SoB NBA Power Rankings 12-18-2009

By Andrew Kipp in Celtics, Featured, Opinion ⋅ December 18, 2009 at 1:30pm ⋅ Post a comment

The Boston Celtics and LA Lakers are the clear front-runners in their respective conferences, and sit atop this week's rankings. (Photo from Deuts.net)

Hello ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first installment of Sports of Boston’s bi-weekly NBA Power Rankings.

In my rankings, the defending champion Lakers claim the No. 1 spot, followed closely by the 2007-2008 champion Celtics. The surprising Atlanta Hawks sit at No. 3, while Dwayne Wade’s Heat sneak in to claim the last spot at number ten.

The Boston Celtics sit atop John Scullane’s rankings, followed by the Lakers at No. 2, and the Magic at No. 3. The Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz round out the rankings at the nine and ten spots respectively.

Other Power Rankings: 12/18 | 12/30 | 1/16 | 1/29 | 2/12

Andrew’s Rankings:

Rank	Team	Record	Comment
1	Los Angeles Lakers	20-4	The Celtics are red-hot, but the NBA Title is the Lakers to lose.
2	Boston Celtics	20-4	An 11-game win streak has the Beasts of the East sitting pretty.
3	Atlanta Hawks	18-6	Watch out Celtics and Magic, the Hawks are maturing into an elite team, and they are here to stay.
4	Denver Nuggets	19-7	Carmelo Anthony is averaging 30.7 points per game, but if the Nuggets want to be taken seriously, they need to start winning more games on the road.
5	Orlando Magic	19-7	The Magic are loaded with talent, but I’m starting to wonder if the clashing of personalities between Stan Van Gundy and his players will be too much for this team to overcome.
6	Cleveland Cavaliers	19-7	After a slow start, the Cavs are 8-2 in their last 10 games. Wins over Orlando, Utah, Dallas, and Phoenix have convinced me that they are a contender in the Eastern Conference.
7	Dallas Mavericks	19-7	Dirk Nowitzki is playing like an MVP, and the Mavs have won 5 straight. We’ll see what Dallas is made of over the course of next week when they butt heads with the Rockets, Cavaliers, and Trail Blazers.
8	Phoenix Suns	17-9	The Suns are struggling having lost 5 of their last 8 games. Yet at 17-8, Phoenix sits only 3.5 games behind the Lakers in the Pacific Division. Interesting statistic: Center Channing Frye has made 62 3-pointers this season.
9	Utah Jazz	15-10	The Jazz will only go as far as Derron Williams carries them. A victory over the defending champion Lakers followed by a loss to the lowly Timberwolves has to leave Utah scratching its head.
10	Miami Heat	13-11	When Dwayne Wade catches fire, the Heat can beat anybody. I’m really looking forward to their game against the Trail Blazers on Sunday.

John’s Rankings:

Rank	Team	Record	Comment
1	Boston Celtics	20-4	Another winning streak. Excellent. As long as the Lakers don’t ruin it this time.
2	Los Angeles Lakers	20-4	The champs are picking up where they left off and are looking to repeat: The bad news: Boston is looking to stand in their way, again.
3	Orlando Magic	19-7	After a great start, the Magic are now 1.5 games behind the Celtics. They look to be holding steady, which is good for them, with the Hawks 0.5 games behind.
4	Atlanta Hawks	18-6	The Hawks get better and better with time, winning five straight to pull ahead of Cleveland.
5	Dallas Mavericks	19-7	The Mavericks have won five straight and are right where I predicted they’d be.
6	Denver Nuggets	19-7	At 19-7, the Nuggets tie the Mavericks 2.0 games behind the Lakers and on the verge of being the third team to hit 20 wins.
7	Cleveland Cavaliers	19-7	At 19-7, Cleveland has already matched their home loss total for all of last season; we all thought they’d be doing better at this point.
8	Phoenix Suns	17-9	After being so dominant early on, the Suns are now #4 in the West. They’re still unbeaten at home, though (the only remaining such team), so a playoff spot could very well be theirs.
9	Portland Trail Blazers	16-11	Portland is hanging in there at #6. I’d say they’ve done as expected so far.
10	Utah Jazz	15-10	TWO losses to the Timberwolves? That destroyed Utah’s credibility pretty quickly.