NBA Power Rankings: Giannis' Bucks Keep the Crown After Beating LeBron's Lakers
Thursday's highly anticipated meeting between the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers pitted the two entrenched leaders in our NBA Power Rankings against one another.
While the 111-104 Milwaukee victory delivered on the hype, it couldn't disrupt the status quo. Giannis Antetokounmpo, blossoming three-point marksman and self-coronator of wide renown, helped the Bucks retain their death grip on the No. 1 spot.
Elsewhere this week, we'll deliver the Dallas Mavericks a humble apology, fire off distress signals for the Philadelphia 76ers, throw dirt on the Atlanta Hawks and marvel at Ja "Gravity is Basically Just a Suggestion" Morant.
As always, rankings consider record, advanced metrics, recent play and health.
30-26
1 of 14
30. Atlanta Hawks (26)
The tumbling Atlanta Hawks may have hit bottom with Tuesday's 143-120 loss to the New York Knicks, a horrendous defensive effort that stood out in a season full of them. It had been 39 years since New York managed that many points in a regulation game, and this version of the Knicks isn't exactly the most imposing one we've seen over the last four decades.
Inexplicably, Trae Young played all 12 minutes of the fourth quarter against the Knicks, totaling 41 minutes despite his Hawks never getting within 20 points in the final frame. He averaged a hair under 40 points per game in Atlanta's three losses this week.
With seven straight defeats and just six wins overall, Atlanta falls all the way to 30th.
29. New Orleans Pelicans (28)
Brandon Ingram's 34 points brought a merciful end to the Pels' 13-game losing streak on Wednesday. It probably helped that the Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans' first victim since Nov. 21, entered that game in a similarly steep nosedive.
Perhaps uncomfortable with the feeling of a win, the Pelicans returned to form Friday, caving to a Golden State Warriors team that had lost nine of its previous 10 games.
New Orleans has struggled to defend all season, but its offense has crumbled since Dec. 1, producing just 102.7 points per 100 possessions. Only the Warriors have been less effective scoring the ball this month.
28. Golden State Warriors (30)
It came too close to last week's publishing deadline to get a mention, but the Warriors ended our last rankings session by getting blown out in a 100-79 loss on Dec. 15 during which the Sacramento Kings committed 29 turnovers.
"I've never seen a box score like this where we forced 29 turnovers and lost by 21 points," head coach Steve Kerr told reporters. "It's almost impossible to do that."
Golden State isn't new to the concept of seeming impossibility, but it used to attach to things like 73-win seasons and adding Kevin Durant to an already title-worthy roster. Now, it's about losing badly under mind-boggling circumstances.
The Dubs handled the Pels on Friday, though they blew a 20-point lead and needed D'Angelo Russell to carry them home in the fourth quarter, and they have the league's No. 26 net rating in the month of December. Thanks partly to New Orleans' tailspin and Atlanta's recent ineptitude, Golden State at least gets out of the cellar.
27. New York Knicks (29)
It may be a while before the Knicks win another game by 23 points, the margin of their Tuesday triumph over the floundering Hawks. Just for comparison's sake, New York trailed by exactly that many points by halftime in their very next contest, a 129-114 loss to the Miami Heat on Friday.
The deficit was 25 heading into the fourth quarter of Saturday's 123-102 no-show against the Milwaukee Bucks, which was to be expected.
Mitchell Robinson is the only Knick with a positive player impact plus-minus, and he ranks 13th in the NBA in player efficiency rating. But sure, keep bringing him off the bench, New York. You've got to make sure Julius Randle and his empty 17.3 points per game get those first-unit minutes, right?
26. Cleveland Cavaliers (27)
Collin Sexton is making strides with his court vision, and Jordan Clarkson's 33 points on Friday against the Memphis Grizzlies got Cleveland to 2-1 for the week. The Cavs fought back from a 12-point fourth-quarter hole to escape with that win against the Grizzlies, and Kevin Love not only avoided being on the wrong end of an all-time dunk by Ja Morant, but he also drilled a key go-ahead three-pointer with less than a minute left.
His postgame comments were also Grade A.
Despite the pair of victories, the Cavs are still 29th in net rating, and only the Washington Wizards have been worse defensively this season. Still, there are some overlooked positives worth noting. Cleveland puts opponents on the foul line less frequently than any other team (which may just be illustrative of a matador's approach to defensive positioning), and it's been an excellent offensive rebounding outfit all year.
