NBA Basketball Power Rankings - National Basketball Association

Power Rankings: Celtics sweep Texas, secure top spot

Week:

By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

They were the season's hot story early.

The Boston Celtics are now finishing the regular season in the same fashion.

A flurry of blockbuster trades in February and Houston's historic 22-game winning streak have hoarded the spotlight for weeks, but Boston's return to the top spot of ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings was an automatic after the Celts swept through the Texas Triangle.

New Orleans (No. 6 to No. 2) and Phoenix (No. 7 to No. 3) are this week's other high-risers -- with the Hornets' victory over Boston on Saturday largely responsible for their jump to No. 2 -- while the Rockets and reeling Mavericks take the most notable drops after Houston's streak was halted and with Dallas losing Dirk Nowitzki to a leg injury.

You can rank the teams yourself or click here or at the bottom to register your approval or disagreement with the order at the top or anywhere else.

Tune into "NBA Fastbreak" on ESPN to see this week's Army Power Rankings.

2007-08 Power Rankings: Week 21
	RK (LW)	TEAM	REC	COMMENT
	1 (2)	Celtics	55-14	Hard to imagine how the Celts don't finish here three Mondays from now with their 23-5 record against the West and their 6-0 record on the road against the Lakers, Jazz, Rockets, Spurs, Mavericks and Pistons.
	2 (6)	Hornets	47-21	Impossible to put the Hornets any lower when they're 8-3 in March and when they just followed up a rout of Houston by rallying from 15 down to stun the aforementioned team that just mowed through Texas.
	3 (7)	Suns	47-22	If they haven't impressed you yet with the league's longest active win streak, this might be the week for the Shaq-era Suns, depending on how they fare in this week's swing through Detroit, Boston and Philly.
	4 (5)	Lakers	48-22	Nothing could have topped Boston's week, but the Lakers were at least in that zip code before losing at home to Golden State. Wins don't get much bigger than L.A.'s roadies in Dallas and Utah without Pau and Bynum.
	5 (4)	Jazz	46-25	That loss to the short-handed Lakers didn't just put an end to Utah's 19-game winning streak at EnergySolutions Arena. It left us with no choice but to keep the Jazz, seemingly headed for a promotion, in their usual area.
	6 (1)	Rockets	47-23	Even without Yao, that historic 22-game win streak pretty much took care of the getting to the first round. It's the recent scoring problems without Yao that have renewed doubts about Houston getting out of Round 1.
	7 (3)	Pistons	49-20	The Pistons don't lose two in a row very often, but road setbacks to the Cavs and Wizards have only made their chief rivals look better, preserving Boston's status as the league's only 50-win team for the third straight week.
	8 (9)	Spurs	47-23	Would anyone be surprised if the Spurs, even after that 1-6 slide, win their division yet again? Be advised that the champs have only five more road games left, compared to seven for Houston and 10 for New Orleans.
	9 (10)	Warriors	43-26	Golden State's next away victory clinches its first winning road record since 1993-94. But Sunday's W was its biggest roadie of the season, pushing the Warriors to just 2-16 all time against the Lakers at Staples Center.
	10 (12)	Magic	46-26	He might not be the favorite, but Stan Van has to be up in there in the COY derby. Unless Orlando's two victories each over Boston and Detroit and the league's third-best road record (23-13) don't do much for you, that is.
	11 (13)	Nuggets	42-28	Classic Iverson. AI is shooting 52.5 percent from the floor and 48.3 percent on 3s since breaking a finger on March 7 and the Nuggets just followed up their emotional defeat in Philly with a couple of rare road victories.
	12 (11)	76ers	35-35	You might not be able to make this claim, Leasterners, after Philly's visit to Boston on Monday, so now is the time to rejoice in the news that the Least is up to seven teams with .500-or-better records thanks to the Sixers.
