2014-15 NBA Power Rankings: How All 30 Teams Shake Out After Christmas
The gifts have been unwrapped, the stockings unstuffed, the eggnog snogged and the relatives eschewed. Christmas is over, which for much of the sports-consuming public, means the NBA season has only begun.
Those of us who've been paying close attention know this isn't true. The 2014-15 campaign tipped off in late October and has seen more than its fair share of excitement and intrigue in the two months since.
But if you haven't been tracking the Association, here's a quick synopsis: The field of title contenders and MVP candidates is as wide open as it's been in years, injuries have hampered the preseason favorites, and the transaction season is off to a flying start, with Rajon Rondo and Josh Smith already changing teams—albeit by very different means.
The season's been fantastic so far and should only get better now that it's begun in earnest with a slate of Christmas Day games to bring everyone up to speed.
To that end, we'll do our part in the same way we do every week: by ordering all 30 of the league's teams from worst to first based on who each team has and what each has accomplished to date.
Click here for a look at last week's edition.
30. Minnesota Timberwolves
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The Minnesota Timberwolves came into the 2014-15 season trying to win, but circumstances have since dictated the team's turn toward the tank.
The bottom fell out not when Kevin Love wound up in Cleveland over the summer but once Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Martin succumbed to injury. The Wolves' decision to ship Corey Brewer to the Houston Rockets as part of a three-team deal seemed merely an acknowledgement of Minnesota's inevitable ineptitude.
Naturally, the depletion of the roster's veterans created more opportunities for some of Minny's more intriguing youngsters. Brewer's departure opened up a starting spot for Shabazz Muhammad, who's seized the day with 21.7 points on 52 percent shooting (40 percent from three) in his last three games.
The biggest benefactor, though, figures to be Andrew Wiggins. For the second time in the last three weeks, the most recent No. 1 pick in the NBA draft registered arguably his best performance as a pro: 27 points on 9-of-16 shooting (3-of-3 from three) against the Cleveland Cavaliers, who traded him to Minnesota in August.
"[He] plays the game with a lot of pride," Mitchell Wiggins, Andrew's dad, told Grantland's Steve McPherson. "He doesn't want you to score, even when he's on the bench watching. He's got a lot more talent than me."
And now, Wiggins will have even more leeway to show it.
29. Detroit Pistons
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Josh Smith seemed an awkward fit in the frontcourt alongside Andre Drummond and Greg Monroe from the moment he signed his four-year, $54 million deal with the Detroit Pistons in 2013. That played out in plain sight on a Pistons squad that stumbled to a 29-53 mark for the second consecutive season in 2013-14, as Grantland's Kirk Goldsberry recalled:
"The fear was that sharing the floor with Monroe and Drummond would cause Smith to emphasize his wonky jumper more, not less. That’s exactly what happened; the share of his shots that came within the restricted area dipped to a career-low mark, while the share that came outside of 16 feet hit a career high.
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Smith had been even worse in Motown this year. He shot a career-worst percentage overall (39.1) and from within three feet of the rim (58.6), per Basketball-Reference.com.
As such, Stan Van Gundy's decision to waive his predecessor's parting gift to the franchise—and team owner Tom Gores' willingness to eat the $27 million remaining on Smith's contract—could be a classic case of addition by subtraction for the Pistons.
Then again, in a vacuum, Smith is a pretty darn good NBA player. Excising him may be what's best for the Pistons in the long run, but for now, they'll have to absorb a clear, gut-wrenching blow to their overall talent base.
28. New York Knicks
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Two months into the season, the New York Knicks finally showed some fight…literally. Quincy Acy nearly came to blows with Washington's John Wall on Christmas, earning himself an ejection from New York's 102-91 loss to the Wizards.
The Knicks didn't exactly come to Acy's defense, either. Acy and Wall had to be separated by referees and visiting players while the rest of the home team stood idly by.
To be sure, the cracks in New York's foundation stem far beyond the circumstances surrounding some in-game fisticuffs. This loss was the Knicks' 16th in their last 17 outings and eighth in a row at home, which, per ESPNNewYork.com's Ian Begley, is a franchise record.
