Updated: April 16, 2012, 12:11 PM ET
Power Rankings: Miami Heat fall out of top 5
ESPN.com
Monday, April 16
The only three teams that can win 50 games in this lockout-shortened season fill the top three spots in the second-to-last edition of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings for 2011-12.
The Chicago Bulls can get there with a 4-2 finish. The Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs have to finish 6-0 and 8-0, respectively. Those teams, in that order, have moved to the top of the pile.
Yet the biggest development in our penultimate rankings Monday involves the Miami Heat. Thanks to ongoing surges from both L.A. teams and Miami's own struggles since the All-Star break, the reigning East champs' much-needed road win Sunday in New York couldn't prevent them from slipping to a season-low No. 6. The Clippers (winners of 11 of 13 to rise to No. 4) and Lakers (stunning San Antonio on the road and outlasting Dallas at home without the injured Kobe Bryant to snag the No. 5 slot) leapfrogged the Heat.
Click here every Monday in the regular season for the latest fresh and nonautomated pulse-take of the league's 30 teams, with the usual dishing from ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau. Click here to rank the teams yourself, or click here to comment on these rankings.
Also, check out John Hollinger's daily power rankings.
| 2011-12 Power Rankings: Week 16 | ||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | |
| 1 | 3 Last Week: 4 | One of my favorite Bulls watchers insists that D-Rose is getting his groove back and that Deng's tender wrist is the only issue that can derail them from winning the East. My outlook for Chicago wouldn't be as sunny as that, though, because the road to the Finals might actually be tougher for the No. 1 seed. | ||
| 2 | -- Last Week: 2 | Since beating the Bulls on April Fools' Day to reach 40-12 and prompt know-it-alls like me to proclaim that this is indeed the team to beat out West, OKC has been a mortal 4-4 and has to play both L.A. teams on the road this week. Another reminder that you always have to be wary of statements made on April 1. | ||
| 3 | 2 Last Week: 1 | Pop holds a narrow lead over Thibodeau and Doc Rivers in another ridiculous COY race with what might be his best-ever coaching job. Even if the Spurs don't snag the West's No. 1 seed -- and even after the Kobe-less Lakers humbled them at home -- he still has 'em at a level no one envisioned. No one. | ||
| 4 | 4 Last Week: 8 | Had 'em ranked too high two weeks ago, then too low last Monday. As punishment, perhaps, had to hear about five times in the past week from ESPN Stats & Info how this franchise has never won a division title. Which obviously started with eight seasons of Buffalo Braves basketball that meant so much to me. | ||
| 5 | 4 Last Week: 9 | It's not intended as a slap at the resurgent Barnes or Metta ... or the difference-making Sessions ... or Bynum's first extended run as the focal point of everything L.A.'s doing. Just being honest when I say that watching Kobe coach, on this scorecard, has been the most riveting thing in Lakerland lately. | ||
| 6 | 3 Last Week: 3 | I keep asking the question because it only gets more valid as Miami's mediocrity since the All-Star break (15-10) deepens ... and because award ballots popped into my inbox on Friday: As individually spectacular as LeBron's numbers look, how can the Heat's struggles not factor into MVP thinking? | ||
| 7 | -- Last Week: 7 | Thanks to a 4-0 road mark this month, Indy has managed to clinch its first winning record away from home since going 27-14 way back in 2003-04. Frank Vogel's surging Pacers have likewise already racked up more wins in this 66-game season than they did in any of the five previous 82-game seasons. | ||
| 8 | 2 Last Week: 6 | With all the focus on Rondo's diming, Boston's suffocating team D, Ray Allen's acceptance of a bench role and the unexpected contributions from A-Bradley and Stiemsma, not enough has been said about KG, who quietly has served up six of his seven 20-and-10 games this season just since the All-Star break. | ||
| 9 | 4 Last Week: 5 | So what's worse? The Celtics losing in Toronto on the same day we proclaim them title-worthy in the Weekend Dime ... or the Griz losing in New Orleans to cap a weekend in which they got the same treatment? Gotta go with Memphis after Marc Gasol hyperextended his left knee in that particular comedown. | ||
| 10 | 3 Last Week: 13 | Now up to 19-10 since its Feb. 19 home win over the Lakers, Phoenix really needs a Denver win in Houston on Monday night. The Suns also need more credit, playoffs or not, for doing this with a roster that featured virtually no one with experience as an NBA starter -- apart from Nash and Hill -- until they got to the Suns. | ||
| 11 | -- Last Week: 11 | They've withstood the injuries to Amare and J-Lin, but Tyson Chandler is another matter. If the Knicks' defensive anchor can't shake this knee problem, go ahead and ditch any of those fantasies you have about these Knicks recreating what they did in 1999 as a No. 8 seed in a lockout-shortened season. | ||
| 12 | 2 Last Week: 14 | The Mavs and Lakers have been linked all season after the fateful Odom trade and look headed for a Round 1 playoff reunion. Might not be the happiest occasion for the reigning champs after the Kobe-less Lakers wrapped up a 4-0 season sweep and dropped Dallas to 0-8 on the road against .600-or-better teams. | ||
| 13 | 3 Last Week: 16 | Six games left on the Nuggets' schedule, four of them on the road and all but one or maybe two games (depending on how the seedings look for Orlando come Sunday) against teams as needy as they are for late-season victories. Starting things off right Monday night in Houston would thus be h-u-g-e. | ||
