The final quarter of the NBA season got underway Thursday night, kicking off quite a busy weekend around the league. James Harden made his Philly debut, Kyrie Irving led the Nets to a big win over the Bucks, Ja Morant scored a career high and, for the first time in a week, there were actual games to dissect.
Several of the best teams in the association lost over the weekend. See how much the power rankings changed as a result.
(Note: SI’s NBA staff is ranking every team from best to worst all season long, taking into account how each squad is currently playing.)
1. Phoenix Suns
Current record: 49–12
Previous ranking: 1
Home losses have been rare for the Suns this season. Consecutive losses in the desert are almost unheard of. But after Devin Booker, playing point guard for the injured Chris Paul, went for 25 points and 12 assists in a win over the Thunder, Phoenix dropped two straight at home. Still, the Suns have a healthy lead for first place in the West, the best record in the league and a Finals rematch to look forward to Sunday in Milwaukee.
2. Golden State Warriors
Current record: 43–18
Previous ranking: 2
The Dubs haven’t been able to gain any ground on the Suns due to their own struggles. The Warriors are 2–5 over their last seven games after falling to Luka Dončić and the visiting Mavericks on Sunday evening. There are potential frontcourt reinforcements coming in the near future in the form of Draymond Green and James Wiseman, and Klay Thompson’s scoring and playing time are up this month—all good signs for a team that’s still led by the smooth-shooting Steph Curry.
3. Memphis Grizzlies
Current record: 42–20
Previous ranking: 3
If you had any concerns about Memphis dropping consecutive games for the first time since December, Morant eased them Saturday night. The Grizzlies scored a huge victory against the Bulls behind a career-best 46 points from their All-Star sensation. Seven of their next eight contests pit them against sub-.500 teams, with a nationally televised game against the surging Celtics on Tuesday the only exception.
4. Miami Heat
Current record: 40–21
Previous ranking: 4
First place in the Eastern Conference trades hands seemingly every other day, but the Heat hold the crown for now after a pair of double-digit victories. Miami is healthy, a rarity this season, but its recent play shows what it’s capable of at or near full strength. The Heat will face the Bulls, Bucks, Nets, 76ers, Suns and Cavaliers over the next 10 days while they try to hang on to that top spot.
5. Philadelphia 76ers
Current record: 37–23
Previous ranking: 8
James Harden, Joel Embiid and the 76ers officially put the league on notice over the weekend. The first two games the former MVP and MVP favorite played together resulted in wins and a whole lot of free throws. Harden didn’t take away from Embiid, who had 30-plus points in each game, and Harden totaled 28 assists himself. Minnesota and New York aren’t the stiffest competition, but Daryl Morey’s duo already looks comfortable with one another.
6. Utah Jazz
Current record: 38-22
Previous ranking: 6
The Jazz have been singing a different tune in February, going 8–1 after a disastrous January. It turns out having Donovan Mitchell back in the lineup sure does help. He led the team to tight wins over the Mavericks and Suns over the weekend. Utah is hanging on to a top-four seed in the West, though this isn’t the dominant regular-season team we’ve seen in the past.
7. Chicago Bulls
Current record: 39-22
Previous ranking: 5
DeMar DeRozan’s streak of 35-plus-point games came to an end over the weekend, and with it went Chicago’s six-game win streak. The eventual returns of Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and Patrick Williams should lessen the need for such heroism from DeRozan, but he, along with Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic, has helped keep the Bulls firmly in the battle for the best record in the East. The race for the No. 1 seed continues Monday when they meet the Heat in Miami.
8. Boston Celtics
Current record: 36–27
Previous ranking: 9
Embarrassing loss to the Pacers aside, the Celtics are among the hottest teams in the NBA. Is that great play a reflection of the somewhat weak competition Boston faced (and beat up on) over the last few weeks? A Thursday-night date with the Grizzlies should help answer that question. Still, wins are wins, and the C’s are racking them up en route to the crowded upper echelon of the East.
9. Cleveland Cavaliers
Current record: 36–24
Previous ranking: 9
Cleveland’s unfortunate health at the guard position continues. The Cavaliers lost the recently acquired Caris LeVert to a foot injury for one to two weeks, and All-Star guard Darius Garland did not play in either of the team’s games after the break while he gets treatment on his back. Lauri Markkanen, freshly back from his own injury stint, has been a welcome help, but the Cavs need their All-Star distributor to keep this impressive season going in the right direction.
