Updated: December 30, 2009, 3:01 PM ET

Power Rankings: Cavs jump six spots to No. 1

Week:
 
Team:
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
Monday, Dec. 28

The Cleveland Cavaliers responded to a meek display in Dallas by becoming the first road team all season to win a game in Phoenix.

Then they roughed up the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, and followed that win with a rout of a Houston Rockets team that has always caused LeBron James problems.

With those three wins and an OT triumph in Sacramento -- and with the help of slipups from the Lakers, Celtics and Magic -- Cleveland has jumped six spots to seize the top spot in ESPN.com's weekly NBA Power Rankings for the first time all season. No. 4 was the Cavs' previous high, but the best week of their season (by far) has nudged the Cavs' record against the rest of the top 10 to 7-3, which is suddenly tops in the league.

In the other prominent top-10 moves, Portland jumped from No. 10 to No. 6 with three huge wins (detailed below) after losing Joel Przybilla, while Phoenix falls from No. 6 to No. 10 after following up the loss to the Cavs -- who were playing on the second night of a back-to-back -- with another home loss to Oklahoma City.

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2009-10 Power Rankings: Week 9
RANKTEAM / RECORD TRENDINGCOMMENTS
1
6
Last Week: 7		Sometimes we get it wrong and this is one of those times. Ever since we saw the Cavs lose to the Dirk-less Mavs in person and suggested they wouldn't go higher than No. 4 in the near future, they've been ruthless.
2
Boston
23-6
--

Last Week: 2		Losing Pierce for two weeks isn't normally the blueprint for rising to the top. But that's where the Celts were surely headed after their Christmas clampdown of the Magic -- in Orlando -- until Baron got 'em at the buzzer.
3
2
Last Week: 1		Reaction to the Christmas Day "egg" they laid, as Odom called it, wouldn't be so harsh if it wasn't the Lakers' first test against an elite team. Beating Atlanta without Pau way back on Nov. 1 looks like L.A.'s best win.
4
1
Last Week: 3		It's asking a lot to expect folks to remember the Magic beating the full-strength Celts in Boston before Thanksgiving -- without Jameer -- when you play the way they played against the Pierce-less Celts on Christmas.
5
1
Last Week: 4		Perfect timing ... for anyone with tickets or planning to watch on League Pass. The Cavs started rollin' just in time to make their Tuesday visit to Atlanta and Wednesday's home rematch with the Hawks especially tasty.
6
4
Last Week: 10		Major injuries usually lead to rankings tumbles, but how can you do anything but salute/promote the Blazers after they followed the loss of their fifth rotation player (Przybilla) by beating the Mavs/Spurs/Nuggets?
7
Dallas
22-9
2
Last Week: 5		For all the fretting about their home indifference and all the praise for their road work, this might actually be the newsiest topic about the new Mavs: They've quietly emerged as a top-five team in defensive efficiency.
8
Houston
18-13
1
Last Week: 9		Spokesman Battier sizing up the West's best Cinderellas to the NY Times: "We have a collection of guys who [were] told they're too 'something' to play in the NBA. Too small, too short, too dumb, can't shoot, unathletic."
9
Denver
20-11
1
Last Week: 8		The Nuggets have lost four of their past five games. Billups has logged only 20 minutes in that stretch. Do the math and you can see why they're being so cautious with his groin injury. They've obviously got to get him right.
10
Phoenix
19-12
4
Last Week: 6		There's a reason Nash tried to temper expectations when the Suns were 14-3. He knew they had depth as well as size issues, which are all out in the open now with Phoenix at 1-6 on the second night of back-to-backs.
11
1
Last Week: 12		The good news: San Antonio is on an 8-2 run and has reached 100 points in nine of its past 11 games. The bad news: All eight wins came against sub-.500 teams. The Spurs are 0-5 in December against winning teams.
12
Utah
17-13
1
Last Week: 11		Only one team has beaten Utah twice this season. That team -- Minnesota -- gets Utah at home Wednesday night. This is the same Jazz team, incidentally, that has already taken the vaunted Spurs down three times.
13
2
Last Week: 15		Factoids, factoids, factoids: OKC is 12-1 when it puts up 100 points, Durant has 13 30-point games already and the Thunder reached 15 wins on the day after Christmas ... after needing until March 2 to get there last season.
14
Miami
16-12
2
Last Week: 16		It's a good thing Pat Riley publicly challenged Wade and Co. when he did. The poor Eastern Conference might only be fielding a whopping four teams with winning records if not for Miami's 4-1 surge since Riley's speech.
15
2
Last Week: 17		Way too soon to think about trading Kevin Martin. Not until the Kings get a longer look at how he plays next to Tyreke ... and not after Ls in OT to the Cavs and Lakers that cried out for an experienced scorer in crunch time.
16
Memphis
13-16
2
Last Week: 14		As dangerous as the Grizz have been since their 1-8 start and the failed Iverson experiment, things could be even better. Saturday's loss in Dallas was their league-leading seventh in which they led by at least 10 points.
17
Toronto
15-17
2
Last Week: 19		There was no guarantee, knowing how these Raps play D, that they could capitalize on what looked to be a favorable stretch of schedule. But they'll finish 5-0 in this targeted stretch if they beat Charlotte on Wednesday.
18
New Orleans
13-15
5
Last Week: 13		If the Hornets hadn't managed to play .500 ball for an eight-game stretch without CP3 -- pretty much the worst adversity they could face -- it'd be easier to accept that they have the NBA's third-worst road record at 2-12.
19
2
Last Week: 21		Simmons' dream is doing these rankings, so we let him help with this one for a change: L.A. is 7-1 against Minnesota, Golden State, Indy, Philly and Washington. And 6-16 against everyone else after Baron sunk Boston.
20
2
Last Week: 18		You'll recall that Isiah got a contract extension in 2007 for getting the Knicks up to No. 8 in the East for a sec. With a top-eight slot and a 10-win December still in reach for these Knicks, what should D'Antoni expect?
21
Detroit
11-19
1
Last Week: 20		The good news: Rip, Tayshaun and Ben Gordon are all back in uniform. The bad news: Detroit is already dealing with its second seven-game skid of the season after dropping the Rip/Tay/BG comeback game in Toronto.
22
2
Last Week: 24		The Bobs' road woes have become so profound that they have to be grateful this season's schedule isn't as unbalanced as last season's, when 26 of their final 41 games -- and six of eight in April -- were roadies.
23
Chicago
11-17
--