| 14 | 2 Last Week: 12 | Interesting Sunday night tweet from Professor Hollinger, who posits the theory that the Hawks -- after climbing to a season-best 11 games over .500 -- didn't exactly mind losing at home to Toronto because they want to finish sixth in the East and face Indy instead of Boston in Round 1. Long line, though. | ||
| 15 | 5 Last Week: 10 | We did it to the Suns when we vaulted them to No. 9 on March 26, and I fear we've messed with the Rockets' mojo, too. A recent four-game road winning streak and Lowry's return got them bumped up to No. 10 last Monday, only for Houston to return home and drop biggies to Utah and Phoenix. | ||
| 16 | 1 Last Week: 15 | As the Jazz cling to the belief that they're still part of this playoff chase, with five winnable (but also must-win) games to go, it's hard not to look at the recent four-overtime loss in Atlanta as the turning point in their Cinderella season. Utah won six straight before that heartbreaker and is just 5-8 since. | ||
| 17 | 1 Last Week: 18 | Wondering how the Bucks' 9-27 record against .500-or-better teams hasn't knocked them out of the playoff hunt? It sure helps to be in the East. As of Monday morning, No. 5 Atlanta was 11-20 against .500-or-better teams, with No. 6 Orlando (12-20), No. 7 Philly (12-21) and No. 8 New York (12-20) no better. | ||
| 18 | 1 Last Week: 19 | Something tells me that the reeling Sixers won't mind slipping to No. 8 at this point -- if you can promise they don't fall all the way to No. 9 -- with six of their final seven on the road. They've lost 15 of 16 to the Heat, playoffs included, so Chicago in Round 1 (thanks to D-Rose's iffy health) is actually more appealing. | ||
| 19 | 4 Last Week: 15 | With only one game left against a team that has nothing to play for (Charlotte at home on April 25) and Dwight Howard (back injury) possibly out for all six of the games still left on the schedule, Orlando remains at risk for dropping from the seed it wants (No. 6) to seventh or eighth in the East. | ||
| 20 | -- Last Week: 20 | Wish I had something smart/comforting to say to Blazermaniacs after a season that began with Brandon Roy's injury-hastened retirement and yet another health setback to ultimately end Greg Oden's time in Portland is wrapping up with hip surgery for LaMarcus Aldridge. But I don't. | ||
| 21 | 3 Last Week: 24 | The Raps enter the final two weeks of this Waiting For Valanciunas season ranked 15th in the league in defensive efficiency and reveling in weekend-spoiler wins over the Celts and Hawks despite shelving Bargnani (calf) for the rest of the season. Not much more Dwane Casey could have done in Year 1. | ||
| 22 | New Orleans 18-42 | 5 Last Week: 27 | Some week for the Hornets. They added the Jazz and Grizzlies to the list of unsuspecting playoff teams to visit New Orleans and come away with an L just since the All-Star break (along with the Mavs, Clips and Nuggets) and landed a new owner (Tom Benson) who wants to rename the franchise. Suggestions? | |
| 23 | New Jersey 22-39 | -- Last Week: 23 | The comments from D-Will over the weekend that didn't get as much play as what he said about John Wall (see Wiz space below): "I never thought I would shoot 40 percent in my career, but I'm taking tough shots over double-teams, and that's really the only shots I get." Have to say that he has a point. | |
| 24 | 2 Last Week: 22 | You scarcely heard a word about Charlie Villanueva this season before April 9, when he was handed 19 minutes in Orlando after logging just 15 minutes of court time all season in the 56 games before that. Safe to say that Sunday's run-in with Derrick Rose's nose took care of that, though. | ||
| 25 | 4 Last Week: 21 | This certainly isn't important enough to rush the concussed Kevin Love back, but the Wolves have stumbled to 25 consecutive defeats in April dating to 2009. Which happens to be the NBA's longest such drought since the Clippers dropped 26 straight February games from 1998 to 2000. | ||
| 26 | -- Last Week: 26 | It's all going to plan now. Falling behind Detroit, New Jersey and Toronto is all within range, greatly enhancing the Dubs' chances of landing a top-seven pick in the lottery and thus keeping that pick instead of having to send it to Utah. A league-leading 10 losses by three points or fewer has been crucial. | ||
| 27 | 1 Last Week: 28 | Textbook tanking here. Amid reports both Kyrie (shoulder) and Varejao (wrist) haven't been ruled out completely for the rest of the season -- when they realistically have -- Cleveland is putting the ball in the hands of relative unknown Lester Hudson and letting Hudson's fairy tale soak up the local spotlight. | ||
| 28 | 1 Last Week: 29 | John Wall still has at least one prominent fan in the wake of a second straight season with limited success/progress. In case you missed it, D-Will unexpectedly defended J-Wall's play over the weekend, saying of the Wiz: "I don't want to put anybody down, but he's not playing with the smartest guys in the world." | ||
| 29 | 4 Last Week: 25 | The committee (of one) turns to two colleagues based in Sacramento to capture the disappointment and dread that has gripped the California capital after the Kings' arena deal collapsed. Read NBA.com's Scott Howard-Cooper and Tom Ziller at Sactown Royalty if you want a true taste of the despair there. | ||
| 30 | -- Last Week: 30 | Sixteen straight defeats. Three straight home losses by 20 points or more until Sunday's 12-point nail-biter L to Boston. And 34 losses by at least 10 points. Only one way for Michael Jordan to repay the Charlotte community for what it's had to witness this season: Suit up for one of the last five home games. | ||
New Orleans | ||||
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