If you haven't already heard, the Trail Blazers are legit and the Spurs are struggling. Phoenix has been playing great thanks to the services of their offseason pick-up, Grant Hill. Detroit's family of four is playing better than any team in the NBA. Boston continues winning and will get their shot at regaining the No. 1 ranking against the Pistons on Saturday. The Lakers finished December 10-4 and are one of the most surprising Western Conference teams to go along with the Trail Blazers. The Magic and Hawks are two of the biggest surprise teams of the East. Cleveland and Toronto will need to play better in the first few weeks of the New Year if they want to be considered contenders for their division titles. If the playoffs started today, the Cavaliers would be watching from home -- as would the Jazz and Rockets. The Knicks and Wolves are still considered the NBA's armpit and the Heat and Bulls are still struggling to meet expectations. Here are my rankings for the 10th week in the NBA.
BIGGEST RISE: Phoenix Suns from 6th to 3rd.
BIGGEST FALL: Indiana Pacers from 12th to 18th.
(Editor's note: "LW" indicates each team's ranking from CheChe23's previous week. —RTW)
| CheChe23's Power Rankings: January 2, 2007 | |||
| TEAM | RK (LW) | W-L | COMMENT |
 | 1 (1) | 24-7 | Detroit has won nine straight and will face Boston at home on Saturday. If Detroit wants to keep its No. 1 spot and have the rest of the NBA chasing after them, they'll need to continue holding opponents to under 90 points per game (averaging 89.3) and scoring over 100 (averaging 99.8). |
 | 2 (2) | 26-3 | This team is clearly on a mission to make a statement every game. The Celtics have won six straight since losing to Detroit and they will try to improve on their streak against Houston tonight and Memphis on Friday before facing the Pistons in an Eastern Conference Championship preview on Saturday. |
 | 3 (6) | 22-9 | The Suns made the best of their week by winning three in a row after losing the game to Los Angeles last Tuesday. Ranked third then sixth and then back to third -- Phoenix is ranked as the best team in the West. The Suns have four straight home games this week (9-3 at home). Nash, Marion, Barbosa and Stoudamire still play at one of the fastest paces in the NBA. Phoenix are leading the league in scoring (109.4) and third in field goal attempts (85.5). |
 | 4 (5) | 19-11 | Kobe Bryant was no match for Boston on Sunday. After the loss, Bryant was quoted as saying about Boston, "They're one of the elite teams. They're at the next level, they're at the level we're trying to get to, and the challenge is there for us -- do we want to stay in this middle pack, or do we want to get to that next level?" My thought is that maybe after Kobe saw how Boston plays, he realizes his team is far from the Celtics' level and therefore his mood could change regarding him staying in Los Angeles. Despite the loss to Boston, Kobe's Lakers move up after winning four straight. |
 | 5 (3) | 20-11 | The Mavericks are great at doing a lot of things. They rebound well, play great defense, shoot well and score efficiently. One thing they do better than any team in the NBA is make their free throws. The Mavericks shoot the highest percentage from the line at 82.8% -- if they just got there more often (27.1 attempts) they would probably win more games. |
 | 6 (4) | 21-8 | San Antonio would be the No. 1 seed in the West if the playoffs started today. The Spurs have three of their next four on the road, where they have a losing record on the season (5-6). The Spurs continue to battle injuries and put both Manu Ginobili and Brent Barry on the bench this past week. Duncan and Parker are good enough to carry this team for now, but the Spurs fall to their lowest ranking of the season. |
 | 7 (7) | 22-11 | Dwight Howard had his NBA leading 29th double-double of the season by halftime of an overtime victory over Chicago on Monday. The double-double of 17 points and 22 rebounds included five blocks and three steals. The Magic have won four straight and are getting consistent production from Hedo Turkoglu, who hit the game winning fade away jumper with seven tenths of a second left in overtime against Chicago on Monday. Turkoglu's game-winning shot game follows his season-high scoring game where he poured in 28 points in a Magic win on Saturday. Not to mention Friday, when Turkoglu hit a key three pointer with 11 seconds left in the overtime win versus Miami. |
 | 8 (10) | 18-13 | The Trail Blazers lost their first and last games in December, but won every one in between. Utah ended the Blazers' 13-game win streak, but Portland still pushes their rank to No. 8. Brandon Roy is still tearing it up. The second year pro scored 21.2 points per game in December to go along with 6.4 assists and 5.3 rebounds. |
 | 9 (9) | 20-11 | New Orleans is 20-11 and ended December winning five of their last six games. I'm loving the consistent play from former Golden Gopher Bobby Jackson. Almost flirting with IPO-worthy status, Jackson has put together solid minutes as a back-up to MVP candidate Chris Paul. Jackson will never reach averages of double digits in points per game like he was able to in his prime, but his experience is priceless for a team lacking a strong veteran backbone. |
 | 10 (8) | 18-12 | The Nuggets have San Antonio and Phoenix on the schedule for this week. If the NBA's third and fourth highest scoring averages (Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony) can be enough lead Denver over the Spurs and Suns -- Denver should be considered a lock for the Northwest Division title and therefore the third overall seed in the playoffs. Marcus Camby has been a great defensive threat and rebounding help. |
OUTSIDE THE TOP 10:
11. Golden State Warriors (19-13): The Warriors play Dallas tonight in a re-match of last year's first round playoff series that entertained the basketball world and made for playoff history. Golden State plays four top 10 teams in seven days.
12. Utah Jazz (17-16): Utah will get an instant offensive boost, as if they need one, with the addition of Kyle Korver. Deron Williams will benefit from having an easy dime from the three (not being Mehmet Okur, allowing the taller Okur to crash rebound) and Carlos Boozer will benefit from getting a player who can scare opponents into spreading their defense and guarding the parameter. The Jazz are rated the fifth best team in the Hollinger rankings.
