NBA Power Rankings: Lakers return, Mavericks soaring, Nuggets or Celtics at top? | Hoops Tonight

NBA Power Rankings: Lakers return, Mavericks soaring, Nuggets or Celtics at top? | 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 rankings the one drop off from our two weeks ago list are the Cleveland Cavaliers they are three and five since our last

Rankings on March 18th they lost to Miami twice they lost to Minnesota they lost to Denver and they have a really bad loss to Charlotte bottom 10 in both offense and defense over that span so we’re dropping the Cavs for now number 10 gasp the Los Angeles Lakers are

Cracking into our power rankings for the first time in forever six- one since our last rankings including yet another win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee without LeBron since January 7th a 39 game sample size the Lakers are 25 and 14 that is the fifth best record in all

Of basketball during that span again over a sample size of almost half the season they are fifth in offensive rating over that span second in three-point percentage over that span they’re shooting over 40% from three as a team since January 7th they are second in points in the paint per 100

Possession over that span so a really nice combination of accurate perimeter shooting in interior dominance but here’s the most encouraging stat and the justification for why I have the Lakers at 10th in the power rankings according to cleaning the glass against the top 10 teams in the NBA in

Point differential they have 17 wins which is the most in the league they have a 55% win percentage which is the fifth best in the league and they have a plus 1.5 Point differential per 100 possessions which is the fifth best Mark in the league the Lakers have been one

Of the very best teams in the League this year at beating the good teams in addition to playing really really good basketball outside of a brief stretch they were 15- n including in season tournament win they are 25-4 since January 7th which is the fifth best record in the league over that span

There’s a 3 and10 stretch there in the middle which was right when everyone relaxed after winning the tournament and obviously when Darin ham was tweaking with the lineup and taking their three three of their top five players out I’m again do I think the Lakers are a legitimate Championship Contender like

The uh the teams of the top of the league no but we’re going to give them a shout out here for how good they’ve been playing over the course of the last couple of months at nine the New Orleans pelican they losing to the Orlando Magic Oklahoma City Thunder and the Boston

Celtics since our last ranking so they’re dropping a bit obviously Brandon Ingram got hurt and that plays a role here the offense has really fallen off they’re 21st in offense over their last six games and their defense hasn’t been as good either they’re down to ninth in

That span here’s the thing I uh I really wanted to drop the pells too but like when you look through the rest of the league the league is so good and everyone’s kicking the out of everyone there is not a team that I could reason ably put above New Orleans

For now even though I know that relative to most people I’m lower on New Orleans there’s not even a team that I could reasonably put above them because everyone’s kind of hovering around 500 because everyone’s really good and everyone can beat everyone and and it’s making for some funky results at number

Eight the New York Knicks some mixed results since our last rankings they’re four and three had a nice Road win over the Golden State Warriors but they lost to the Denver Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs obviously lost a complete heartbreak to the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday concerning stat with the

Knicks they’re just five in 17 this year in that same list the top 10 point differential teams on cleaning the glass they were just five and 17 against those teams obviously injuries have played a role I think like when it comes to the upper level teams execution and effort

And coaching and all those things can only carry you so far when you run into Superior talent and here’s the thing Jaylen Brunson has had to do a ton a lot of guys are being asked to do more than usual and just getting back your best

Players will go a long way to helping that and here’s the Silver Lining they are 39 and 13 against everyone else which means they’re building the habits and the consistency in the basketball culture to where if they add in the talent they should be able to push over

The top number seven the Milwaukee Bucks also mixed results three and three since our last rankings one and three against the quality opponents they face though they had a nice win against Oklahoma City but then they lost to the Celtics lost to the Lakers lost to the Pelicans

We can zoom out out now take a look at the doc experience Doc Rivers has been the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for 28 games in those 28 games the Bucks are 15 and 13 that is the 16th best record in the league over that span if you guys

Remember I talked a lot about goals for the bucks under Doc Rivers I wanted to see an offensive rating at 120 because I thought they needed to be a truly Elite offense to win and I wanted to see a defensive rating at 115 which I thought

Was a good Mark to demonstrate a good enough defense to get the job done in the postseason provided that their offense was Elite here’s where they’re at since STC went uh joined the team 11 15.1 offensive rating that’s 16th in the league over that span so they’ve been

Very mediocre on offense but here’s a silver lining 11.6 defensive rating over a 28 game sample size 11th best in the league so for what’s that roughly 30 35% of the Season they’ve been a top 11 defense that’s real that’s not something to uh to completely ignore uh overall they

They’ve struggled against some specific matchups particularly guard heavy offenses it’s why they’ve struggled with the Lakers for instance right um but overall they’ve been really good on that end of the floor and again the offense just hasn’t come around but if the offense comes around that’s where it

Could really take off and I think honestly it’s been a little bit of break rhythm with giannis’s hamstring injury and I think like uh and obviously with Chris Middleton being in and out of the lineup all year so there’s some factors there they’re really good offensively to

Start the season I do believe that that offense is still in there but they got to get to that point in order to capitalize on how good they’ve been defensively number six the Los Angeles Clippers they’re going against an easier part of their schedule and they’re getting back on track as a result

They’re five- two in their last seven since our last rankings they got the Blazers twice and the Hornets once so some easy ones in there they split a home and home with the Philadelphia 76ers they did lose an ugly one at home to the Indiana Pacers

In that uh span but on Friday night they had one of their most impressive wins in recent months they went to Orlando and got in this Rock fight this really fun Rock fight of a basketball game and just through really highle defense and really high level shot making the Clippers got