So too is the flabbergastingly bad 5-26 start.
27. Philadelphia 76ers
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BREAK UP THE PHILADELPHIA 76ERS! I REPEAT: BREAK UP THE PHILADELPHIA 76ERS!
That is, if the organization's goal is, indeed, to finish the 2014-15 season with the NBA's worst record. The Sixers are fresh off consecutive road wins against the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat, the latter of which saw Philly claw back from a 23-point third-quarter deficit.
Not bad for a squad that lost its first 17 games, though apparently not everyone's impressed with the recent uptick. According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, Andrei Kirilenko, whom the Sixers acquired from the Brooklyn Nets, would prefer to not take his talents to the City of Brotherly Love despite being contractually obligated to do so:
"For now, Kirilenko and his representatives are resisting the Sixers' overtures, preferring the organization waive Kirilenko and let him become a free agent, sources said.
After Philadelphia and the Brooklyn Nets completed a trade for Kirilenko on Dec. 11, Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie has repeatedly expressed to Kirilenko's camp that there are no immediate plans to cut him loose, league sources said.
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Then again, if general manager Sam Hinkie is truly committed to tanking, he'll grant Kirilenko's request, lest the Sixers actually (GASP!) add veteran talent to the mix.
26. Boston Celtics
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There's something sad and unsettling about watching Jameer Nelson play point guard for the Boston Celtics. Sure, he's a passable player at that position, racking up 11 assists against the Orlando Magic in Boston's last outing.
But Nelson is so clearly not Rajon Rondo. He's a better shooter, at least by reputation, but he hardly brings the same flash and flair—let alone the complete control of the action—that Rondo had in spades.
Chances are, Nelson won't hold down that starting spot for long. Marcus Smart is clearly the floor general of the future for the C's, though in the eyes of MassLive.com's Jay King, the team figures to bring the rookie along slowly for the time being.
"As tempting as it might be to let Smart develop in the first unit, he's not ready to handle all of a point guard's duties," King wrote. "Especially when he's in a backcourt with Avery Bradley, the Celtics lack perimeter playmakers."
But until Smart seizes the C's reins, Rondo's absence will be all too obvious, as ESPNBoston.com's Jackie MacMullan lamented:
"Rondo's departure means it will be a little less messy in that Boston locker room and probably a lot calmer, too.
But don't kid yourself: the intrigue is gone.
And so is a whirl of spindly, exhilarating, exasperating, eclectic talent.
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25. Utah Jazz
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Ever wonder why Derrick Favors is so spry for a player his size, or why he seems to have taken another all-important step for the Utah Jazz this season?
The reasons for Favors' forward progress are many, but there's no denying the impact that his four years working with Peak Performance Project (P3) has had on his frame and his game. As Sports Illustrated's Chris Ballard wrote in his eye-opening profile of the Santa Barbara, California-based facility:
"In that time he has improved his lateral movement in particular, posting the highest lateral force of any NBA player tested at P3 (1,314 Newtons, if you must know). This not only puts Favors in the top tier of lateral movers among tested NBA big men but also rates him above average for all positions -- an unlikely achievement for a 6' 10" man who weighs 262 pounds. Favors believes he’s now more effective when he has to switch onto a guard in the pick-and-roll. He says his core is also stronger, and he’s smarter about avoiding injury. "I don’t know how they do it -- it’s scientific stuff," Favors says. "It’s crazy, but it works."
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As it happens, the Jazz send all of their players to central California to work with P3. Perhaps it's only a matter of time, then, until their collection of talented youngsters transforms into a roster of Monstars with the assistance of some fascinating sports science.
24. Los Angeles Lakers
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Don't try to tell the Los Angeles Lakers they're better off without Kobe Bryant.
"Anybody that really insinuated that we were better without [Kobe], they’re just ridiculous," head coach Byron Scott told reporters after the Lakers lost to the Chicago Bulls by 20 points on Christmas Day.
"We’re always going to need Kobe. We may joke around, but we’re always going to need Kobe out on the floor," added Lakers swingman Nick Young.
