Let's face it — the best and most powerful teams in the NBA don't really change from week to week. A handful of results in the middle of winter can only mean so much to a franchise's championship hopes. What does shift regularly, though, is how much interest a squad can hold over the course of a season. Every Monday, BDL's Most Interesting Power Rankings track the teams most worthy of your attention.THE TOP 15
1. Golden State Warriors (35-2; last week: 1):
Heaven’s in here. After a little defensive intrigue and the league-wide recognition that the Spurs might be just as good (if not better), the Warriors got back to having fun in the team’s win over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday night. They’ll now get a chance to take on Hassan Whiteside and the massive Miami Heat on Monday, in the realization of one of our favorite NBA feuds.
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2. San Antonio Spurs (32-6; last week: 3):
It must be rather frustrating to have won nearly 85 percent of your games as you near a season’s midpoint, and yet still be 3.5 games out of first place in the conference, but you get the feeling this hardly deters these Spurs. The boys will keep swinging, winning seven in a row (with five of those conquests coming in blowout fashion). They get into their set with alacrity, San Antonio is still crushing teams on the defensive glass and free throws remain hard to come by when in the face of the league’s best defensive team.
3. Chicago Bulls (22-13; last week: 8):
The Bulls are up to their usual tricks in the New Year, rattling off a series of solid wins (six in a row, at one point) before leaving us with a sense of doubt as the bad habits returned in a loss to Atlanta on Saturday. Chicago coasted through possessions on both ends as the Hawks prevailed by 15, and one has to wonder if the return of Joakim Noah from a left shoulder injury will put a kink in what has been a much-improved offense of late. Noah was shooting miserably even before going down with the shoulder tear. How will he look after rehabilitating the arm that he shoots the majority of his shots with?
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.Everyone knows the grass is always greener in Denver. (Getty Images)
Everyone knows the grass is always greener in Denver. (Getty Images)
4. Cleveland Cavaliers (26-9; last week: 5):
You’d think that a year after being dealt from the moribund Nuggets to the championship-level Cavaliers, Timofey Mozgov would be enjoying his new career in a new town. Nearly midway into 2015-16, though, the big man has LeBron James snarling at him, and other teams calling to see if they can deal for him on the cheap. The Cavaliers can’t pursue any deals, though, because even in a league that’s getting smaller, finding a replacement pivotman is forever tough, and they’ll have to at least give re-signing him a shot this summer despite the massive bucks he’ll expect to be offered. Also, butt stuff.
5. New York Knicks (19-20; last week: NR):
Kristaps Porzingis isn’t just a future legend, he’s killing it right now. The rookie averaged 18 points, eight rebounds and two blocks per contest this week, in just 31 minutes a game. He’s proven adept at both power forward and center, and though the Knicks appear to have abandoned all but a few precepts of the triangle offense, they remain an incredibly entertaining team to watch. The squad is a game under .500 and just a game and a half in back of the suddenly vulnerable Celtics for the last playoff spot in the East.
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1/11/2016 5:10 PM