A win 100 to 97 on the road and they looked more or less like the Clippers and I thought that was a really encouraging game for them it’s still in there they just need to recapture it before they get to April we’ve seen teams like Denver last year kind of run

Into similar stretches where they Dominate and then they let their foot off the gas at the end and somehow they get it going in time for the postseason that’s got to be the mold for the Clippers number five the Dallas Mavericks not going to talk too much

About them because we just did a whole Deep dive on them again Mavericks fans uh earlier on the feed we did a deep dive on uh uh Dallas vers Houston and just how Luca has been dominating and how good they’ve been defensively all that kind of stuff you can find that on

Our on our YouTube feed but brief synopsis Dallas has been the second best team in the league since February 5th and they’re doing it on both ends of the floor some really encouraging stuff there they’ve been uh good defensive rebounding and defensive rating over that span number four Minnesota

Timberwolves they are 5-2 in their last seven games since our last rankings including some really impressive wins they went into Denver and manhandled the nuggets the other night albeit without Jamal Murray uh since Carl towns went down they uh started playing way better after they put Nas Reed in the starting

Lineup they’re now eight and4 in those games 16th in offense sixth in defense Anthony Edwards averaging 26.7 rebounds and six assists I advocated for starting Nas Reed because I thought it was the best option for uh Minnesota under the circumstances I I like nikel Alexander Walker for particular matchups but I

Just figured especially in the regular season it makes sense to lean into Nas Reed really interesting comments from Anthony Edwards about how NZ Reed and his ball reversal has helped him with his shot selection so this is a similar thing I’ve seen uh uh with the Lakers

For instance with Jackson Hayes the dude catches on the wing and and he just or above the break and he just naturally as part of his basketball kind of character he just kind of flows into a dribble handoff on the other end of the floor and helps get the action going from side

To side and Anthony ever talked about how NZ re doing that for the uh uh for the Timberwolves has helped him kind of like feel more about feel more aware of the offensive flow and less dribbling the ball up the floor and shooting and more running some action and then maybe

Shooting if you if the ball makes its way back to him and I thought that that was really interesting and a good indicator of the fit with nas Reed in the starting lineup number three the Oklahoma City Thunder they’re 5-2 since our last rankings they beat the Suns the

Knicks and the New Orleans Pelicans in that span held up pretty well without Shay gild Alexander All Things Considered now he’s back in the lineup really just shined the light on how great Jaylen Williams is going to be again we did a deep dive on the thunder

In an earlier segment today you can find that on our YouTube feed number two the Denver Nuggets 5-2 since the last rankings on March 18th 2-0 with with Jamal in the lineup but in the five games without him they went three and two Reggie Jackson just wasn’t playing

Well in the first four games in that set and that was really leading to some mixed offensive results but Reggie Jackson broke out in a big way against the Cleveland Cavaliers and they looked awesome again big time win at home over a really good team number one the Boston

Celtics 5-2 since our last rankings couple of impressive wins of in there against the Milwaukee Bucks and the New Orleans Pelicans did have a couple of really ugly losses in Atlanta the first game the guards sat out and uh they went really cold less than one

Point per jump shot lost a game blew a big lead in that game and then the other uh I think it was two day two nights later they played full full strength against or it might have been a back toback I can’t remember exactly but they went into Atlanta full strength minus Al

Horford and they lost an overtime dog fight to dejonte Murray who had 44 including the gamewinner in that game jump shooting was more or less the issue and both games they took 101 jump shots in both games and only got 107 points and again that’s more or less the thing

With if there’s one rub on Boston it’s like if they go cold with their jump shooting you can beat them right and that that’s been a consistent theme throughout the season that’s not a hot take that’s just a statistical fact at this point uh this season they’ve taken 6,667 field goal attempts

3,744 of them have been jump shots that’s 56% of their field goal attempts most in the league so they just have a certain amount of you know um they have a certain amount of like their fate just kind of tied up in jump shot result just

Kind of the reality of the Celtics but again I don’t want to highlight the Atlanta wins or losses without making sure we uh highlight that they got big wins over the Bucks and the the Pelicans in that span although the Bucks sat out some guys um one last note on that front

I watched both of the Atlanta games and the one thing that bothers me still is like at the end of these games they don’t really have a bully ball option that they can go to to get a really good look close to the basket and so that’s

The thing like is Boston a better basketball team than Atlanta yeah but if they get into mid-range jump shooting contest with dejonte Murray over a small sample size Deonte can get hot and make them and beat him right and so like as as long the Celtics more or less have

Been a good clutch team for most of the Season I’m not trying to like pretend like that success hasn’t been there but we have seen from time to time they can go cold and when they go cold they struggle to find alternative methods of offense uh but still at this point 5-2

In their last seven games number one in our power rankings

Jason Timpf shares his NBA power rankings including a return for LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Higher on the list include Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, Kawhi Leonard’s Los Angeles Clippers, and Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks. Who is No. 1 between Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets and Jayson Tatum’s Boston Celtics?

Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/0537eEOvF1k

Timeline:
00:00 – #10: Lakers
02:28 – #9: Pelicans
03:18 – #8: Knicks
04:17 – #7: Bucks
06:06 – #6: Clippers
07:01 – #5: Mavericks
07:32 – #4: Timberwolves
09:02 – #3: Thunder
09:23 – #2: Nuggets
09:48 – #1: Celtics

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