NBA Power Rankings: Celtics hold #1, Nuggets & Clippers rising, Knicks debut | Hoops Tonight

NBA Power Rankings: Celtics hold #1, Nuggets & Clippers rising, Knicks debut | Hoops Tonight

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So you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball all right moving on to our power ranking so to give you an idea I wanted to read this out because it’s classic example of January in the NBA so last week our

Power rankings were Boston at 1 OKC at 2 Minnesota at three Clippers at four Milwaukee at 5 Philly at 6 Sacramento at 7 nuggets at 8 the Pacers at nine and the Pelicans at 10 but it’s January in the NBA so this is what has happened

Since I put that list together a week ago today the Celtics just lost to the Pacers without Tyrese halberton after beating him with Tyrese two days earlier the Thunder followed up their huge win over Boston with back-to-back losses to the Hawks in the Nets two teams that

Have been free falling over the last month the Minnesota Timberwolves have lost three of their last four games the Los Angeles Clippers just lost to an ice cold Los Angeles Lakers team the Bucks have lost four out of five and just got murdered at home by the Utah Jazz the

76ers have lost three of four and they just got murdered at home by the Utah Jazz the Kings just lost by 33 points at home to the New Orleans Pelicans and lost to Charlotte a few days before that the Nuggets just lost to an ice cold Orlando magic team and the Pelicans and

The Pacers are both playing well but they both recently just got outclassed by the Clippers and the Celtics so like we’re going to move teams around accordingly on the power rankings list this week because that’s the purpose of the list to kind of you know uh quantify regular season basketball but we should

Never read too much into January basketball it is a Confluence of events that lead to a lot of wild swings and effort between teams on a night toight B basis which can lead to some weird results everyone has been in this grind since early October so it’s like three

Plus full months of work yet you’re not even halfway done so you can see how could that can get fatiguing the trade deadline is still a month away so there’s no real change on the horizon most CH usually when we get to this point it’s not until like the last

Couple of weeks where you start to see some action and then all the you’ve accomplished to this point just doesn’t matter when the Utah when the Utah Jazz come into your building and they’re young and they’re athletic and they’re playing their ass off they don’t care

How many wins you have they don’t care where you’re at in the standings they’re young they’re talented and they’re going to come play hard for 48 minutes and if you don’t you’re going to lose and you might lose ugly and it’s worse now than ever because there’s so much talent in

The league so the point being we can still learn things during January but it’s probably the month that can most misrepresent what a team is capable of like for instance a lot of people are jumping off the Bucks in the Lakers right now cuz they’ve been playing some god- awful

Basketball uh in the last couple of weeks right but I mean you’re be my guest if you want to pick against Dam and Giannis in a playoff series or pick against LeBron James and Anthony Davis in a playoff series like I think both teams are still really good and they’re

Just just stuck in the mud of January NBA basketball I think the Lakers in particular are desperate for some turnover I think the Bucks to could use upgrade although I know Malik Beasley wants them to stick with what they got but again the point is January in the NBA is weird so we

Learn what we can but we try not to overreact to anything that happens in this particular month I have two teams dropping out from last week the Sacramento Kings are five- five in their last 10 they just got obliterated by the Pelicans at home the other night lost to

Charlotte before that just going through a rough patch so they’re off the list for right now the Pacers I’m taking off yes they’re playing amazing basketball they’ve won seven out of eight but Tyrese halber just strained as a hamstring and is going to be out for at

Least 2 weeks so I kind of want to just use that spot as an opportunity to shout out another team as the Pacers will have to play some funky basketball for a few weeks the Pacers I fully expect will make it back onto the list into the

Future so number 10 the New York Knicks they are undefeated 4 and0 since ogan and Obi joined the team a 121 offensive rating which is awesome in a 103 defensive rating which is the best in the league over that final that last four games quality wins too they

Destroyed the Sixers in Philly and they also beat the Minnesota Timberwolves I want to shout out Julius Randall he’s gone for 35 Plus in four of his last six games hooping his ass off the Knicks have a much more imposing physical profile now with OG in the lineup

They’re going to be hard out when we get to the postseason number nine the Dallas Mavericks they’ve won four out of five including wins over Minnesota and Golden State Kyrie and Luca were playing so well against Minnesota that even despite them having two of the best perimeter defenders in the league when they’re

Engaged they were throwing multiple bodies into their two-man game which was uh just putting Minnesota into rotation and causing all sorts of problems just a testament to how good Kyrie and Luca can be in the half court but most importantly the Mavericks are third in defensive rating over their last 10

