Another week of the NBA is in the books and we are starting to finally see some teams round into form and others are running out of time. Dame Time is still in full effect, the Jazz finally lose a game, and Memphis played a game again. Enjoy this season and let it distract you from everything going on in this crazy world we live in. All records are of the morning of 2.2.21.

#16 Charlotte Hornets (10-11)

The bottom part of these rankings is incredibly hard to do. We talked about LaMelo Ball a couple of weeks ago on the podcast, and he has been good so far. He is fun to watch, but does his play translate to wins? No. Devonte Graham is the best player on that team and should be the one leading this team to a possible playoff berth.

#15 Memphis Grizzlies (9-6)

Memphis has not played as many games as other teams in the NBA, that little thing called Covid got to them. They finally started playing again and they beat the Spurs by 16. The Grizzlies have a top 5 defense, and that is with a lot of injuries. We will see if they can continue this good play.

#14 Atlanta Hawks (10-10)

The Hawks are sort of the Trailblazers in the East, they can’t stay healthy. Danilo Gallinari is back from injury and Atlanta loses their second best player in De’Andre Hunter for a week. They have been an up and down team all year, with a loss early in the week to the Lakers and Dallas and Utah coming to town this will be a big test week.

#13 Golden State Warriors (11-9)

Man if only Golden State had Klay Thompson, they could be a top 5 team in the west. They are 7-1 against teams under .500 but only 4-8 against winning teams. That is good news and the Warriors should be a tough team to play for the remainder of the season.

#12 San Antonio Spurs (11-10)

Greg Popvitch for coach of the year? It wouldn’t surprise me. The Spurs had a three game win streak this week before losing to the Grizzlies mentioned earlier. DeMar DeRozan is starting to change what type of player he is and that is good news for the Spurs. Look for this Spurs team to keep growing and crack the top 10 of these rankings soon.

#11 Phoenix Suns (11-8)

With Devin Booker injured they needed a vintage clutch CP3 to beat the Mavericks, and they got it. He scored 15 points and had 5 dimes in the fourth quarter. Mikal Bridges will need to find his three point shot if the Suns want to get back into my top ten.

#10 Portland Trailblazers (10-9)

Dame will need help without CJ for the next couple of weeks, Anfree Simmons is that guy. He had a good playoffs last year against the Lakers and showed us his potential this week by averaging 16 points, while shooting 48% from behind the arc. This might be too high of a ranking for a team that needed Dame Time to save them from a 0-3 week, but I still think they can prove me right.

#9 Boston Celtics (10-8)

It might be time to worry in New England. They lost back to back games to the 76ers two weeks ago before beating the Cavs and Spurs to start this week. They finally got Tatum and Walker back from covid/injury, but lost Marcus Smart to injury in a loss to the Lakers. I was very high on the Celtics early in the year, but now they could end up as five seed in the east.

#8 Indiana Pacers (11-9)

The Pacers went into this season with a legitimate chance to win the East. Well they lost bubble breakout star TJ Warren for the season, traded Oladipo for Caris Lavert who is now out indefinitely after kidney surgery. They were overmatched by the defense of the 76ers, but going 2-2 keeps them at number 8 in my rankings this week. With a tough five game stretch coming up this week we might finally see who the Pacers really are.

#7 Denver Nuggets (12-8)

Finally the Nuggets have started playing like we expected them too. They did snap their five game win streak to the Spurs, but followed that up by snapping Utah’s eleven game win streak. Jokic dropped 47 and the Nuggets had 79 points at halftime. They shot the rock at a Steph Curry pace in the first half going 15-17. Here comes the Nuggets.

#6 Milwaukee Bucks (12-8)

The Bucks are not the same team as they have been the last two years. Their offense has finally come around after their slow start to the season. But they are having problems keeping teams from scoring 100 points. They gave up 131 and 126 in their losses this week. The Bucks might need to start changing their defensive mindset if they finally want to reach the NBA finals.

#5 Brooklyn Nets (13-9)

This Brooklyn team is going to go down in the history books either way. They can go down as one the best offensive teams of all time, but they could go down as the worst defensive team of all time as well. They lost to the Wizards after giving up 48 points in the 4th quarter and a combined 78 points between Beal and Westbrook. They are going to need to start playing better defense if they want to win, we will see what happens with the 76ers and Clippers battles coming this week.

#4 Philadelphia 76ers (15-6)

In hindsight I think I ranked the 76ers incorrectly. They should be in front of the Lakers and Jazz. They did lose to the Pistons to start the week, but beat the Lakers on a game winning jumper by Tobias Harris. They followed that up by beating the Pacers later in the week. Joel Embiid is playing at a MVP level and could lead this team to a first place finish in the East.

#3 Los Angeles Lakers (16-6)

Down week for the Lakers as they lost consecutive games for the first time all year. As mentioned earlier they lost on the game winning shot by Tobias Harris and followed that up with a very disappointing loss to the Pistons. Even without Anthony Davis the Lakers should beat the Pistons easily. A win over the Celtics to finish the week keeps them from dropping too far in the rankings.

#2 Utah Jazz (15-5)

The Jazz have been the hottest team in the NBA and could have taken the top spot if it wasn’t for the loss to the Nuggets. They are a very complete team leading the league in rebounds, third in three percentage, and fourth in net rating. Their defense struggled in the loss to the Nuggets, but teams get blown out from time to time. Look for this Jazz team to move forward as one of the best teams in the league.

#1 Los Angeles Clippers (16-5)

The week started with a loss to the Hawks but without Kawhi and PG13 due to covid protocols. They swept the Florida teams with their two stars returning. Their offense is firing on all cylinders and PG13 is a dark horse MVP candidate. Their defense is still average at best, but they should score enough to win most games. The Clippers are on a revenge tour and really only two or three teams can stop them from winning the west.

NBA Power Rankings: Week 7