Updated: January 28, 2013, 10:47 PM ET

Power Rankings: Spurs No. 1 again

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Team:
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Monday, Jan. 28

Tony Parker shot better than 60 percent from the floor in San Antonio's past four victories and was duly named Monday as the NBA's Western Conference Player of the Week.

Go ahead and put Parker's Spurs down as the league's team of the week, too, as chosen by ESPN.com's NBA Power Rankings committee (of one).

Even with Tim Duncan missing the past few games with a knee issue and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich having quarantined himself far away from his team to prevent spreading the flu, San Antonio just continues to roll, winning four more games last week to improve its January record to 11-3 … and bump the Oklahoma City Thunder down to No. 2 in the most notable development in the latest rankings.

The winning point margins have been slimmer with Duncan and Popovich unavailable, but the Spurs could not be denied their fourth stint this season at No. 1 -- and first since Dec. 10 -- even when they're short-handed.

The rankings, as always, were compiled with peerless assisting from ESPN Stats & Information and the Elias Sports Bureau. Click here to rank the teams yourself.

Also, check out John Hollinger's daily Power Rankings.

2012-13 Power Rankings: Week 13
RANKTEAM / RECORD TRENDINGCOMMENTS
1
2
Last Week: 3		Deeper and, yes, better than last season? That's what one Western Conference scout insisted in the latest Weekend Dime ... and it's hard to argue when the Spurs keep pounding everyone in their path no matter who's in or out of the lineup. Or in and out of the coaching box.
2
1
Last Week: 1		Even though it cost 'em the top spot, OKC can't complain too much about a 3-3 trip. Not when it began with two OT games. And with Russell Westbrook's shot malfunctioning again. And with two wins already at Staples Center this month (one over each L.A. team) before Sunday's stumble.
3
Miami
28-13
1
Last Week: 4		Just when the Heat thought they were rolling -- with LeBron announcing that they were playing their best ball of the season -- offensive flow and trust issues resurfaced in Sunday's loss to the Rondo-less Celtics. Not too many signature wins on the Heat's ledger when you really look at it.
4
1
Last Week: 3		Another four-game skid dropped 'em out of the top two, but I wouldn't expect a 17-game win streak in response this time. Also wouldn't expect the Clips to care about anything beyond getting CP3 right. He's the latest to illustrate that banging knees tends to be a huge, scary deal these days.
5
Denver
27-18
--

Last Week: 5		No matter what sort of passionate arguments are mounted on the behalf of various Nuggets, none of them could really be classified as an All-Star snubee. The consolation: Denver is a top-six team for the fourth straight week thanks to a 10-3 January and various slumps within the top 10.
6
Indiana
26-18
1
Last Week: 7		Paul George is one of only five players this season averaging 17 points, 7 boards and 3 assists. And the other four, like George, are all All-Stars: Durant, LeBron, D-Lee and Blake G. But with Chicago finally winning a few home games, Indy has lost its grip on the Central Division lead.
7
Memphis
28-15
1
Last Week: 6		Maybe we shouldn't be too surprised Marc Gasol was an All-Star snubee. His 20 points in a home rout of the Nets marked Gasol's first 20-point game since (yikes) Dec. 1. The D-obsessed Grizz have been held to 85 points or fewer in seven of their last nine games.
8
3
Last Week: 11		David Lee, All-Star! So we've lost one of our go-to comments; lost count of how often over the years we've referenced the Dubs' drought dating to Spree in 1997. Lee, by the way, is up to 27 double-doubles for the only team this season to beat the Clips, Heat and OKC, second only to Z-Bo's 28.
9
1
Last Week: 8		Good timing by Carmelo Anthony to get Melo-against-Nigeria hot Sunday night. On top of all the Knicks' recent woes with injuries, leaky defense and errant 3-point shooting, Melo's own shot had gone uncharacteristically cold starting with that 6-for-26 brickage when KG got into his head.
10
1
Last Week: 9		Frustrating week all around for the Nets thanks to the All-Star snubbing of Brook Lopez and Deron Williams, as well as the fact they can't quite squeeze past the hated Knicks. Home wins over Orlando and Miami this week, however, would tie the winningest month in team history.
11
Chicago
26-17
1
Last Week: 10		Someone smartly asked this on Twitter and it's a question worth repeating even if I lost the original tweet that put the topic on the table: If Jimmy Butler can handle so many minutes when Luol Deng is out, why can't he take a few more minutes off of Deng's legs when the All-Star is healthy?
12
Utah
24-20
--

