I really wanted to move the Celtics down after they lost three of four games this past week. But because the Pistons also lost badly to the Knicks, the Suns are feeling Hill's absence, Los Angeles lost Bynum for two months and the Spurs continue to struggle, Boston stays in the top spot. Dallas had its seven-game win streak come to an end on Monday, so I had to leave them ranked behind Boston. KG's crew has started to slow down and show signs of weakness -- they might be taking a page out of the Spurs book. Good coaches will preach patience during the winter months. I am not worried about a couple of losses, but if it becomes a trend it might be time for the West to reclaim the No. 1 spot. Here are my rankings for Week 12 of the 25-week NBA season.
BIGGEST RISE: Washington Wizards from 16th to 12th.
BIGGEST FALL: Memphis Grizzlies from 21st to 26th.
(Editor's note: "LW" indicates each team's ranking from CheChe23's previous week. —RTW)
| CheChe23's Power Rankings: January 16, 2008 | |||
| TEAM | RK (LW) | W-L | COMMENT |
 | 1 (1) | 30-6 | The Celtics' Big Three experienced its first losing streak together. Boston remains ranked first overall despite back-to-back losses to the Bobcats. Tonight's Celtics-Blazers game should be a good one. |
 | 2 (5) | 26-12 | Dallas would have been riding an eight-game win streak into this week's rankings had Jason Terry connected on a last-second shot Monday against the Kings. If I had to pick one NBA team to win the championship right now, I'd take Dallas. |
 | 3 (2) | 29-10 | Detroit beat San Antonio, but fell victim to the road back-to-back. The Pistons held on to beat the Bobcats Saturday, but lost an embarrassing game 65-89 to the Knicks on Sunday. The Pistons will be fine as long as Chauncey Billups has them on his back and Rip Hamilton is pouring in the points. |
 | 4 (6) | 25-12 | Chris Paul has led the Hornets to 10 wins in their last 12 games. We won't really know if New Orleans is legit or not until after this week, when they face Portland, San Antonio and Denver. |
 | 5 (3) | 26-12 | Grant Hill has missed four games and will likely miss a dozen more. The Suns have a relatively easy schedule the rest of this month so it shouldn't matter too much. I'm still not convinced that leading the NBA in scoring equals success when the same team gives up the second most points per game. |
 | 6 (4) | 26-11 | The Lakers have won 11 of their last 12 only losing to Boston, but they moved down this week. Without an All-Star center holding down a key part of the triangle offense, I can't help but to see the impending doom for Los Angeles. The Lakers need to forget about Andrew Bynum being out quick because they are about to face the NBA's best teams without him. The next seven games for L.A.: PHO, DEN, SA, DAL, CLE, NY, DET. |
 | 7 (9) | 23-14 | Brandon Roy has a serious chance of following up his Rookie of the Year season with a Most Valuable trophy. Roy will put everything on the line tonight against another front-runner for MVP, Kevin Garnett. The Blazers better not wear themselves too thin against Boston -- it's the first of a five game road streak. |
 | 8 (10) | 22-17 | The Jazz are on a four-game win streak which includes confidence building wins over Phoenix and Orlando. Deron Williams continues to play at an All-Star level. Williams had 33 points (which included 16/20 free throws), 10 assists and 5 rebounds in the most recent Jazz victory. |
 | 9 (7) | 22-16 | The Warriors have four games this week that should be easy victories: IND, CHI, MIL, MIN. Golden State won't face a legit opponent until Jan. 30 when they travel to New Orleans. |
 | 10 (8) | 25-11 | San Antonio is 10th, but probably doesn't deserve such a low ranking. They couldn't beat Detroit last Tuesday and they seem to have a chemistry issue. Or it might be a leader issue. In the Spurs/76ers game Monday, Tim Duncan twice told Manu Ginobili to pass the ball. But Ginobili didn't pass, instead he hit four 3-pointers to lead the Spurs to the win. Drama in San Antonio! |
OUTSIDE THE TOP 10:
11. Denver Nuggets (22-15): Denver didn't catch a break this week hearing the news about their power forward Nene. The Nuggets need to start playing better on the defensive end (giving up 104.1 ppg) if they want to be seen as one of the leagues elite teams.
12. Washington Wizards (20-17): Taking down Boston two games in a row is something that alone could be set on the season's mantle. Washington is playing great without Arenas which makes me believe he'll be waiting for the post-season before he laces them up again. His blog is saying otherwise.