25-21
2 of 14
25. Minnesota Timberwolves (23)
Not that it needed emphasizing, but Karl-Anthony Towns' indispensability to the Wolves was on full show in Wednesday's 107-99 home loss to the formerly free-falling Pelicans. New Orleans had lost 13 straight coming in, but it had little trouble ending its slide (and extending Minnesota's to eight games) with Towns on the bench nursing a left knee sprain.
Losses at Denver and Portland ran Minnesota's losing streak to 10 games, its longest since dumping 12 in a row to end the 2014-15 season...when Towns was a freshman at Kentucky.
The Timberwolves' offensive rating is an absurd 17 points per 100 possessions worse with Towns off the floor this season, but they've been horrendous on the other end almost regardless of personnel. Brace yourself: Minnesota has an incomprehensible 119.0 defensive rating in 10 December games—all losses, which should go without saying.
Jeff Teague missed open teammates, Robert Covington forgot how to finish a layup, and the Wolves continued to get crushed by opponents' second-chance points.
Towns' knee, which cost him three of Minnesota's four games last week, can't get healthy soon enough.
24. Washington Wizards (25)
Davis Bertans and Isaac Bonga gifted the Bulls five free throws in the last 5.5 seconds of regulation on Wednesday, completing the surrender of an 18-point fourth-quarter lead and ultimately producing a 110-109 overtime loss.
Theory: Washington realized it hadn't scored (or surrendered) enough points to keep up with its "every game's a shootout" reputation and decided another five minutes of gunslinging were necessary.
The Wizards went 0-3 this week and are an ugly 2-9 in December, but Bertans continues to rank among the most exciting offensive players to watch this season. He's liable to fire whenever he's inside 40 feet, and it doesn't seem to matter if a defender is close enough to know what flavor of gum he's chewing.
Only James Harden has hit more treys when a defender has been within four feet of him than Bertans, but the Wizards marksman has been more accurate (37.0 percent to 36.1 percent) than the NBA's leading scorer in that situation.
On the move or on the catch, open or smothered, Bertans is an absolutely hair-raising sniper. And after coming off the bench in 24 of his first 25 games, he joined the first unit in all three contests this past week.
23. San Antonio Spurs (22)
The Spurs blew a 25-point lead to lose 109-107 in Houston on Monday. The manner of defeat stung, but San Antonio had to have been a little relieved it ended in regulation. Four straight overtime games was enough.
With alternating wins and losses in their last six contests, the Spurs sit at 11-17. They'd be far worse off if not for Patty Mills, who posted 27 points in Thursday's 118-105 win over the Brooklyn Nets.
Mills' true shooting percentage has never been higher than it is now in his age-31 season. And his steadiness off the bench (not to mention his penchant for late-game heroism) has kept the Spurs from running completely off the rails.
"He's everything," Dejounte Murray told reporters after the Brooklyn win. "I've never seen him with an attitude in the four years I've been here. Not an attitude, no head down. He's a real pro."
The Spurs are only two games back of the eighth spot in the West, and they never make in-season trades. But if they fall out of it, you could make the case that San Antonio should dump everyone on the roster who's over 30. Everyone except Mills.
22. Charlotte Hornets (20)
Devonte' Graham's cooling trend continued this week. After going a combined 7-of-32 from the field in his final two games of the previous ranking session, he started this one off with a 4-of-15 effort in Tuesday's 110-102 win over the Sacramento Kings, followed by a 3-of-16 outing in Wednesday's loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Prior to Sunday's loss to the Boston Celtics (6-of-17 from the field), he hadn't made more than 32 percent of his shots in a game since Dec. 11.
Terry Rozier has picked things up a bit in relief, highlighted by his 35-point heater against Cleveland. But Charlotte has still lost four of its last five games to fall to 13-20.
That team-wide regression the Hornets' No. 25 point differential suggested was imminent has finally arrived.
21. Memphis Grizzlies (24)
With Ja Morant back, Brandon Clarke pogo-sticking around and Jaren Jackson Jr. stretching the floor, the Grizzlies have an outsized portion of youthful sizzle. Memphis never scores with those three sharing the court, though, so we can't credit them for the team's respectable 6-6 record in December.