10. Milwaukee Bucks
Current record: 36–25
Previous ranking: 7
The Bucks have stumbled while the teams around them at the top of the East are surging. Milwaukee lost to the James Harden–less 76ers and the Kevin Durant–less Nets at home its last two times out, and the Bucks’ sole win in their last five games required 50 points out of Giannis Antetokounmpo. The schedule only ramps up this week with tests against Miami, Chicago and Phoenix.
11. Denver Nuggets
Current record: 35–25
Previous ranking: 13
Is Nikola Jokić going to repeat as MVP? It certainly looks possible, if not probable at this point. Denver has won its last six games behind the Joker’s do-it-all play. Eight points, 11 rebounds and 18 assists against Portland? Sure. Thirty-five points to sink the Warriors? Whatever it takes. And the Nuggets are reportedly nearing returns for Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.
12. Dallas Mavericks
Current record: 36–25
Previous ranking: 11
Is it the Spencer Dinwiddie effect? Dallas is 3–1 since swapping Kristaps Porzingis for the veteran guard, who’s been coming off the bench, but its success obviously starts and ends with Dončić. He went for 34 points in Sunday’s road win against the Warriors and is assembling his best scoring month of the season.
13. Brooklyn Nets
Current record: 32–29
Previous ranking: 18
It’s clear the Nets are better than their record. What’s less clear is when Irving, Durant and Ben Simmons, Brooklyn’s latest iteration of a Big 3, will take the court together and prove that. Durant is expected back in the next week, while Simmons’s status is less clear. Irving is at the mercy of New York City’s fast-loosening COVID-19 mandates, and he’s still ineligible to play home games for the time being. He showed a glimpse of what he can still do during a win Saturday in Milwaukee, erupting for 38 points.
14. Minnesota Timberwolves
Current record: 32–29
Previous ranking: 14
Harden’s 76ers debut came at the expense of the Wolves in a 31-point defeat. Still, Minnesota came out of the break with a gutsy win against the Grizzlies and is creating some distance between itself and the other play-in teams out West. The Wolves will need to keep stringing together wins if there’s any hope of catching the Mavericks or Nuggets for the sixth seed to ensure their three-year playoff drought ends.
15. Atlanta Hawks
Current record: 29–31
Previous ranking: 16
Trae Young shrugged off a dreadful outing in a close loss to Chicago and awoke with a 41-point, 11-assist clinic against the Raptors. Atlanta is teetering between the play-in tournament and the lottery, but is still a team no one would like to run into come playoff time. It’s just a matter of whether the rest of the team will match Young’s energy down the stretch that will decide the Hawks’ postseason position.
16. Toronto Raptors
Current record: 32–27
Previous ranking: 12
The Raptors must have forgotten the All-Star break ended. That would explain them getting outscored by a combined 59 points in losses to the Hornets and Hawks over the weekend, two teams they’re trying to stave off for play-in tournament position. Toronto’s remaining schedule is among the easiest in the NBA, but Nick Nurse’s squad has hit a rough patch, going 1–4 over its last five.
17. Los Angeles Clippers
Current record: 32–31
Previous ranking: 17
The Clippers just find ways to win. They’re back over .500 for the first time since New Year’s Day thanks to a three-game winning streak. Their rotating cast of role players is making up for the Kawhi Leonard– and Paul George–sized holes in the lineup while their crosstown rivals continue to flounder. There’s no guarantee that either of L.A.’s All-NBA talents will be back this season, but the Clippers are certainly not playing for Ping-Pong balls.
18. Charlotte Hornets
Current record: 30–32
Previous ranking: 15
How is it possible to lead the league in scoring and have a negative point differential? The Hornets have found a way, with the third-worst scoring defense dragging down a team that employs six scorers who average better than 16 PPG. Every Charlotte game is a shootout, and teams are beating the Hornets at their own game. Charlotte entered February five games over .500 and will head into March with a losing record.
19. New Orleans Pelicans
Current record: 25–36
Previous ranking: 20
The Pelicans scored a pair of impressive road wins before heading home for Mardi Gras this week. New Orleans blew out the Suns on Friday and then stamped out the Lakers on Sunday night. Of the four teams hovering around the 10 spot the Pelicans currently occupy, they’re playing the best basketball. And C.J. McCollum, by all accounts, is still a bucket.
20. Los Angeles Lakers
Current record: 27–33
Previous ranking: 21
The Lakers are running out of time. Anthony Davis is still hurt, Russell Westbrook isn’t working and LeBron James keeps on scoring 30-plus in losing efforts. The situation in Los Angeles is dire. Maybe they’ll end up being a dangerous play-in team, but they’re not far from falling out of the top 10 in the West. What a failure it would be for the all-in Lakers to be all the way out of the playoffs two years removed from a Finals trophy.
