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**nffl** · 11-27-2006, 11:57 AM

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerr...on=2007&week=4

Quote:

2006-07 Power Rankings: Week 4
RANK (LAST WK) TEAM REC. COMMENT
1 (1) Jazz 12-2 Jazz have been too good, with or without Kirilenko, to drop them after a road loss on a back-to-back. They've been 5-0 good with Kirilenko sitting out, in fact.
2 (5) Mavericks 9-4 Can't ignore the fact that only three victims in Mavs' 9-0 surge have winning records. But don't ignore the fact that Howard missed all but two of those games.
3 (2) Spurs 11-3 Losing yet another nail-biter with Dallas, Spurs can live with. Losing Ginobili on a hard fall, when he wasn't at his best to begin with, was much more disconcerting.
4 (15) Suns 7-6 Suns aren't just starting to heat up. They're 6-1 since a 1-5 start and they're starting to get Amare, Diaw and Matrix on the court. As a frontcourt trio.
5 (7) Rockets 9-4 Van Gundy speaks out against the ''Rocket hate'' he keeps hearing. But I'm guessing he'll gradually be able to tune it out if Yao and T-Mac can win nine of every 13.
6 (12) Pistons 9-5 Pistons certainly haven't beaten any powerhouses during this 6-0 run, but you don't knock an East team on a roll. Not when there's only two of them.
7 (8) Lakers 9-4 Who needs a smooth training camp? Lakers continue to make the most of this home-heavy early schedule and, as a bonus, sent Clippers into a spiral.
8 (9) Magic 10-4 Magic's only L in the past eight games came mere hours after last Monday's kudos here. We're guessing Orlando fans would thus prefer muted praise this week.
9 (14) Nuggets 8-4 It's a tough concession for K-Mart fans (like me), but Nuggets are 8-2 without him, riding the 'Melo/Camby/JR/Miller quartet and with Evans filling in nicely.
10 (4) Cavaliers 9-5 As much as we love the orange unis -- another reason to bring up World B. -- you can't camouflage the fact that Cavs have mostly looked shaky since winning at SA.
11 (6) Hornets 8-6 Playing without D-West and Peja are two big problems. Losing three in a row after winning four in a row, which has already happened twice, is a bigger problem.
12 (10) Warriors 8-6 Baron's hurt worse than they thought. But this helps with the pain: Warriors stun Utah without him and Biedrins averages 13.5 ppg, 12.4 rpg, 2.88 bpg over eight games.
13 (3) Clippers 6-6 Respect around town and how they stack up with their cotenants can't be priorities now. Not when they're 0-5 away from Staples, sinking Clips to last in the Pacific.
14 (13) Kings 7-5 Injuries, nothing new for this franchise, have made it tough to fully assess Kings, but so has this: Only two of Sacto's seven W's so far are against teams at .500 or better.
15 (26) Timberwolves 6-6 Wolves have mustered some grit, answering a 1-5 skid with a three-game win streak, but this ain't the Mike James we know and love: 0 points in the last 2 games?
16 (17) Pacers 7-7 Pacers continue to look like a roller-coaster team even without Artest, but it's tough to punish them too severely here when 11 teams in the East are making out worse.
17 (16) Heat 5-8 Shaq's first two seasons are the only full, non-lockout seasons in his career in which his team failed to win 50 games. Anyone else getting the feeling that this'll be No. 3?
18 (20) Bulls 4-9 With a soft stretch coming, Bulls can rally like they did the last two seasons, from 12-19 and 0-9. Tougher to call: Will the first Skiles-Big Ben spat fade or mushroom?
19 (18) Trail Blazers 6-9 Nets want no part of these upstarts. Problem is, young Blazers have no games left against New Jersey and still aren't sure when Roy will resume his ROY quest.
20 (24) SuperSonics 6-9 Sonics won more games on one East trip than they've won at home all season. Ray Allen's 3-point percentage, meanwhile, has dipped again to .322. Confused? Us, too.
21 (11) Nets 5-8 Don't think this was the sort of consistency Nets were going for, but a 5-8 start falls right in line with last season's 9-12 start, 2-11 in '04-05 and 7-11 in '03-04.
22 (23) 76ers 5-8 If that 3-0 start proves to be a mirage, it won't be Iverson's fault. He's topped 30 points six times this season . . . with 10-plus assists in four of those games.
23 (22) Hawks 5-6 After 4-1 start, Hawks lost four straight by five points or fewer, three of them at home. Not the best lead-in for a stretch that calls for eight of the next 11 on the road.
24 (18) Wizards 4-9 At 0-7, Wiz share the league's worst road record with young Raps and injury-ravaged Grizz. But you expect that from Raps and Grizz. Not an alleged East contender.
25 (29) Raptors 4-9 So how does a front line of Bosh, Bargnani and Garbajosa sound? Just a hunch, but I'd say Mitchell is wise to keep moving in that direction if he wants to hang around.
26 (30) Grizzlies 3-10 You've heard lots about Pau's injury, West's and Fratello's futures and the sale of the team. The hot subject now when someone brings up Grizz? Gasol trade chatter.
27 (21) Celtics 5-8 Anyone else get the feeling young Celts lost focus after that three-game win streak? That's probably because last season, Boston never won more than two in a row.
28 (25) Bobcats 3-10 Bobcats awoke Monday as one of only three teams with 10 losses. The problem, obviously, is that they haven't played Cavs and Spurs often enough.
29 (27) Bucks 4-9 Rhetorical question alert: If Bucks can keep taking double-digit leads without Villanueva and Simmons, shouldn't they be able to hold one or two without them?
30 (27) Knicks 5-10 Dare we say whatever popularity Marbury restored with those $15 sneaks has been wiped out by the eight games he's registered already with less than 10 points.

Finally we get some respect. They had us at like 20 so far this year.

**Seuss** · 11-27-2006, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by somejewishdude

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerr...on=2007&week=4

Finally we get some respect. They had us at like 20 so far this year.

A 4-0 week will move you up.

Tiz · 11-27-2006, 12:20 PM

Number four with a bullet. With the December schedule I would expect that we hang out in the top3 for the next month.

ShuHanGuanYu · 11-27-2006, 09:31 PM

Jazz lost at home tonight to Orlando while Dallas won. If San Antonio wins, I'd have to drop Utah to 3rd so far.

What a crappy time it was to see the Suns as low as they were on these things, but noone expected them to stay there. Even though they are winning, the way they are doing it truly means something that could define this team. If they continue this defensive effort and grow on it, they can win a championship this year. However, in the past that has proven to be a bigger -if- than -reality-. Of course there will be losses and setbacks, but once they've fully bought into it we will know it.

Lukasbmw · 11-28-2006, 02:37 AM

It's nice to see a rebound in national respect as well as the Suns play.

Remember, our rough start included losses to the Jazz (twice), Spurs, Mavs, and Clipps. We were right in each game dispite being out of shape, out of sync, and trying to find our idenity.

Too bad we don't play in the east...we would be rolling over people.

Effen · 11-28-2006, 08:49 AM

They're definately finding their identity.

ShuHanGuanYu · 11-29-2006, 07:11 PM

Four of the top 5 play each other tonight! If Houston beats Phoenix, they will probably swap positions. Utah vs San Antonio is huge. If Utah loses again, I see Dallas at #1 and Spurs at #2 with Utah taking 3rd...assuming Dallas destroys Toronto.

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