Jonas Valanciunas led them with 21 points and 10 boards in last Monday's win over the Miami Heat, and he's been a source of ballast for a roster that needs stability. When he plays with Dillon Brooks and Solomon Hill, the Grizzlies' net rating is firmly in positive territory.
These are all small samples, of course, but the less splashy portion of Memphis' roster deserves notice from a national audience that might mistakenly assume it's been all about the youths.
The Grizz followed their win over Miami with losses at OKC and Cleveland before returning home to beat the Kings by a final of 119-115 on Saturday. Morant very nearly turned in the dunk of the century against the Cavs.
All in all, another solid week from the rising Grizz.
20-16
3 of 14
20. Phoenix Suns (18)
Deandre Ayton scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in his first game back from suspension on Tuesday, but he couldn't halt the Suns' four-game skid...which has now stretched to six following losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets to close the week. Worse still, the sprained ankle he suffered against the Los Angeles Clippers held him out of Phoenix's next two contests.
Devin Booker returned Friday, playing his first game after missing three straight with a forearm injury. We may not be talking enough about his leap this season, partly because the Suns have gone cold after their scorching start. The fifth-year guard is a couple of made threes away from a 50-40-90 season, and his defensive effort has generally been better this year.
Kelly Oubre Jr. did what he could to pick up the slack for the injury-hit Suns, leading them in scoring three times this past week. But the Suns allowed 121.0 points per 100 possessions in their four defeats during this rankings session, worst in the league.
Even with everyone healthy and the offense humming, that number would have doomed them.
19. Detroit Pistons (16)
The Pistons were already demanding a ton of Bruce Brown, a second-year guard routinely tasked with handling the other team's most threatening perimeter matchup who's also trying to learn the intricacies of playing the point.
But with Blake Griffin (knee, illness) and Derrick Rose (knee) managing to share the floor in just one of Detroit's four games this past week, Brown's job got even tougher. Don't hold his 14:12 assist-to-turnover ratio in those contests against him; he didn't have a whole lot of help.
The Miami Heat and Utah Jazz are the only teams that turn it over at a higher rate than the Pistons, who actually gave the ball up more frequently than usual this past week.
Finally, Tony Snell might be the best shooter in the league...among players you constantly forget are on the floor. He's at 44.1 percent from deep but only gets off 4.5 treys in 26.3 minutes per game. He's one of just four players this season with at least 24 starts and a usage rate under 12 percent.
18. Sacramento Kings (17)
De'Aaron Fox looked spry as ever in his return to the court on Tuesday, coming off the bench to contribute 19 points and eight assists in a 111-102 loss to the Charlotte Hornets. Now that he's back from the ankle sprain that cost him just over a month, it'll be interesting to see if his burst can fuel a transition attack that's looked surprisingly out of gas.
The Kings were defined last year by a breakneck pace that produced a league-leading 19.6 percent transition frequency. Those scattered situations generally yield higher points-per-play returns than when teams get into the half court, which allowed the Kings to score respectably despite a crummy set offense. Sacramento wasn't running when Fox was healthy earlier this year, and its transition frequency sits at a below-average 14.1 percent on the season.
Opponents are running on the Kings much less frequently this year than last, suggesting head coach Luke Walton prefers the defensive stability of a slower pace. Still, Fox's speed is a weapon that could benefit the Kings, even in moderation.
It's a good thing Sacramento took down the Golden State Warriors on Dec. 15; it was its only win on a four-game trip that concluded with Saturday's 119-115 loss in Memphis. Buddy Hield, shooting a career-worst 36.5 percent from deep on the season, has made just three of his last 20 attempts from long range.
17. Chicago Bulls (21)
No game's ever really over if the Bulls are involved. After blowing a 26-point lead to the Oklahoma City Thunder last Monday, Chicago managed to erase an 18-point fourth-quarter deficit to send Wednesday's game against the Washington Wizards to overtime, ultimately winning 110-109.
The Wizards committed several egregious crunch-time fouls, which had as much to do with Chicago's improbable escape as Lauri Markkanen's team-high 31 points. If Washington had just stood still on D, there's a good chance the Bulls offense, second-worst in the league overall and especially impotent in half-court sets, would have fallen apart on its own.
Chicago followed the unlikely escape against Washington with its third win over the Detroit Pistons this season, a 119-107 final aided by the absences of Derrick Rose and Blake Griffin. The Bulls, winners of three of their last four and members of the league's top 10 in defensive efficiency, are within a single game of the East's eighth spot.