21. Portland Trail Blazers
Current record: 25–36
Previous ranking: 19
Is the tank back on? It sure looks like it the way the Blazers came out of the break. The same team that beat the Bucks and the Grizzlies on the road two weeks ago was outscored by 69 points on its home court over its last two games. Well, there was one big difference: Center Jusuf Nurkic was shut down for a month, further weakening the core of a team on the verge of ending its seven-season playoff streak.
22. Indiana Pacers
Current record: 21–41
Previous ranking: 25
The Pacers may have won the Haliburton-Sabonis trade, but they’re not winning much else. Indiana did score an impressive victory against Boston on Sunday, and it has a nice backcourt with Haliburton and Buddy Hield lining up next to Malcolm Brogdon. This team isn’t destined for anything more than a high lottery pick this season, and that’s perfectly O.K.
23. San Antonio Spurs
Current record: 24–37
Previous ranking: 24
The Spurs quietly had a good month. The same way they managed to quietly score 157 points in a double-overtime win against the Wizards and pushed the Heat to the brink over the weekend. San Antonio is just outside of the play-in tournament and is a much better team than its record says. The Spurs have a better point differential than eight teams that have better records than them—it’s their 9–19 record in clutch situations holding them back.
24. New York Knicks
Current record: 25–36
Previous ranking: 23
One. That’s how many games New York won in February and, of all teams, that victory came against the Warriors, on the road! Cam Reddish has yet to log even 20 minutes for this team that’s convincing the world more and more each day that last season—the All-Star nod for Julius Randle, the playoff appearance—was the fluke and this losing is the norm.
Watch NBA games online all season long with fuboTV: Start with a 7-day free trial!
25. Washington Wizards
Current record: 27–33
Previous ranking: 26
Washington is stuck between the teams that are good enough to make the play-in tournament and those that are bad enough to already be looking toward the draft. The recently acquired Porzingis hasn’t taken the court yet, and Bradley Beal is expected to miss the remainder of the season. It’s the Kyle Kuzma show in the nation’s capital, which is certainly fun to tune into, but doesn’t always amount to wins.
26. Sacramento Kings
Current record: 22–40
Previous ranking: 22
There’s no shame in losing to the Nuggets, which the Kings just did back-to-back. There is shame in setting an NBA record 16-season playoff drought, which Sacramento is well on its way to doing despite trading for Domantas Sabonis. The Kings are 2–4 since acquiring the All-Star big man for Tyrese Haliburton, who looks phenomenal playing in Indiana.
27. Detroit Pistons
Current record: 15–46
Previous ranking: 30
The Pistons are not only winning, but they’re beating playoff teams. Detroit has won three of its last five games (20% of its wins this season), defeating Boston, Cleveland and Charlotte. Marvin Bagley Jr. has scored 10-plus points in three of four games since the team acquired him from Sacramento, and Saddiq Bey and Cade Cunningham keep on filling up the box score. The Pistons are still firmly in a tank-off with the Magic and Rockets, though they’re losing some ground.
28. Oklahoma City Thunder
Current record: 19–41
Previous ranking: 27
The Thunder are not winning many games with the lowest-scoring offense in the NBA, but it’s clear what they have in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was quick to score 30-plus points in back-to-back games after a month off. Josh Giddey is a whole lot of fun and rookie Tre Mann is coming on for OKC as well. They’re sure to be joined by another high draft pick from Sam Presti’s war chest this summer, too.
29. Orlando Magic
Current record: 14–47
Previous ranking: 29
The Magic beat the Rockets on Friday in a rare victory for the team with the worst record in the NBA. Their losing ways have slowed a bit over the last month. Jalen Suggs is healthy, Wendell Carter Jr. looks great, Franz Wagner continues to impress and the Magic are still in line for what should be a very high pick in the draft. It’s all big men at the top of the projected draft boards—more length in Orlando?
30. Houston Rockets
Current record: 15–45
Previous ranking: 27
Sunday night’s loss to the Clippers was closer than usual (99–98). It was a loss all the same, though, the ninth in a row for Houston. The Rockets allow opponents an NBA-high 118.2 PPG on average, which would be the highest scoring average for any team by more than four points per game. Houston owns the worst record in the West and is in contention for bottom in the league.
More NBA Coverage:
