Welcome back to Sports Illustrated’s weekly NBA championship power rankings.
In case you’re new here, the premise for these rankings is as follows: At the start of each NBA season there are, realistically, about 10 teams that could make a run at a championship. By the last stretch of the season those teams have made themselves known. We endeavor to separate the pretenders from the contenders and rank those contenders based on our faith in their ability to win 16 playoff games and raise a banner when it’s all said and done.
We began with the first iteration of championship power rankings, ranking the top 12 teams in the NBA based on the standings at the time. Then the stakes were heightened: one team will get eliminated from the rankings every week as the season winds down. The first team to go was the 76ers. Then the Raptors got the axe, followed by the Rockets and then the Timberwolves.
With only two weeks left in the regular season, this edition of the power rankings will bring the number of true contenders down to seven. Here are our championship power rankings with a handful of games remaining for each team.
Eliminated teams
76ers
Why they’re eliminated: The 76ers are fully healthy and look pretty good. Does anybody reading this have faith they’ll stay that way? I thought not. Philadelphia should make for an entertaining playoff opponent if anything. But any idea the team stays healthy and doesn’t throw wins away for two straight months in the physical gauntlet of playoff basketball is fanciful at best.
Raptors
Why they’re eliminated: The Raptors could definitely prove to be a tough playoff out against the right first-round opponent, but a deep playoff run culminating in a title? A touch too optimistic for our liking. Despite a consistently strong defensive effort led by Scottie Barnes, this is a mediocre team. Mediocre teams never come anywhere close to winning a title.
Rockets
Why they’re eliminated: The two-headed monster of Alperen Şengün and Kevin Durant is good enough offensively to keep the team competitve every night. But the Rockets can’t score when it matters most as one of the worst clutch teams in the NBA. They are entirely reliant on Durant sinking all his shots to beat equally-talented opponents. Anything less and Houston makes for an easy meal. With the right playoff path the Rockets could certainly make a run, but they’ve shown too many warts to really believe they can make it out of the West.
Timberwolves
Why they’re eliminated: It isn’t entirely fair to eliminate the Wolves after they rallied for some quality wins in the wake of Anthony Edwards’s injury. But even despite that Minnesota has the weakest case of all the remaining teams. Even with Edwards’s game-changing talent the Wolves have shown us they are a team who will not—or worse, cannot—string together stretches of great basketball. To win in the West, they’ll need two straight months of great basketball. Minnesota is out of time to prove capable of doing so.
Cavaliers
Why they’re eliminated: If it seems odd to eliminate this team after a 10–5 month, consider this: Kenny Atkinson gave the roster the business about their poor defense after their fourth win in a row last week. And matters did not improve! After hearing their head coach tee off on their defensive efforts the Cavs went on to give up 120 points in a loss to the Heat, 128 points in a win against those same Heat, and then 113 points in a win over the Jazz. The results are there; the process, not so much. It’s indicative of Cleveland's reliance on outscoring opponents, which works wonderfully in the regular season but does not lead to deep postseason runs; giving up 45-point third quarters, as they did on Tuesday against the Lakers, is not going to get them very far.
Jarrett Allen’s return will definitely help and even the minimal time remaining in the season will be instrumental for the roster to continue to build chemistry. But the defensive issues seen on the court lately aren’t linked to one player’s absence. It is a feature, not a bug, of the Donovan Mitchell-James Harden backcourt. For that reason, the Cavaliers will not win a title this season.
NBA championship power rankings
7. Knicks
Last week’s ranking: No. 6
Record entering April 1: 48–28
The title case: The Knicks boast a very talented starting five that is quite difficult to stop offensively. Jalen Brunson is a proven No. 1 playoff option and the OG Anunoby–Mikal Bridges combo is a terror on the wing. New York is skilled on both ends and shouldn’t be quite as worn down entering the playoffs with Mike Brown in charge instead of Tom Thibodeau.The fact that long bouts of inconsistency persist this deep into the season isn’t great, you might say, but the talent is undeniable and things look really good when it all comes together.
Week in review: The orange-and-blue had a week’s worth of tests against similarly-talented opponents—and failed them all. They lost to the red-hot Hornets, couldn’t quite get across the finish line against the Thunder, and completely fell apart in the second half of Tuesday night’s loss to the Rockets in Houston. One could argue the first two were “good” losses in that they were competitive but New York just looks… shaky right now. Things are disjointed on both ends of the court and when shots aren’t falling the whole operation falls to pieces. This is a team headed in the wrong direction with the playoffs around the corner.
6. Nuggets
Last week’s ranking: No. 6
Record entering April 1: 48–28
The title case: The Nuggets are enjoying another great Nikola Jokić season. As long as he’s healthy Denver has a shot. Jamal Murray enjoying his first All-Star campaign could lead to an even better postseason for an already proven playoff performer. They just barely lost to the Thunder last year and have gotten better this season. The kicker for these Nuggets, more than any other team, is health. Injuries have plagued the roster up and down all season long. If they can hit the postseason at full strength there’s plenty of reason for optimism.
Week in review: Aaron Gordon missed two games in the last week with a calf issue, throwing a wrench into what was shaping up to be the first fully healthy stretch of the Nuggets’ season. Regardless, the team rolled anyway against a series of undermanned and/or tanking opponents. The biggest takeaway? Jokić seems to be rounding into dangerous playoff form. He averaged 27 points, 17 rebounds and 13 assists a night in the last three games, all wins. That’s a frightening sight for any potential playoff opponent. The defense remains middling, however, and that makes it hard to buy the idea of Denver making a run through the West—the Nuggets rank only 19th in defensive rating around the league over the last three games despite playing the Mavericks, Jazz and Warriors.