16. Orlando Magic (15)
Orlando, a loser in all three of its games this week and stuck in the midst of a 1-6 tumble, has two key problems on offense: It can't generate good shots, and it doesn't make the bad ones for which it settles.
The Magic's offensive rating of 103.3 ranked 28th in the league over the past week, a familiar spot for an offense that ranks 25th on the year. No team this season attempts corner threes at a lower frequency, and only five get looks at the rim less often. That's a huge reason Orlando is 28th in effective field-goal percentage.
What a waste of a quality defense, led by Jonathan Isaac, that ranks just outside the top 10 despite bad luck. Orlando never lets anyone get shots up at close range, forcing opponents into a shot profile that should yield something closer to a top-five overall defensive rating.
It's frustrating to see the Magic harass other teams into exactly the kinds of low-percentage looks they attempt when the ball switches ends. As opponent shooting luck evens out, Orlando will look better. But until it finds ways to score more efficiently, .500 feels like a ceiling.
15-11
4 of 14
15. Portland Trail Blazers (19)
They didn't beat anyone worth bragging about (Friday's 118-103 win over the Orlando Magic was probably their best win of the week), but the Blazers haven't had the kind of season that allows for minimization of any winning streak—no matter the quality of opponents.
Portland's 4-0 week included wins over the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves in addition to Orlando, and it accumulated those victories in a familiar fashion: by leaning on one of the league's most dangerous backcourts.
Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum both exceeded the 30-point mark against the Warriors and Magic, marking just the second time they've each gone for 30 in back-to-back games since teaming up in 2013-14.
Hassan Whiteside was helpful, too. He went off for 26 boards and seven blocks in Portland's 113-106 win over the Wolves on Saturday.
The Blazers are on the climb, but their performance in tough matchups against the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers this week will be telling. Portland is only 3-11 against teams with winning records.
14. Brooklyn Nets (13)
Spencer Dinwiddie's career-high 41 points weren't enough to get the Nets past the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday. But Brooklyn recovered to beat the Atlanta Hawks behind 39 more points from Dinwiddie on Saturday, finishing the week with a 2-1 mark and running its record to 12-6 in the 18 games Kyrie Irving has missed with that lingering shoulder impingement.
Whether or not you're ready to acknowledge the mounting evidence that suggests the Nets are better without Irving, it's undeniable that they play differently. Brooklyn's assist percentage is 61.0 since Irving left the lineup over a month ago. Before he got hurt, it was 54.5 percent.
Assist percentage isn't necessarily correlated with better offense, but it can indicate how a team is getting its points.
Dinwiddie is a high-usage weapon in his own right, but Brooklyn's attack has more flow and less ball-stopping in its current Irving-less form. That said, defensive improvement is the main reason Brooklyn has won more without Irving. Kyrie has never been consistently engaged on D, so if you're still bent on ascribing the Nets' better play to the star guard's absence, you've got some overlooked ammo on that end, too.
The Nets' slight rankings slip this week has more to do with the team ahead of them than their own performance. It may seem unfair, but the team that snatched Brooklyn's No. 13 spot deserves it.
13. Oklahoma City Thunder (14)
Chris Paul hit six threes, scrapped relentlessly and scored 19 of his 30 points in the fourth quarter of OKC's franchise-record-tying 26-point comeback against the Chicago Bulls on Monday. The Thunder made up most of the deficit in the third and were only down by eight heading into the final 12 minutes, but Paul completely commandeered the contest down the stretch.
Comeback week continued as the Thunder hauled themselves out of a 24-point hole to beat the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.
Finally, we can't move past Oklahoma City's section without acknowledging Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's crafty brilliance in Friday's 126-108 win against the Phoenix Suns. SGA poured in a career-high 32 points without committing a turnover, finishing an array of wrong-footed, off-time flips and scoops. Statistically and aesthetically, it was about as well as the second-year guard has played to date.
"He's a slick, smooth criminal, you know what I mean?" Nerlens Noel told reporters after his teammate's gorgeous display.
The Thunder have a better record and net rating than Brooklyn in December. Recent play matters, and OKC's work over the past few weeks helps justify moving a 15-14 team ahead of the 16-13 Nets.