That didn't seem to be the case Tuesday after the Lakers handled the red-hot Golden State Warriors. For what it's worth, the overall numbers still point to the purple and gold being better off sans Mamba. The stats, though, don't take into account the fact that Bryant usually plays against the other team's starters and sits while the bench makes hay against their opposite reserves.
Nor do they take into account the effect that a healthy, spry Bryant can have in an otherwise stagnant offense, whether he's shooting himself or drawing defensive attention as a decoy. The Lakers surely could have used Bryant against Chicago.
23. Orlando Magic
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The Orlando Magic got a firsthand look at Jameer Nelson's ongoing professional slide this past week. Nelson was the starter at point guard for the Celtics when Orlando beat Boston 100-95 (thanks in part to a sturdy 12-point, seven-assist effort from rookie point guard Elfrid Payton).
Nelson spent the first decade of his NBA career in Orlando, where he was an All-Star and an Eastern Conference champion once upon a time. The Magic released Nelson this summer before $6 million of his $8 million salary for 2014-15 became fully guaranteed. He wound up signing with the Dallas Mavericks only for that team to include him in the deal that brought Rajon Rondo to Dallas.
"It wasn't a bitter situation when I left here. It wasn't when I left Dallas," Nelson told the Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins. "I'm not a guy who'll hold grudges or anything. Obviously, I felt things could've been done different, but that's not for me [to say]. My job is to play no matter who's out there. Just go play."
Unfortunately for Nelson, that meant losing to a Magic team whose rebuilding situation he thought he'd escaped, only to wind up back at square one.
22. Charlotte Hornets
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Lo and behold, the Charlotte Hornets are starting to win basketball games. They've come out on top in their last four, albeit against opponents that are all currently under .500.
Of course, the Hornets, at 10-19, are in that category as well. Any and every victory matters as they look to climb back into the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
All of those recent victories have come without Lance Stephenson, fueling more rumors regarding his future in Charlotte. According to Yahoo Sports' Marc J. Spears, Stephenson "isn’t seeing eye to eye with teammates" (surprise, surprise). RealGM's Shams Charania revealed that Stephenson and the Hornets have been thinking of each other along Al Green's lines, though the Denver Nuggets have apparently entered the fray as potential trade partners.
21. Miami Heat
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One win over the work-in-progress Cleveland Cavaliers on Christmas doesn't mean the Miami Heat are in anything close to solid shape. Chris Bosh is out indefinitely with a strained left calf. Josh McRoberts could be done for the season after going under the knife to have the meniscus in his right knee repaired.
The Heat aren't going to encounter many teams against whom a front line of Chris Andersen and Shawne Williams will hold the fort, as they did against Cleveland.
But Miami does have at least one rock on whom it can lean in hard times: Dwyane Wade. The superstar swingman stormed his way to 31 points, five rebounds and five assists opposite his longtime buddy LeBron James. If Wade can continue to look like his old self, the Heat should be able to hang on to a playoff spot in the notoriously terrible East.
That is, unless Wade succumbs to another injury of his own, which, given his history, is well within the realm of possibility.
20. Indiana Pacers
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George has returned to rescue the Indiana Pacers from their sub-.500 abyss!
No, not Paul George, the most Googled NBA player of 2014; rather, it's George Hill, whose 15 points off the bench in his season debut helped the Pacers push past the New Orleans Pelicans, 96-84.
OK, so maybe Hill's likely impact was overstated. After all, he's never so much as resembled an elite NBA point guard for any significant stretch.
That being said, the Pacers will need all the help they can get if they're to scratch and claw their way into the East's top eight. Hill may not be a savior, but he's long been a steady contributor and certainly superior to C.J. Watson, who's been starting in Indy since mid-December.
19. Brooklyn Nets
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Cash has ruled everything around the Nets since before they made their long-awaited move to Brooklyn. Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and the league office have all drawn millions and millions from the billions and billions that Russian oligarch Mikhail Prokhorov brought to bear when he bought the team in May of 2010.