13. Atlanta Hawks (15-13): Atlanta is 7-3 in their past 10 games and gets the nod over Toronto in the rankings. If the playoffs started today the Hawks would have home court advantage in round one.
14. Toronto Raptors (17-15): Toronto finished the week beating San Antonio and New Orleans, but lost to Houston. The Raptors are slowly moving back into the top 10 talk, but if reports that T.J. Ford is considering retirement are true, Toronto's playoff push will become a little tougher.
15. Cleveland Cavaliers (14-17): A lot of Cleveland's success will depend on the play of Larry Hughes. Just this past week the Cavs were able to beat Dallas with Hughes contributing 17 points, 3 assists and 9 rebounds. Two nights later, the Cavs lost to New Orleans and Hughes was 1/9 from the floor and had just 1 rebound and 2 assists.
16. Washington Wizards (15-14): Washington continues to get players to go off when playing Gilbert Arenas' minutes. Roger Mason is the latest beneficiary scoring 20, 24, 12 and 12 in his last four games.
17. Houston Rockets (15-16): Houston will likely be without McGrady for longer than expected, but that shouldn't take them out of the playoff picture, yet. The Rockets will need to get more offensive production from Luther Head, Bonzi Wells, Shane Battier and Chuck Hayes.
18. Indiana Pacers (15-17): Indiana moved from 18th to 12th and are back to 18th this week. After dropping four in a row (granted two of the four were to Detroit), the Pacers are looking more like the team we expected to see from Indiana.
19. New Jersey Nets (14-16): The Nets have won back to back games and four of their last five. Jason Kidd is still averaging nearly a triple-double per night, even though his rebounding numbers dipped a little bit in December (8.2) compared to November (8.9).
20. Philadelphia 76ers (14-17): The 76ers have won four of their last five, only losing the Portland. Gordon Giricek had six points in nearly 14 minutes in his first game as a Sixer.
21. Chicago Bulls (11-18): A tough overtime loss to Orlando showed that the Bulls could still be a contender to get into the playoffs. Ben Gordon scored a season-high 39 points and if Kirk Hinrich hadn't fouled out in the fourth quarter after having 10 points and 10 assists, the Bulls would have probably prevailed.
22. Sacramento Kings (11-18): The Kings have lost four in a row and are clearly far from being a playoff team. Maybe if the Kings are able to reunite with Jason Williams they could get back to their winning ways.
23. Milwaukee Bucks (11-19): The Bucks have a very easy schedule coming up as they get Miami twice, Washington, Charlotte and Philadelphia. If Milwaukee can start a win streak, they might still have an outside shot at being a playoff team.
24. Charlotte Bobcats (11-18): Gerald Wallace is emerging as the Bobcats leader and go-to guy. Wallace took over Monday scoring a season-high 36 points and going to the free throw line 22 times.
25. Los Angeles Clippers (10-19): Before beating Minnesota on Monday, the Clippers had lost six in a row. One good thing coming from the Clippers medical staff is they expect Shaun Livingston to return to practice in a month and get back out onto the court sometime in March.
26. Memphis Grizzlies (8-22): Memphis GM Chris Wallace claims that the Grizzlies will not panic because the team has underachieved. Wallace said that he will not be impatient despite being an impatient guy because he likes the Grizzlies talent and trusts the process -- not sure I feel the same way.
27. Miami Heat (8-23): When the Heat's only hope (Dwyane Wade) has more turnovers than field goals in a game (like he did in Friday's loss to Washington), his team's chances are dwindling. The Heat are losing and the games aren't even close (-5.4 points per game scoring differential, fifth worst).
28. Seattle Sonics (9-22): Seattle lost Kevin Durant on Sunday and Chris Wilcox on Monday. An upcoming four game road trip won't help (4-11 on the road).
29. New York Knicks (8-21): The Knicks are losing by a blistering average of 8.2 points per game on average, the second worst margin in the NBA. One thing the Knicks do well is hustle on the offensive glass, averaging the second highest offensive rebound differential in the league.
30. Minnesota Timberwolves (4-26): The Wolves have played 30 games and won only four. On top of it, the Wolves schedule in January has to be one of the toughest in the NBA (DEN twice, DAL, GS twice, CHI twice, PHO twice, BOS, HOU).
HOT HOT HOT
1. Marcus Camby - On December 26, Camby recorded a triple-double with 10 points, 11 rebounds and 10 blocks. Camby is only averaging 9.0 points per game, but his 3.7 blocks a night are good enough for a career best.
2. Michael Finley - Finley is taking advantage of Brent Barry and Manu Ginobili being sidelined with injuries. In the last two games, Finley has produced 20 points, 8 rebounds and 22 points, 7 rebounds.
3. Jason Richardson - Richardson is playing the Robin to Gerald Wallaces' Batman in North Carolina. His scoring outputs over the last five have been 30, 27, 25, 34 and 28. Not to mention his back-to-back games of eight rebounds.
NOT NOT NOT
2. Rashard Lewis - Lewis has played three straight games with 40+ minutes. His points per game production is down this season because his number of free throw attempts is down. Last season, Lewis went to the free throw line 5.3 times per game and averaged 22.4 points. This season, Lewis has averaged 3.3 FTA per game and his scoring is down to 18.4 ppg.
3. Jamaal Tinsley - Since scoring 26 points in a win over Miami on December 15, Tinsley has been a dud. Before going to the bench with a hamstring injury, Tinsley had games with a decent assist output but terrible shooting percentage. In five games Tinsley played out of the Pacers past eight games he was 12/45 (26%).
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