Last Week: 23		If he's going down, Vinny's going down with the ball in the hands of his best player. For better or worse, D-Rose is averaging five points and six shots per game more in December than he did in October/November.
24
2
Last Week: 22		Make that seven straight games under 20 points for young Jennings, who also decided not to retire from Twitter after all and just wrote this about his best game: "I believe that the 55 was a blessing and [a] curse."
25
3
Last Week: 28		Love this stat so I'm re-using it after Weekend Dime usage: Monta has played all 48 minutes six times this season ... after 20 of 30 MLB teams got fewer than six complete games from their starting staffs last season.
26
3
Last Week: 29		Two wins over Utah, Kevin Love's nightly double-doubles and the gradual awakening of Corey Brewer have almost enabled long-suffering Wolves fans to focus their displeasure purely on the winter weather. Almost.
27
--

Last Week: 27		Our feeling from the start was that too much was being expected of the Wiz, but they've gone way beyond disappointing after a third of the season. Guns in the locker room, Gil? Farcical whatever the explanation.
28
2
Last Week: 26		A season that will be remembered for Iverson's return is starting to look like the dreadful 1995-96 season that put Philly in position to draft Iverson in the first place, thanks to this 2-16 skid. The '95-96 Sixers started 6-23.
29
4
Last Week: 25		Another coach watch in the Central? Asked if his Granger-less team has quit after a 13-dunk humiliation from Miami, O'Brien told the Indy Star: "Certainly after getting beat this badly that's a very legitimate question."
30
New Jersey
2-28
--

Last Week: 30		The guess here is that it won't surprise you to hear that the Nets just tied five predecessors (most recently New Orleans in 2004-05) for the worst 30-game start in NBA history. Which means they're on a (yikes) 5-77 pace.
  • Biggest Jump:
  • 6
  • Biggest Drop:
  • 5
New Orleans

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