The costly nature of this club, when combined with substandard results (i.e. one playoff series win in two trips to the postseason), has reportedly convinced the Nets to put much of their roster on the market. Per Bleacher Report's Howard Beck:
"Nets officials are confident they can move Williams and Lopez, retool around Johnson and stay in the playoff hunt in a weak Eastern Conference. Come 2016, Johnson would be off the books, too, leaving the Nets with a bundle of cap room to pursue Kevin Durant, Joakim Noah, DeMar DeRozan, Andre Drummond or Al Horford among others in a stacked free-agent class.
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The trouble is, the reason the Nets want to move the likes of Williams and Lopez is the very same one that will make it difficult for them to do so: money.
Well, that and the injury concerns and so-so production they bring with them.
Until that shake-up comes, the Nets will have little choice but to trudge along as a fringe playoff team in the awful East.
18. Milwaukee Bucks
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Close games have become a staple of the Milwaukee Bucks' diet of late. Each of their last six games has been decided by seven points or fewer.
Those results haven't been working out in Milwaukee's favor in the absence of Jabari Parker. The Bucks have dropped three of four since their studly rookie succumbed to an ACL tear in Phoenix.
Still, the fact that they've managed to hang in there against the Portland Trail Blazers, Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Clippers is a testament to this team's depth and fortitude under head coach Jason Kidd.
As important a piece as Parker was and is to Milwaukee's future, the first-year forward was hardly the focal point of the Bucks' on-court efforts this season. They'll need him to be healthy and productive if this franchise is to become a perennial contender in the Eastern Conference. But for now, there's enough talent in Brewtown—and such a dearth of it elsewhere in the East—for the Bucks, currently just one win shy of last season's entire total, to push toward the postseason.
17. Denver Nuggets
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Earlier this season, Bleacher Report's Howard Beck pegged the Denver Nuggets as pleased with the roster they had, as much of a mishmosh of talent as it was and still is. But the tide may finally be turning toward trade season in the Mile High City now that the Nuggets have dropped nine of their last 12 games.
"Owner Stan Kroenke never has shown a great deal of patience for mediocrity, especially when he's bankrolling a decent player payroll, and more than one league source anticipates heads rolling if the Nuggets are not in playoff contention," Bleacher Report's Ric Bucher wrote.
Considering the monstrous depth of the West—and the Oklahoma City Thunder's ongoing rise from the ashes—Denver would be hard-pressed to so much as sniff actual basketball after the regular season comes to a close in mid-April.
16. Sacramento Kings
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In a season already racked by strangely heavy fire, the Sacramento Kings may have dodged another bullet.
According to Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Kings have squashed talks with the Nets regarding Deron Williams—for now, at least. Per Woj, Sacramento was actually more intrigued with Mason Plumlee but was willing to take on Williams' exorbitant salary as recompense.
As if the Kings actually needed a spry, young center enough to saddle themselves with a 30-year-old, cap-clogging point guard, especially when they already have DeMarcus Cousins in the middle and Darren Collison playing career-best ball at the point.
To be sure, D-Will could still wind up in royal purple. "Talks aren't dead, but nothing's going to happen with Plumlee involved," a league source told Wojnarowski.
At which point, it'd be tough to tell if Sacramento's interest in such a deal is more or less perplexing than before.
15. Washington Wizards
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Like so many struggling squads before them, the Washington Wizards used a date with the Knicks as a salve to soothe their wounds.
Not that things had been bad for the Wizards, per se, though back-to-back losses to Phoenix and Chicago—on the heels of a nail-biter over the ho-hum Heat—didn't reflect all that well on Washington.
More importantly, the Wizards could use all the easy scraps they can get. After hosting Boston on Saturday, Washington will hit the road for a treacherous trip through Houston, Dallas, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and New Orleans.
14. New Orleans Pelicans
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For once, Anthony Davis Watch won't be a complete exaltation of the NBA's newest superstar.
The Portland Trail Blazers and Indiana Pacers were both able to contain Davis defensively. The former held Davis to a season-low seven points on 3-of-14 shooting, while the latter limited him to a relatively ho-hum 21 points on an 8-of-18 performance from the field. Both ended with Davis' New Orleans Pelicans on the losing side.
