NBA Power Rankings: Nuggets jump Celtics, Suns return to Top 10, Thunder rise | Hoops Tonight

NBA Power Rankings: Nuggets jump Celtics, Suns return to Top 10, Thunder rise | 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 let’s move on to our power rankings before we get out of here for the day so um two teams dropped out from last week the Heat and the magic uh the

Heat lost three straight games the Mavs the Thunder and the Wizards and then the magic lost back toback games against the and the Pacers so they’re out for right now new in at number 10 is the Phoenix Suns massively impressed by their win against the nuggets in Denver really

Showed that they can defend when they want to nurkic is a good big physical body to be able to show to throw at Nicole yic they have a lot of length off the ball when Kevin Durant is defending the way that he has they were flying around in rotation I thought Bradley

Beal digging down off kcp and playing passing lanes and and playing the rle man was really impactful for them defensively and then they showed that they can get to their over-the-top shot stuff uh easier than uh um than some other teams can against Denver and Kevin Durant really got going there down the

Stretch again I would still pick Denver over Phoenix in the series but I thought that was a really encouraging win and then even in the Celtics game like they really ran into some shortcomings personnel-wise with Devin Booker out but there were some really encouraging moments there and Kevin Durant is just

On an absolute heater three straight 35 Plus point games averaging 38 points per game over his last three games so Phoenix on the up and up number nine New Orleans Pelicans they had an undefeated road trip out east which has them riding a four game winning streak they have a

101 defensive rating in that span over those uh four games they actually have the best defense in the league over the last 15 games really shutting teams down in the paint just 45.9 points in the paint allowed per 100 possessions which is best in the league Zion and Brandon Ingram are both hooping

Right now they’re both averaging like 21- seven efficiently but every every single time I believe in the Pelicans they immediately fall apart so hopefully this will be something that they can actually sustain number eight the New York Knicks they had another one- two week they lost a rock fight to the 76

Was throwback Style game both teams in the 70s but they had a big win against the red hot Magic on Friday and most importantly in that game Jaylen Brunson more or less looked like himself which was encouraging after the uh knee contusion that he had still just

Floating the ship while all these guys are out with injury number seven the Cleveland Cavaliers a two and two week two really impressive wins against the Celtics and the Timberwolves big comeback uh against the Celtics fueled by Dean Wade’s shooting a clutch win overtime win against the uh Minnesota

Timberwolves but then two ugly losses against the Hawks and the Nets they finally got their defense back on track which was an issue a few weeks ago but now they’re having major issues on offense they had just a 109 offensive rating last week they really need to get

Donovan Mitchell back to tie all of this together number six the Minnesota Timberwolves also a two and two week big win over the Pacers redot late game shot making from uh from uh Anthony Edwards made three straight pullup jump shots at the end of the game Mike Conley

Made a big one too so they finally made some shots late and closed out a game but then they lost another clutch game to the Cavs and then they lost to the Lakers last night uh still experimenting with lineups since Carl towns went out they’ve tried Kyle Anderson the first

Couple of games that came with the boatload of issues they obviously with go bear out they brought Nas Reed in at the center spot but they ended up going smaller with n Alexander Walker against the Lakers and that might be another option they could go with is is if they

Don’t want to start NS next to Rudy goar just go with nikel Alexander Walker against especially against speed teams I’m not sure if you want to do that against the Lakers necessarily but against speedier teams like because that was obviously a big issue but they just were so short-handed with both gobear

And cat out but like against teams like the Lakers I’d probably go with goar at Center and Nas Reed but I don’t hate the idea of using nikil Alexander Walker especially against speed teams again A lot of times in situations like this I can sympathize with this problem with

The Lakers because of their issues at the three spot like I want them to play ruy not because he’s a natural fit at the three but just because he’s their fifth best player and at this point you’re better off just playing your best basketball if you don’t have a clear

Obvious positional fit play your best players and and that’s the thing is like Naas Reed to me playing next to Rudy goar might be a little bit of an issue but is just a really good basketball player and so having him out there might just be a better option than some of the

Others and it the the best player in your perimeter core that doesn’t start is probably nil Alexander Walker and so that’s why I’d go with him if you wanted to lean more towards into a like a more perimeter oriented team number five the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Bulls in

An absolute dog fight that went to overtime but their Stars had to play Big minutes so they ended up having to essentially punt against the Milwaukee Bucks yesterday a really weird schedule game too where the the tip off was like on a Sunday afternoon less than 24 hours

After the last game ended so that led to a two and two week they also blew the first Milwaukee game in a game that Giannis was out that was the game that they blew late they are just seven- seven in their last 14 games 17th in offense and 23rd in defense over that

Span so the Clippers hitting a little bit of a mid-season speed bump number four the Milwaukee Bucks one- two so far on their West Coast Road Trip their defense has not traveled with them they have a 123 defensive rating in the three games big uh part of that is all three