5. Lakers
Last week’s ranking: No. 4
Record entering April 1: 50–26
The title case: Star power. Most opponents cannot handle the full might of Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reaves. The trio boast ludicrous shotmaking and creation skills against any opponent. Of late, James seems to have accepted the Lakers are at their best when he plays like a supercharged role player and the dividends have been clear as day since he returned from injury last Thursday. Los Angeles is healthy and coalescing at a great time, showing a consistent spark only seen in short spurs previously.
Week in review: The Lakers are still on a heater exiting March and have officially convinced the public of their championship intentions. While the Luka Dončić MVP debate is only just getting started there’s no doubting his greatness offensively, and the winning streak he led Los Angeles on allowed them to coast to a few easy wins over the course of the last week. At some point the weight he carries offensively might be worth worrying about, in fairness. He scored 42 points in the Lakers’ latest win over the Cavs while not one of his teammates passed the 20-point mark. But Dončić’s proven up to the task thus far of shouldering an enormous offensive load while playing winning basketball.
4. Celtics
Last week’s ranking: No. 7
Record entering April 1: 50–25
The title case: The Celtics were an exceptionally well-coached team led by a true star in Jaylen Brown. Now they are all that plus Jayson Tatum. Boston has maintained its place as an elite offensive team while working extremely hard as a group to put forth strong defensive efforts every night despite boasting a nigh-unrecognizable roster compared to last season. Tatum’s return has gone very smoothly as well—the superstar forward already has a Player of the Week award to his name, which speaks to how strong his all-around game has been despite subpar shooting numbers. It is difficult to determine this team’s ceiling right now with the rotation still adjusting to Tatum’s presence, but that transition is going as well as the team could have hoped.
Week in review: There was a ton to like from Boston over this recent stretch, although it ended with a stinker. The Celtics snapped the Thunder’s winning streak despite falling down by double digits in the first quarter. Then Tatum led the team to back-to-back wins over the Hawks and Hornets, the two hottest teams in the East, with Brown sidelined due to Achilles tendonitis. It was the biggest show of progress yet from Tatum and the OKC win showed how dangerous the C’s still are when he and Brown are still healthy. The hype train hit the brakes with an ugly loss to Atlanta but Boston looks to be gaining momentum at just the right time.
3. Pistons
Last week’s ranking: No. 3
Record entering April 1: 55–21
The title case: The Pistons are an excellent, physical defensive squad with an MVP candidate leading the way offensively (when healthy) in Cade Cunningham. Jalen Duren’s All-Star leap has given the team a true centerpiece to man the middle on both ends. J.B. Bickerstaff has inspired a physical defense that overcomes a lack of offensive output from the roster overall. It’s all resulted in an in-your-face brand of basketball that offers multiple avenues to victory each night.
Week in review: The Pistons will just not give up. Cunningham going down for the season would have made for a perfectly fine excuse to lose steam with the season coming to a close; indeed the expectation around these parts was that they would do just that and tumble a few spots down the rankings. Instead Detroit’s hard-nosed group of role players came together to fight tooth and nail for wins—the team is 4–2 since he went down and the two losses have been by a combined five points. It’s encouraging to see the supporting cast step up from a contention perspective and makes it all but impossible to knock the Pistons for Cunningham’s injury at this stage. If he can’t make it back for the playoffs, that’s one thing. But right now Detroit’s less-heralded players are getting thrown into the deep end and that can only pay dividends in the postseason.
2. Spurs
Last week’s ranking: No. 2
Record entering April 1: 57–18
The title case: Victor Wembanyama. That’s the start and end of the Spurs’ case to win a title way ahead of schedule this year. The third-year All-Star has been a force unto himself since coming into the league but figured out how to best apply his outrageous skill set to winning games this season. San Antonio’s supporting cast has proven ready to rise to the moment alongside him. This is a very good team with a hard-to-see ceiling due to Wemby’s generational talents.
Week in review: The Spurs annihilated everyone in their path over the last week and nobody was surprised. What else is there to say about this breakout squad? They have maintained an extremely high level of play for months. Wembanyama continues to get better as the season winds down. The players around him are meshing very well and Mitch Johnson is coaching his tail off. Unfortunately for San Antonio the Thunder have kept pace and so the Spurs figure to finish second in the West despite a 60-win season, which will probably be the only negative of the franchise’s otherwise laudable year.
1. Thunder
Last week’s rankings: No. 1
Record entering April 1: 60–16
The title case: The Thunder have fallen off the historic pace they set to kick off the year but still hit 60 wins with weeks to go in the season and became the first team to clinch a playoff berth. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander broke a Wilt Chamberlain record and is at the forefront of MVP talks yet again. Jalen Williams came back with plenty of time to ramp up for the postseason. OKC should feel great right now.
More NBA from Sports Illustrated
- Zion Williamson’s Honest View on Possible Trade This Offseason
- Even Steph Curry’s Impending Return Won’t Be Enough to Change the Warriors’ Fate
- Luka Dončić‘s Historic March Has Somehow Made the Anthony Davis Trade Look Even Worse for Mavs
- Peter’s Points: NBA Best Bets Today (Predictions, Prop Bets for Jalen Brunson, Wemby, Celtics-Heat)
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBA Championship Power Rankings: Knicks’ Status As True Contender in Question Amid Losing Streak.