Games really encouraging stuff coming out of Dallas that could bode well for the postseason that’s much closer to the Dallas team that we saw from two years ago number eight the New Orleans Pelicans took a beating from the Clippers who are just a better basketball team right now but they are

Still playing great ball they’ve won each of the other five games in their last six they bounced back by obliterating the kings in Sacramento the other night they’re getting super balanced scoring really high level pick and roll shot creation from C.J McCollum and Brandon Ingram and they have the

Second best defense in the league over the last 15 games we have pelicans at 8 number seven the Philadelphia 76ers during this one and three stretch their offense has completely fallen off of a cliff they’re shooting a League worst 42% from the field in that span

And a League worst 26% from three over that four game span embiid has been great but um Tyrese Maxi is in a little bit of a slump that’s been a big driving force behind their offense struggling number six the Milwaukee Bucks they’ve lost four out of five and

Five out of eight they’ve been a bottom five defense over their last eight games obviously the point of attack has been a problem help in rotation has not been great they’re only 10th in offense over that span basically everyone not named Giannis isn’t playing well I think this

Team is much much better than they look right now they’re just a victim of some January basketball some mid-season Blues they have issues but so does everyone else and they have a ton of strengths I think they’re going to still be at the top when we get or near the top when we

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Five bucks on the NBA and get 200 instantly in bonus bets only on DraftKings sports book with code Hoops that’s ho o o PS the crown is yours number five the Minnesota Timberwolves they’re starting to crack a little bit under their brutal schedule they’ve lost four out of seven games ironically it’s

Been their defense that has struggled they’re 12th in defense over that span I didn’t really like their strategy late in the game against Dallas this is not a defense that has a ton of foot speed so they really need to keep their perimeter Defenders defending actions one-on-one

And two on two which means less aggression uh uh in terms of bringing their helps side Defenders out I think that when they get in rotation their foot speed becomes a little bit of an issue that’s just a little schematic thing two more tough games in this uh

Schedule stretch at Orlando and at Boston and then things will lighten up for them number four the Oklahoma City Thunder their defense has caused the slippage since the Boston win they were third in defensive rating in December they are 27th so far in defensive rating through four games in January they are

Also giving up an offensive rebound on 39.2% of their opponent’s misses which is by far the worst Mark of the uh in the league over the course of January so far that’s been a consistent weakness for the Thunder during this season is our inability to clean up the defensive

Glass number three the Denver Nuggets they dropped a game to Orlando the other day but it was something crazy like their ninth back-to-back of the Season which is an absolutely brutal schedule when you consider we’re less than halfway through an 82 Game season so 18 of their you know like basically half

Their games to this point have been in back-to-backs that’s tough so I still think they’re the clear Championship favorite at this point barring an injury to a starter I just think they’re going to win uh now pton Watson has become so good that he’s kind of filled that Bruce

Brown alternate fifth closer spot really nicely and I actually think he can be better than Bruce Brown in the long run because he’s a bigger stronger bigger more uh long athlete right uh nuggets all the way up at number three number two the Los Angeles Clippers they’re basically undefeated with Kawai in the

Lineup since November outside of the Laker game on Sunday and the Lakers are a much better team than their record shows and the Lakers were at home and they were super desperate so that’s a tough game to win under any circumstances they came back the ne uh the next night and just completely

Outclassed the the the Phoenix Suns I’m going to add them to my Championship Contender list it’s just a question of where and I want to do it after the Minnesota Oklahoma City game so we’ll do like a championship Contender update episode when we get closer to that point

And then lastly I think they’ve been here 3 four weeks in a row now the Boston Celtics they lost a weird game to the Pacers last night after Tyrese Alberton left the game but they did just literally outclass the Pacers with Tyrese Alberton in the lineup two nights

Earlier so just kind of weird January basketball stuff Tatum’s pull-up jump shot is red hot and the Celtics offense is insane right now 128 offensive rating in their last 10 games that’s a full 2.1 points ahead of the number two spot over that Span he

Jason Timpf drops his weekly NBA Power Rankings where Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics maintain their top spot as they have DOMINATED the NBA season thus far. Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets along with Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers are soaring up the top 10.

Timeline:
00:00 – Why we can’t overreact yet
03:43 – Who fell out of Top 10
04:17 – #10: New York Knicks
04:52 – #9: Dallas Mavericks
05:28 – #8: New Orleans Pelicans
05:54 – #7: Philadelphia 76ers
06:17- #6: Milwaukee Bucks
07:34 – #5: Minnesota Timberwolves
08:12 – #4: Oklahoma City Thunder
08:40 – #3: Denver Nuggets
09:21 – #2: Los Angeles Clippers
09:55 – #1: Boston Celtics

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