	13 (14)	Wizards	36-33	Arenas himself seems to see that it's best for his knee -- and perhaps even for a team that's 5-1 since getting Caron Butler back -- to sit out the entire season. "At the end of the day," Gil said, "that is the smartest thing to do."
	14 (8)	Mavericks	44-26	It's just the second time in the six seasons of operation for the committee (of one) that the Mavs are out of the top 10. Truth is, though, that Dallas' struggles might have forced our hand even if Dirk hadn't gotten hurt.
	15 (15)	Cavaliers	40-31	The Cavs are on pace for a mere 46 wins and a second-round series with Boston instead of their old pals from Detroit, since Orlando has all but clinched the No. 3 seed. Does this change your view on Bron's MVP merits?
	16 (16)	Trail Blazers	37-33	Good news: Portland should get the four Ws it needs to clinch a .500 season minus Greg Oden. Bad news: Portland inherits the NBA's longest playoff drought (five seasons) if Atlanta hangs on to No. 8 in the East.
	17 (18)	Raptors	35-35	Some trivia to distract from Bosh's lengthy injury absence and the 3-11 slide that it triggered: Toronto became the ninth team this season to beat the Heat by at least 25 points with Wednesday's (no misprint) 96-54 rout.
	18 (20)	Hawks	30-39	It took a 4-1 heat wave, including an unexpected win over Orlando, but the Hawks are fewer than 10 games under .500 again. Which might be all it takes to land No. 8 in the East and the right to be obliterated by the Celts.
	19 (17)	Kings	31-38	With a loss in Memphis trashing any .500 hopes, here's the latest from the Artest Chronicles: PETA has a new poster out on which its Sactown spokesman says, "HAVE THE BALLS TO SPAY OR NEUTER YOUR DOG."
	20 (22)	Pacers	29-41	Donnie Walsh is moving on, which means Larry Bird is staying on. On the floor? Mike Dunleavy has quietly posted five 30-point games since the All-Star break, which is only three short of Kobe's total in the same span.
	21 (19)	Nets	29-41	Devin Harris plays his first truly big game as a Net on Monday night. New Jersey has to win at MSG to avoid an 0-4 record against the Knicks this season . . . which also means Team Isiah is 16-50 against everybody else.
	22 (21)	Bulls	27-42	Another ugly week in a brutal season: Chicago clinched a sub-.500 record for the season with Saturday's loss to Indiana and now has three teams to leapfrog just to get back to the playoffs after the Pacers passed them.
	23 (26)	Timberwolves	18-51	Even if the remarks were somehow misinterpreted, I'm with The Mag's Chris Broussard: Wolves owner Glen Taylor questioning KG on any front is no less ridiculous than DeShawn Stevenson calling LeBron "overrated."
	24 (25)	Bucks	24-44	Congrats to Michael Finley and all you Badgers out there on Wisconsin's historic tournament win over our beloved Titans. Now we return you to the state's (and our) regularly scheduled Simmons-For-Bucks-GM watch.
	25 (29)	Grizzlies	18-51	Word is the Grizzlies are planning to offer 6,000 seats per game next season at just $10 a pop, with another 500 seats at $5 each. Pretty sweet deal when you remember that you also get to watch the other team.
	26 (23)	Bobcats	25-44	The only suspense left here is what will happen with rookie coach Sam Vincent. Will Michael Jordan give his former teammate one more season? Or a pink slip? Unsolicited prediction from the committee: It'll be the latter.
	27 (24)	Clippers	21-48	Follow-up to last week's question about whether Elton Brand should indeed come back this season or just wait for next season: How do Clips fans feel about Kaman playing for Germany? Or Dickau playing for Poland?
	28 (28)	SuperSonics	16-54	After failing to shoot better than 41 percent from the floor in any month before this one, Durant is making his final ROY push with 52 percent shooting in March. Not that he needed a hot streak to lock up our vote.
	29 (27)	Knicks	19-50	The latest head-scratcher from Isiah's tenure, courtesy of our man Howard Beck from the New York Times: ". . . Thomas, who seemingly has no future with the team, is now coaching as if the future is all that matters."
	30 (30)	Heat	12-57	They're obviously no longer trying to get there, but this stat further illustrates the 2006 champs' historically steep fall from grace: Miami needs a 5-8 finish to record a winning percentage above the Mendoza Line.