Not that the past week was all bad for The Brow. After all, he did dismantle the Oklahoma City Thunder for 38 points (on 16-of-22 shooting) and 12 rebounds in a win for New Orleans.
Let's remember, too, that Davis, at 21, is still very much a kid and, in turn, is bound to have bad games from time to time.
Also, because he's human…presumably.
13. Cleveland Cavaliers
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Leave it to LeBron James' old team to spoil the fun that his new team had been enjoying. The Cleveland Cavaliers rode into Christmas on a three-game winning streak but left Miami with a 101-91 loss to the Heat, one in which they trailed by as many as 17 points.
"We're not that good right now," James told reporters after the game. "We've won some really good games, we've lost some games, but we're not that good right now."
Defensively, anyway. According to NBA.com, the Cavs own the league's fourth-most efficient offense but have thus far allowed the eighth-most points per 100 possessions. That won't be good enough for Cleveland to climb into the ranks of the Association's title contenders. Any marked improvement on that end isn't likely to come, though, unless/until the Cavs can track down another big man for their frontcourt rotation after losing Anderson Varejao to a season-ending Achilles injury this week.
12. Phoenix Suns
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At long last, the Phoenix Suns have begun to unleash their Hydra of point guards on the rest of the NBA. And wouldn't you know it, they are winning games. They've won four in a row at the moment, with Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas playing together.
"The last couple of games, they've played more like last year's team," an anonymous scout told Bleacher Report's Ric Bucher. "They weren't thinking as much. They were playing more freely. There were times that Dragic and Bledsoe were actually smiling. But it's one of those things you're going to need to see for six or seven games before you can believe it's getting better."
A four-game road trip to finish out the calendar year should offer the Suns an intriguing test of just how well their small-ball experiment is actually going. They'll certainly need it to succeed if they're to remain in the Western Conference playoff picture.
And if it doesn't, Dragic, a likely free agent this summer, could be the first one offered up on the trade market, per Bucher.
11. Los Angeles Clippers
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Before the Los Angeles Clippers took the floor for their Christmas game against the Golden State Warriors, head coach Doc Rivers insisted that he wasn't anxious at all about the fact that his team had dropped three of its previous four games. He insisted his team was fine.
"It’s going to come," Rivers told reporters. "I don’t know when, but I like the way we’re starting to play."
The Clippers confirmed Rivers' positive suspicions Thursday night. L.A. withstood a rocky first half offensively before pulling away from Golden State down the stretch in a 100-86 win.
The result doesn't completely erase memories of the Clippers' recent rough patch. They still have to put together anything approaching a complete game against a competent opponent this season.
The fact is, though, L.A. is almost exactly where it was on this day a year ago: sitting pretty at 20-10 after the unofficial opening day of the NBA season.
Almost, as in the Clippers are coming off a win over, rather than a loss to, their northern California rivals on Christmas.
10. San Antonio Spurs
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Rare is the occasion that the San Antonio Spurs lose four in a row and five out of six, as they have since mid-December. In fact, the Spurs haven't struggled through such an onerous stretch since the spring of 2011, when they dropped six in a row between late March and early April.
That San Antonio team was fighting to survive without Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The latter's been fit for most of this season and fell just three rebounds shy of a triple-double against the Oklahoma City Thunder. The former, though, missed eight of San Antonio's 10 games prior to Christmas Day.
Parker is back now, but the Spurs aren't out of the woods just yet. Kawhi Leonard's been absent from San Antonio's last five games with a mysterious hand injury.
"One of the doctors said he’s been doing hands for 40 years, and it’s the first time he’s ever seen this injury," head coach Gregg Popovich recently told reporters. "It’s a little bit unique."
The Spurs can only hope it's not so unique that their doctors can't find a way to heal it before this minislide turns into an avalanche of trouble.
9. Oklahoma City Thunder
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Anthony Davis aside, no player has been more singularly destructive when healthy this season than Russell Westbrook.