Teams they played are teams that kind of specialize in beating drop coverage right like you even against the Clippers with James Harden like he can just get into the lane and make plays as a passer um uh but they really struggled against the uh Laker guards the Laker guards

Were just getting wherever they wanted again like teams that like teams that thrive in that like kind of mid-range kind of Shifty guard type of offense they’re going to have success against the bucks with the with the Deep drop coverage that they run big Silver Lining

Though for the the Bucks I thought in the Lakers game in particular we saw some of the best Dame Giannis pick and roll reps that I’ve seen this season there’s specific timing stuff that they’re starting to figure out where like timing the role of the screen is so

Pivotal right because you want to hold the screen long enough to get the defender to to get caught up on you so that the ball handler can get some separation but not so much especially when they’re blitzing that you’re not available when the pass comes and so timing is so absolutely critical but

They’re really starting to get their one two down with that where like Dame is coming off and throwing the pass right as Giannis is turning and hitting him in stride they’re really starting to to to to get highquality roll opportunities out of that they’re starting to clear

The side more um that’s I would imagine is another thing that Doc Rivers has brought in they’re starting again that’s just where you don’t have a defender in the corner so that when Giannis rolls he sees the entire floor in front of him instead of having to account for

Something that’s kind of behind him to his left or behind him to his right right so like that clear side thing I think just just kind of simplifies that process Giannis is making some really nice rolls reads out of the Roll as well I like there’s a lot of encouraging

Stuff on the Dame Yannis pick and roll front that I think is enough to again this is tough the western conference is tough I’ve been talking about this uh throughout the season I want to say the Bucks are just 13- 10 against the west and the Celtics are just if I’m not

Mistaken 16- seven so like for as dominant as those two teams again been against the East the bottom of the East is so weak you can really rack up wins against the bottom of that conference the western conference is tough it’s not easy to get wins on a West Coast trip

And it’s more important like again to just look at in the bigger picture you need to get your defense where it needs to get but you also need to have the damanis pick and roll humming at the absolute peak level and they’re getting closer to that every single day number

Three the Oklahoma City Thunder really tough loss in that match up with the Lakers just a really bad match up for them LeBron and AD just eat up their front line every single time they play but then they went into an easier stretch of their schedule they got two

Easy wins against Portland and Memphis and then Shay just went absolutely crazy in a big win against the Miami Heat they are 10-2 in their last 12 games so they’ve moved up to three in our power rankings number two the Boston Celtics back-to-back losses for the first time

Since November they blew their lead against Cleveland where they couldn’t make a jump shot for nine minutes and struggled to score in the paint and then they lost to Denver which we’ve broken down in excruciating detail on the show over the past week but they did bounce

Back with an impressive win against the Suns on Saturday in case you missed it we broke that game down at the top of this so you want to if you’re watching the breakout clip you want to go watch the full episode for the detailed breakdown of their win against the against the Suns

They have been the third best points in the paint per 100 possession team in the last seven games Jaylen Brown is absolutely hooping playing the best basketball of his career and Jason Tatum pull-up jump shot coming around since January 1st 1.07 excuse me points per pull-up jumper

Number one new number one for the first time in like what seems like two months the Denver Nuggets obviously a tough loss to Phoenix I was weirdly impressed by Denver in that game because Phoenix like punched him in the mouth and was really outplaying him for like two and a

Half quarters but Denver hit the Jets there in the middle of that third quarter and Phoenix was just holding on for dear life and they worked their way all the way back into the game and then Phoenix made a short little run to get it back up to a nine-point lead and then

Denver just executed like the most perfect 120 run I’ve ever seen But KD made a huge pull-up jump shot to send it to OT and then he made a few more in OT and they just kind of lost to a KD shot making performance so like a lot of

Encouraging nugget stuff out of that and I also thought it was Nicole yic is one of his worst games of the season but he bounced back and they were magnificent against Boston their half court execution was unbelievable I really think uh I really think they have some

Room for improvement in that matchup too a really encouraging week for Denver again I still think they’re the best team in the league and after the win against Boston and with Boston coming off two losses I thought they deserved the top spot for this Week he

Jason Timpf drops his weekly NBA Power Rankings where we have a new No. 1 team in the league. Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets passed Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics for the top spot as the Celtics faltered last week. Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks have steadily been rising as they have caught their stride in the second half of the season, and Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns jump back into the Top 10.

Timeline:
00:00 – Who fell out?
00:32 – #10: Phoenix Suns
01:31 – #9: New Orleans Pelicans
02:06 – #8: New York Knicks
02:27 – #7: Cleveland Cavaliers
02:56 – #6: Minnesota Timberwolves
04:45 – #5: Los Angeles Clippers
05:19 – #4: Milwaukee Bucks
07:46 – #3: Oklahoma City Thunder
08:08 – #2: Boston Celtics
08:51 – #1: Denver Nuggets

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