13. Cleveland Cavaliers (19-18): Cleveland in 6-1 in 2008 and was lifted past Memphis last night by LeBron's 51 points, 25 of which came in the 4th quarter and overtime and his nine assists. James is leading the NBA in fourth quarter ppg with nearly 10 points coming in the games final 12 minutes. James leads the NBA in scoring with 29.1 ppg and is averaging career bests in assists per game (7.5) and rebounds per game (7.7).
14. Orlando Magic (24-16): The Magic won last night, but have just two wins in their last seven. Since 14-3 start, Orlando has gone 10-13.
15. Toronto Raptors (20-18): Right now Toronto appears to be the sixth best team in the East and if the playoffs started today they'd be the fifth seed behind Cleveland. Without T.J. Ford, Jose Calderon has stepped up (see HOT HOT HOT).
16. Atlanta Hawks (17-17): Atlanta got the best of Denver last night and evened their record to .500. If the Hawks hope to make a run in the post season they will have to improve on their point per game differential -- which is the NBA's closest to even (ATL scores 95.1 ppg and gives up 95.6 ppg).
17. Houston Rockets (20-19): Houston has now lost two in a row after winning four in a row. Last night's loss to the Sixers was pathetic. The Rockets were up 83-67 in the third quarter and managed to lose (outscored 37-22 in the 4th). Houston is now 7-4 since Tracy McGrady went out with a knee injury -- he is expected to play Saturday against the Spurs.
18. New Jersey Nets (18-19): After making a little progress to start the new year, New Jersey embarks on its six game road trip following back-to-back losses.
19. Indiana Pacers (17-22): Indiana has lost nine of their past 11 -- the most recent five game road trip resulted in four of the losses. Tinsley returning to the starting five should bring structure back into the Pacers offense.
20. Sacramento Kings (15-21): The Kings love what they have in Kevin Martin which is why you'll probably see them ship off Mike Bibby and Ron Artest. The Kings don't need anything substantial in return, so some team could be grabbing a pair of aging All-Stars dieing for a title (Cleveland perhaps?).
21. Philadelphia 76ers (15-24): The Sixers beat Houston last night to end a seven game losing streak. Philadelphia is just playing spoiler the rest of this season, which explains why rumors are that they're trying to deal Andre Miller (re-build = go young = trade Miller).
22. Chicago Bulls (14-22): Joakim Noah might be the scapegoat (his first game back, last night, first career double double), but it's not going to help this team. The Bulls needs a shake up which is why Luol Deng's name has been brought up in conversations that he has normally been left out of.
23. Milwaukee Bucks (15-23): The Bucks have lost three in a row after winning three in a row.
24. New York Knicks (11-26): The Knicks just won back-to-back games for the first time since the end of November.
25. Charlotte Bobcats (12-21): What a great stretch of games for Charlotte, Gerald Wallce has been HOT (cross your fingers he doesn't tweak an ankle).
26. Memphis Grizzlies (10-28): A five game losing streak isn't going to move a team up in the rankings.
27. Seattle Sonics (9-28): A seven game losing streak isn't going to move a team up in the rankings.
28. Los Angeles Clippers (10-23): Los Angeles snuck out their first win of the new year against Phoenix last night. Talk of Sam Cassell moving to a title contender (Dallas) via trade has rejuvenated his game. Last night Cassell had 32 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds in 31 minutes.
29. Minnesota Timberwolves (5-32): This team is as cold as the weather (and their win total is matching the thermometer).
30. Miami Heat (8-28): The Heat get Shaq back tonight, but it will do them no good.
HOT HOT HOT
1. Chris Paul - Paul moved to No. 1 on Funston's Big Board this week. If the guy with two first names can control his turnovers he's an MVP candidate. Paul is averaging 10.3 assist per game (third best in the NBA) and leading the lead in steals per game (2.8).
2. Gerald Wallace - Wallace dropped a season high 40 points Monday to help the Bobs to a win. His January averages are worth a look: 25.3 ppg, 9.1 rbg, 4.8 apg, 2.0 spg and 1.8 bpg.
3. Jose Calderon - Since Ford went out down Calderon has averaged nearly 10 assists per game and shooting nearly 50% from the floor. The Raptors are lucky they can replace injured starters with bench players who could start on a lot of teams in the NBA (NY would be lucky to get Bryan Colangelo).
NOT NOT NOT
2. Peja Stojakovic - Peja was 0/5 from the floor Monday and had just two points. As a "shooter," going 0/5 (and 3/11 from the arc of his past three games) is unacceptable. Stojakovic might be in the role of role player, it just seems like Peja has a game like this every once and a while, which is also unacceptable.
3. Jason Maxiell - After looking like he was starting to get his offensive scoring chances (six out of eight games in double digits), before last night's eight points Maxiell had scoring games of 4,4,6 and 3.
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