The All-Star guard put together yet another signature performance on Christmas Day, exploiting the Spurs for 34 points, 11 assists, five rebounds and five steals in a 114-106 win for the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was the sixth time in his last eight outings, and eighth time in 16 games this season, that Westbrook topped the 30-point plateau.
OKC could certainly use more of the same from Russ going forward. Kevin Durant should be back soon to shoulder some of the Thunder's scoring and playmaking load, but even then, this team will need all it can squeeze out of its second superstar if it's to catch up to the rest of the pack out West.
8. Toronto Raptors
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The referees didn't do the Toronto Raptors any favors during a fourth quarter that saw the Chicago Bulls pile up a whopping 49 points at their expense. Still, that 129-120 loss in the Windy City was a not-so-subtle reminder that, ultimately, the Raptors may wind up a notch below the East's upper crust when all is said and done this season.
That being said, it's probably too early to put Toronto in that category just yet. Their 22-7 record remains the best in the Eastern Conference despite DeMar DeRozan's ongoing absence. According to the National Post's Eric Koreen, DeRozan isn't expected to rejoin the Raptors until after they've returned home from their current road trip, which will take them to five Western Conference outposts before it's done.
Toronto could easily slip from its perch atop the East during its travels but can't be discounted as a conference contender—not entirely, anyway—so long as DeRozan remains on the mend.
7. Dallas Mavericks
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Rajon Rondo's first week with the Dallas Mavericks hasn't been the smoothest experience, to say the least. The four-time All-Star hit 37.5 percent of his shots and averaged four turnovers per game through his first three contests in Big D.
In Rondo's defense, it would take any player time to master the Mavs' fantastically efficient offense. As Bleacher Report's Ric Bucher wrote:
"Rondo's understanding of X's and O's is highly regarded for good reason, but expectations that he'd come in and immediately grasp all of coach Rick Carlisle's myriad sets and options is a bit naive. The truth is that the plays Carlisle runs with Rondo may not have been fully drawn yet because he's never had a point guard quite like him.
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Sooner or later, Rondo figures to come around. In the meantime, the Mavs must hope that he's able to register an impact on the defensive end.
So far, Rondo hasn't. Atlanta's Dennis Schroder (22 points, six assists) outplayed him in Dallas' Dec. 20 loss to the Hawks, and Rondo struggled to keep up with the Suns' supply of quick guards during a nine-point defeat in Phoenix on Dec. 23.
Again, it's too soon to panic. Rondo and Carlisle are too smart and too good at their respective jobs to not figure this out, even if their combined efforts don't ultimately yield a true title contender.
6. Chicago Bulls
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Don't look now, but the Chicago Bulls are starting to look like the title contender for which so many had them pegged coming into the 2014-15 season.
Derrick Rose has scored 20 points or more in each of his three games since returning from illness, including 20 with six assists in a 113-93 win over the Kobe-less Lakers on Christmas Day. Jimmy Butler's still playing like a man possessed at shooting guard. The same goes for Pau Gasol with his double-double revival. And now Taj Gibson, Chicago's ultra-reliable sixth man, is healthy again.
"I think that right now there is a belief, a lot more than there was a couple of weeks ago," Bulls center Joakim Noah told reporters after the win over L.A. "As a player, there's nothing better than that belief that when we're on and we're competing, nobody can mess with us. That's the feeling we're starting to get."
And it shows. The Bulls have won five in a row and eight of their last nine, with impressive victories over the Blazers, Grizzlies, Raptors and Wizards in that span.
5. Memphis Grizzlies
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The injury bug has once again taken a considerable bite out of the Memphis Grizzlies during what seemed to be their salad days.
First, Tony Allen, the heart and soul of "Grit-n-Grind," suffered a corneal abrasion. Then, Zach Randolph succumbed to swelling in his right knee.
Now, the Grizzlies are in the midst of a three-game slide, immediately following a six-game winning streak.
Not that all had been peachy keen before. Three of their previous four wins had required overtime—against Charlotte, Philadelphia and short-handed San Antonio.
There's no need for River City residents to panic, but the Grizzlies could certainly use their starting five intact, particularly for upcoming tilts against the Rockets and Spurs.
