injury for the Warriors, who still possess the worst record in the NBA. Draymond Green is banged up and was listed as questionable for their game Monday night against OKC, Kevon Looney is dealing with nerve issues and won’t suit up for either the Thunder or Bulls games, and it’s looking more and more that they are all in for securing that No. 1 overall pick this summer.