12. Utah Jazz (12)
Mike Conley managed just 19 minutes on Tuesday before aggravating the left hamstring injury that shelved him for the Jazz's previous five games. The Athletic's Shams Charania reports he could now miss multiple weeks, though it's hard to term his absence a loss for the Jazz considering Conley's level of play when healthy.
Joe Ingles has been terrific since joining the starting lineup, giving Utah another decision-maker to share the load with an overextended Donovan Mitchell.
Mitchell has been steadily productive as the Jazz have fattened up on sub-.500 opponents in December, going 6-1 in their last seven games against losing teams, but he's shouldering an immense load when contests are close down to the wire. His 43.4 percent clutch usage rate ranks first in the league among players who've logged at least 50 minutes in close-and-late situations.
Utah's 18-11 record and plus-1.4 net rating both rank 12th on the season. That makes its position here pretty easy to nail down.
11. Philadelphia 76ers (4)
Miami made the Philadelphia 76ers uncomfortable with its zone defense on Wednesday, handing them their first home loss of the year. No surprise, then, that the Dallas Mavericks busted out a similar look Friday. The resulting 117-98 defeat was Philly's third in a row.
The Sixers could have beaten Miami had they converted a few more open looks from deep. Or entered the ball to Joel Embiid once in a while. Or gotten a modicum of offensive aggression from the increasingly passive Ben Simmons. Or...OK, now we're just piling on. Anyway, it's worth wondering if Dallas would have gone copycat with its defense if the Sixers had survived against the Heat.
No time for "what ifs" now, though, as Philadelphia heads toward Wednesday's meeting with the Milwaukee Bucks with questions to answer.
"Our defense is not where it needs to be, at the level it needs to be," Al Horford told reporters after the loss to Dallas. "For whatever reason, it's just not there. All around, we are just not playing good enough defensively."
The Sixers still offer several stretches of terrifyingly potent defense every night, but the consistency and attention to detail are lacking. It's becoming clear they need more from Simmons, and a pick-and-roll point guard who could pierce the defense and make a pass-shoot decision wouldn't hurt, either.
Philly could withstand gimmick zones and its own cold shooting, if only it'd play up to its potential on D.
10. Dallas Mavericks
5 of 14
Last Week: 11
We discarded the Mavs last week. Cast them thoughtlessly aside. Hurled them down from third to 11th in the wake of Luka Doncic's ankle sprain.
Oops.
The extent of that error was apparent almost immediately as Dallas took down the Milwaukee Bucks last Monday despite 48 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo. The Mavericks fell by a final of 109-103 against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday but followed that with a zone-heavy dismantling of the Philadelphia 76ers on Friday.
Dallas is now the only team in the league with wins over the Los Angeles Lakers, Bucks and Sixers.
Kristaps Porzingis deserves credit for upping his production with Doncic out, but the Mavericks' deep bench and plethora of quality guards are just as praiseworthy. Jalen Brunson registered 11 assists against the Bucks and Celtics, and each of Seth Curry, Delon Wright and JJ Barea have had their moments since Doncic went out.
The Mavs, even without their best player, and even after blowing a seemingly insurmountable lead in Toronto on Sunday, don't belong outside the top 10.
9. Indiana Pacers
6 of 14
Last Week: 10
Tuesday's 105-102 win over the Los Angeles Lakers was Indiana's biggest of the season, and it was no fluke.
The Pacers made multiple efforts on defense all night, rotating with a hive-mind level of communication and scrambling a Lakers offense that ended the week ranked fifth in the league. No, Anthony Davis wasn't involved for L.A., which is at least worth a mention. But Indiana has to get the bulk of the credit for felling one of the NBA's top teams.
Domantas Sabonis had 26 points and 10 boards against the Lakers, and he remains an absolute menace when headed downhill as the roll man. Also adept as a handoff threat and skilled in the two-man game (particularly with Doug McDermott), Sabonis thrives most when he and Malcolm Brogdon work together up top.
When he and Brogdon share the floor, the Pacers outscore opponents by 13.7 points per 100 possessions. Indy's breakout star center leads the league by a mile in total points scored as a roll man.
The Pacers' five-game winning streak ended in Milwaukee on Sunday, but they've been good enough overall to move up another rung in the rankings.
8. Denver Nuggets
7 of 14
Last Week: 9
Led by an increasingly familiar (read: good again) version of Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets ran off five straight wins before their tilt on Sunday against a Los Angeles Lakers team that needed a win at home after a difficult week.