4. Golden State Warriors
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The Golden State Warriors are starting to look vulnerable—and in the most predictable way imaginable, no less. They left L.A. with consecutive losses and, really, haven't looked quite like their snappy, early season selves since mid-December.
What's changed? Well, among other things, the Dubs are making do with a depleted frontcourt. Andrew Bogut is back on the shelf, this time with significant discomfort in his right knee. Bogut's backup, Festus Ezeli, sat out Golden State's Christmas Day loss to the Clippers with a sprained ankle sustained during the team's defeat to the Lakers two nights earlier. Those two have missed major time in recent seasons; Bogut's battled all sorts of injuries over the course of his career, while Ezeli missed all of 2013-14 with a bum knee.
Without their two biggest bodies in tow to set screens for Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Co., the Warriors' offense stagnated to a season-low 86-point output.
"It happens to everybody. You go through spells, and for whatever reason, things change, lineups change, injuries, whatever, fatigue," head coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the game. "So you hit a little rough patch and you've got to find a way to get back off the mat and get going again."
Kerr's Warriors will have an opportunity to do just that in the days to come, with home dates against the Wolves and Sixers to finish up 2014. But as good as the Dubs are, they can only do so much to truly contend when they don't have the requisite size to protect the rim on one end and create space with jarring picks on the other.
3. Atlanta Hawks
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There were some questions about just how good the Atlanta Hawks really were. They'd won nine a row, sure, but their opponents in those games owned a combined record of 59-111 at the time. A buzzer-beating loss to the Magic suggested that maybe Atlanta's success was more pyrite than pure gold.
Then came a home win against the Bulls (albeit without Joakim Noah). Then the Hawks racked up convincing road wins against the Cavs, Rockets and Mavs. Then they returned to Atlanta to fend off the Clippers.
As a result, the Hawks, winners in 14 of their last 15 games, sit just a half game back of the Raptors for first place in the Eastern Conference, one season after backing their way into the No. 8 seed.
The difference? Among other things, the health of Al Horford, who missed most of 2013-14 with a torn pectoral.
"We're a completely different team with him," Hawks guard Shelvin Mack told ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman.
And it shows.
2. Portland Trail Blazers
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Anthony Davis isn't the only member of his draft class who deserves MVP consideration. Throw Damian Lillard into the mix, too, especially after the week he had.
Lillard, the No. 6 pick in 2012, piled up 43 points in more than 52 minutes of triple-overtime action against the Spurs, chipped in 17 points and seven assists in a relatively meager 28 minutes in a blowout of Davis' Pelicans and practically outplayed Russell Westbrook in a 40-point, six-rebound, 11-assist effort in an overtime win against OKC.
The 24-year-old has set himself apart as arguably the best player on a Portland Trail Blazers team that not only features fellow All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge, but also owns the second-best record in the NBA.
It may be high time, then, for the good folks of Stumptown to start up a "Dame-VP" chant for Lillard during the team's upcoming seven-game home stand.
1. Houston Rockets
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Perhaps no team in the NBA has had a more promising week than the Houston Rockets.
Dwight Howard piled up more double-doubles. James Harden expanded his lead in the league scoring race, courtesy of a pair of 40-point performances. Corey Brewer arrived to strengthen Houston's thin bench, costing the club a pair of second-round picks and D-League shooting legend Troy Daniels, per Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski.
The biggest gift of all? Josh Smith, who, per Wojnarowski, has chosen to join forces with Howard, his boyhood buddy, for the Rockets' biannual exception.
Houston had long sought a steady solution to their problem at power forward. Terrence Jones showed some solid promise, but he's been on the shelf with nerve trouble since early November. Donatas Motiejunas has had his moments.
Smith, though, practically fell into Houston's lap: a proven commodity at the four on both ends of the floor. He may not be a perfect fit, given his propensity for bricking long twos and specialty as a post-up player—two veritable non-starters in the analytics-driven offense that Kevin McHale and Daryl Morey have concocted. But for $2 million, the Rockets' signing of Smith looks less like a gamble and far more like a championship-caliber steal.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