Last Week: 12		They love their bulletin board material in the SLC, so the suspicion here is much will be made of Kobe's claim that the Lakers finally beat someone worth a bleep after L.A.'s win over OKC and not after Friday's rout of the Jazz. P.S. Surging Utah is 9-3 in January with wins over Miami and Indy.
13
4
Last Week: 17		Fascinating even when they finally have it going. How will Kobe Bryant play it from here? Can he possibly exit pass-first mode now after back-to-back games of 14 assists delivered the Lakers' two best back-to-back wins yet ... as well as their first win in nine tries against the West's top four?
14
1
Last Week: 13		Don't send the Interim Coach of the Year trophy to the engravers just yet. Brooklyn's P.J. Carlesimo is still in the lead, but the Bucks' Jim Boylan has Milwaukee playing at a faster pace, scoring more freely ... and he's managed to pull Ersan Ilyasova out of his funk while posting a 7-3 record.
15
Houston
24-22
1
Last Week: 16		The downside of making your maiden All-Star appearance in your home arena: James Harden gets to play only six of his next 18 games at the Toyota Center. The same Harden who shot 20-for-80 in the four road games, all Ls, that preceded Houston's slump-busting win Friday at New Orleans.
16
2
Last Week: 14		So make that two triple-doubles for Nicolas Batum in his past four games -- after zero in his first 294 regular-season games. As tenuous as Portland's playoff aspirations are at the minute, something tells me you'd struggle to find many in the Pacific Northwest who regret Batum's contract now.
17
Atlanta
25-19
3
Last Week: 20		Milestone roller coaster for the injury-hit Hawks over the weekend. The comeback from 19 points down against Boston is the biggest recovery from a halftime deficit for any team all season. But the loss to the Knicks was the club's first 60 percent shooting from the field since March 1981.
18
Dallas
19-25
--

Last Week: 18		The schedule has served up some weary opposition and the Mavs have capitalized, winning six of eight and losing only to the top two teams in our rankings. Must be hard for them to resist the what-if talk, sitting four games out of a playoff spot and sporting a league-worst record of 1-8 in OT.
19
Boston
21-23
4
Last Week: 15		Not sure we can call it the costliest L in franchise history -- since I haven't memorized every plot line, Sports Guy-style, from every Celtics game ever -- but it has got to be up there. The unfathomable squandering of a 27-point lead and Rondo's blown-out ACL both happened Friday night in Atlanta.
20
Detroit
17-27
1
Last Week: 19		We interrupt our editor-mandated obsession with Andre Drummond to note that Greg Monroe, amid the Pistons' 11 defeats already this season in which they blew a double-digit lead, has posted eight double-doubles in his past 12 games ... after only one (yikes) in the previous 17 games.
21
New Orleans
15-29
2
Last Week: 23		The Hornets have won six of nine on the road after starting 2-11. The Hornets are up to 8-5 this season when Eric Gordon plays compared with 7-24 without him. And the Hornets are indeed still the Hornets -- even if no one seems to use that any more with the Pelicans era officially underway.
22
3
Last Week: 25		This spell we're seeing from the Wiz? Five straight home Ws and a 6-3 overall record since John Wall returned from knee surgery? The hints of NBA decency Washington has delivered since Wall and rookie Bradley Beal hooked up with Nene? Randy Wittman's best-ever spell as an NBA coach.
23
2
Last Week: 21		The Sixers haven't won two in a row since a 3-0 finish to November, but their rout of the Knicks launched an eight-game homestand. Jrue Holiday's 35-point eruption in the rout halted Philly's NBA-high run of 436 straight games without a 35-point scorer since Willie Green back in April 2007.
24
Toronto
16-28
2
Last Week: 22		Even after the Raps won a couple close ones recently -- and even though bad calls and misfortune have played a part in their many torturous defeats -- losing three OT games this month has only added to fan frustration. The consolation: Emerging Ed Davis is averaging 14 and 8 this month.
25
2
Last Week: 27		The list is so impressive that it bears repeating: Kyrie Irving just became the sixth-youngest All-Star ever. He'll be 20 years, 331 days old on Feb. 17 in Houston, meaning only Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Kevin Garnett and Isiah Thomas made it to All-Star Weekend faster.
26
2
Last Week: 24		As if Team Injury Ravaged hasn't suffered enough: Saturday night's 18-point blown lead in Charlotte -- wasting Ricky Rubio's best game so far in allowing the Bobcats to halt to their 16-game home losing streak -- took the Wolves to a league-high five Ls this season in games they led by 15 or more.
27
Phoenix
15-30
2
Last Week: 29		A turnaround by the Lakers, if that's really what we're seeing, is the last thing that the Suns were hoping to see. Because: (1) Steve Nash and Mike D'Antoni make their desert return Wednesday night and (2) Phoenix has an unprotected pick coming from L.A. that, for now, is still a lottery pick.
28
--

Last Week: 28		While Mayor Johnson scrambles back home to keep the city's faint hopes of keeping the Kings alive, this team is one game into a brutal stretch calling for 13 of 16 games on the road. And two games into a DeMarcus Cousins slump after six straight double-doubles in DMC's monster start to 2013.
29
1
Last Week: 30		Somewhat amusing to see the Bobcats issue a terse statement acknowledging that they're looking into reclaiming "Hornets" as their nickname in consultation with the NBA but don't want to discuss the matter. You'd think they'd want us asking and talking about anything but the basketball.
30
Orlando
14-29
4
Last Week: 26		The question is not: Why can't the Magic put a halt to their hellacious 2-16 skid filled with recent losses to beatable opposition? The question remains: How did rookie coach Jacque Vaughn squeeze 12 wins out of the first 25 games? Honestly still trying to work that one out six weeks later.
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