Denver handed it to the Lakers. Though LeBron James didn't play, the Nuggets still deserve credit for extending their winning streak to six games by downing the conference's top team.
Jokic was dominant in Denver's run up to and through the win over L.A., and Jamal Murray (33 points against Orlando on Wednesday and 28 more to help beat Minnesota on Friday) is pairing more reliable scoring with improved defensive play. He's been more engaged on that end than ever before, and his defensive box plus/minus is in the black for the first time in his career.
The significant gap between Denver opponents' actual and expected effective field-goal percentage based on shot location remains. But we've been noting that all year, and the Nuggets' defensive efficiency keeps holding strong. Only the Milwaukee Bucks allow fewer points per 100 possessions.
7. Toronto Raptors
8 of 14
Last Week: 7
The Raptors lost Marc Gasol (hamstring) and Norman Powell (shoulder) to injury in Wednesday's 112-99 win at Detroit, and it turned out the awkward fall Pascal Siakam suffered that night was worse than expected. Though Toronto's leading scorer finished the game, he's now on the shelf indefinitely with a groin injury, joining Gasol and Powell.
We got burned by dropping the Luka Doncic-less Dallas Mavericks out of the top 10 last week. Thankfully, Toronto won't give us the option. How could we possibly kick it out of the top 10 in the wake of one of the most remarkable efforts of the season on Sunday?
Down by 30 points with 2:32 left in the third quarter, the Raptors roared all the way back to win by a final of 110-107. It was the largest comeback in franchise history and the biggest in the league since 2009.
Kyle Lowry scored 20 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, hit every big shot and presided over a frantic, driven Toronto team that simply refused to quit. Terence Davis, Chris Boucher and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scored a combined 48 points off the bench, keying the run.
The Raptors have won five straight, so they should probably move up. They also lost key bodies, so they should move down. Let's split the difference and leave them alone for a week.
6. Houston Rockets
9 of 14
Last Week: 8
With the Russell Westbrook-Patrick Beverley blood feud as an emotional tone-setter, the contentious vibe during and after Houston's 122-117 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday was no surprise. Russ hung 40 on the Clippers, becoming the first Rocket not named Harden to reach that total since Kevin Martin (one of the guys dealt in the deal that brought the Beard aboard) in 2011.
Russ also led the Rockets with 31 points in their 25-point comeback to best the San Antonio Spurs last Monday. That two-game stretch marked the first time this year Harden failed to top his team in scoring for two straight games. Harden did get to the foul line 10 times against L.A., ending a streak of five straight games without double-digit free-throw attempts, his longest since the beginning of the 2017-18 season.
The Rockets are 7-2 in their last nine games (3-0 this week) despite Harden's relatively infrequent scoring from the line. That's a good sign. Anything that shows Houston can generate offense in ways that don't rely specifically on Harden is a positive.
There have been stumbles against losing teams along the way—Sacramento, San Antonio and Detroit come to mind—but the Rockets haven't lost to a team ranked in our top 10 since the Dallas Mavericks beat them back on Nov. 24.
5. Miami Heat
10 of 14
Last Week: 6
The Heat felled their third East powerhouse on the road this week, beating the Sixers in Philadelphia on Thursday behind a zone look, timely scoring from Kendrick Nunn and just enough pass-and-cut offense to escape with a 108-104 win. It was Philly's first home loss, and the result bolstered a Heat resume that already included victories in Milwaukee and Toronto.
That win came on the heels of a frustrating defeat in Memphis that saw Jimmy Butler pound the ball a bit too much late in the game. Butler's usage rate spikes in the final frame, and the in-game splits show the Heat's offensive rating dips to its lowest point in the fourth quarter.
The samples are small, defenses tighten late, and it may be that a more Butler-centric offense is the best way for Miami to score under those pressurized conditions. It's just hard to get past the occasionally frustrating takeovers that turn Miami from an egalitarian, cut-heavy offense to one more centered around a single star.
The Heat are 21-8 after a 2-1 week, and Bam Adebayo, whose wonderfully well-rounded game makes him impossible to take off the floor in fourth quarters, is forcing his way toward All-NBA consideration. When Miami gets Goran Dragic and Justise Winslow back, it'll have one of the most complete nine-man rotations in the league. If Kelly Olynyk could stop running in mud out there, it'd be 10.
4. Boston Celtics
11 of 14
Last Week: 5
The sore left foot that has bothered Gordon Hayward for most of the season prevented him from playing in all three of Boston's games this past week. The Celtics secured Ws in all three, and an MRI showed no structural damage: two pieces of good news for a Boston team that could use some on the injury front.
Marcus Smart is still out with that persistent eye infection, and Robert Williams III also remains sidelined with a bone edema in his hip.
Fortunately, Jaylen Brown looks more than capable of continuing to pick up slack. He led Boston with 26 points in Friday's 114-93 win over the Detroit Pistons and is making virtually every kind of stride you'd want to see in a developing star. In addition to posting a career-best scoring average, Brown's dramatically improved in-between game and passing mark him as one of the most complete young wings in the league.
For the first time in his four seasons, he's scoring more than half of his two-point buckets without the benefit of an assist. And while Jayson Tatum's scoring looks prettier, Brown is the far more efficient scorer. His 60.3 true shooting percentage is higher than anything Tatum has managed in any of his three NBA seasons.
Boston is surviving while shorthanded, and it's going to catch a banged-up Toronto team twice this week. Other than the Philadelphia 76ers on Jan. 9, the Celtics, due some luck, don't have much serious competition ahead for the next several weeks.
Milwaukee is well clear of the Eastern pack, but Boston is in line to establish itself as the conference's clear No. 2.
3. Los Angeles Clippers
12 of 14
Last Week: 3
Kawhi Leonard had some extra zip Saturday, snatching four steals and triggering several San Antonio turnovers that led to runout buckets for the Clippers in the 134-109 win. He had four dunks of his own on the night, quite a total considering he'd slammed just 16 times in his previous 22 games.
Other than Thursday's contentious loss to the Houston Rockets, the Clippers looked good this past week. L.A. also beat the Phoenix Suns and barely lost to the Thunder without Leonard in Oklahoma City to move to 22-10 overall.
The Clippers aren't without their bad habits. OKC roughed them up under the glass and capitalized on careless turnovers, two pesky Clipper habits. Los Angeles' depth gives it a chance to win under any circumstances—even on the road and without Leonard, who rested on the second game of a back-to-back set as usual.
But not if the Clips don't compete with physicality and take care of the ball.
Still, in games which Leonard and Paul George have played together, the Clips are 11-3.
2. Los Angeles Lakers
13 of 14
Last Week: 2
Thursday's loss in Milwaukee dropped the Lakers' record to 3-2 on their five-game trip out East, and it's notable that their three victories all came by single digits.
The result in Indiana on Tuesday, a 105-102 loss, could have been different if Anthony Davis hadn't sat out with an ankle sprain. But it's fair to note the Lakers have looked something less than truly dominant of late. LeBron James sat out Sunday's loss to Denver with a thoracic muscle strain, missing his first contest of the year.
The injury is not expected to impact him significantly going forward, so it doesn't hurt L.A.'s position, especially since James was hardly struggling before taking a rest. His December averages: 25.9 points, 9.9 assists and 8.4 rebounds.
Despite minor health concerns and recent stumbles, the Lakers' full-season resume remains stellar. Their 24-6 record is still second-best in the league, that Sunday loss came against a surging Nuggets team, and several of the other potential candidates for a move into the No. 2 spot slipped up this week.
L.A. gets to keep its ranking.
1. Milwaukee Bucks
14 of 14
Last Week: 1
You hate to invoke cliches like this when there are so many quantifiable explanations for Milwaukee's 111-104 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday, but it was hard to watch the Bucks' triumphant effort without noticing that Giannis Antetokounmpo seemed to want it more than anyone else.
I mean, the guy crowned himself on the court. You can't argue it was just another game for him.
Antetokounmpo led Milwaukee with 34 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. His five made threes were a career high, and it looked as though he wanted to use this game—the biggest of the season to date—to prove his three-ball was no longer in the experimental phase, that it was ready for prime time. After a particularly egregious airball, one of only three misses from beyond the arc, Giannis teed up another one from even deeper and buried it.
His expression afterward practically screamed, "This is normal now, and you're all in trouble."
The Bucks' 18-game winning streak came to an end against Dallas two days prior to their marquee victory over the Lakers, despite Giannis' 48 points. With another three wins in a row after that stumble, and with L.A. dropping three games this week, there was never any chance of the top spot changing hands.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass unless otherwise indicated. Accurate through games played Sunday, Dec. 22.
