NBA Power Rankings: Raptors climb to No. 2

Steph Curry’s streak of consecutive games with a triple ended at 76 a couple weeks back. It was the fifth-longest streak in NBA history. The longest belongs to Kyle Korver at 127 games. Curry’s the best shooter in the league, something tells me that record will belong to him one day.

The Raptors can do no wrong right now. They win big, they win close, they’re perfect against the Western Conference, they own the largest point differential in the league (11.6 points), they have an early front-runner for sixth man of the year in Lou Williams, and they’re doing all of this with DeMar DeRozan struggling from the field. #FearTheNorth.

The Grizzlies share the best record in the league with the Raptors and the biggest reason for that has been Marc Gasol. As such, it should come as no surprise that Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace has gone on record to say that his team has “every intention of re-signing” Gasol, who will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season.

Don’t look now but the Blazers are the NBA’s hottest team, having won eight straight. This streak has the potential to really stretch out with seven of their next eight opponents being teams below .500.

Dwight Howard has been sidelined for nearly a week with a knee injury that he’s reportedly treating using the same plasma therapy that his old Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant used. There’s been no timetable released on when he’ll get back into the lineup, a real shame because he has been looking fantastic this season.

After starting a little sluggishly (4-3) San Antonio has won five of its last six contests, including four straight. But all of that should take a backseat to the amazing commercials the Spurs have been doing for Texas-based grocery chain H-E-B.

Do you like offence being run well? Do yourself a favour and watch the Mavericks play. Dallas blitzes teams with devastating pick-and-roll schemes that have confounded just about every opponent they’ve faced so far to the tune of an absurd league-best offensive rating of 115.2 points per 100 possessions – a mark that’s 5.2 points per 100 possessions than the No. 2 offence in the league.

Isaiah Thomas has slowly been eating away at Goran Dragic and Eric Bledsoe’s minutes in Phoenix, and why wouldn’t he? The 5-foot-9 spark plug has been the team’s best player so far. As a result, however, it’s creating the too-many-point-guards problem, as Dragic pointed out, that everyone predicted was going to happen.

Bradley Beal is back and is showing hardly any ill effects from the hand injury that forced him out of the lineup at the beginning of the season. The Wizards are an impressive 9-3 and with Beal back in the fold, they’re only going to get better.

Rudy Gay signed a three-year, $40-million extension to remain in Sacramento. The deal is a clear win for the Kings as they successfully locked up a big reason for their sudden swing of fortune for a fair price and term that will make his contract easier to move should he regress like he did in Toronto.

After being sidelined with a hamstring injury, Derrick Rose returned to the lineup Monday and played very Derrick Rose-like to help his team snap a small two-game slide. Rose is a phenomenal talent will always make Chicago better, but given his tepid injury history playing him at as reduced a rate as possible until the playoffs would probably be the right call.

Like I said last rankings, Anthony Davis is the best player in the world right now. Still don’t believe me? Just ask the Jazz.

Paul Millsap is starting to play at the all-star level we saw him at last season, shooting 54.4 percent from the field (including 38.1 percent from deep) with averages of 21.8 points, 9.8 blocks and 2.2 steals per game over his last five contests. Now if only the Hawks could figure out how to spell his name right.

Dwyane Wade has been sidelined for the past six games with a hamstring injury. The 10-time all-star has been effective when he’s been able to play (19.8 points per game, 6.4 assists per game, 50.8 percent shooting, 24.3 PER), but staying healthy has been a challenge for Wade his entire career.

The Clippers remain a terribly inconsistent group and they have their defence to blame for that. Last season, the Clips were a top-10 defensive force, while also boasting the league’s top offence. This season, their offence is still there (seventh ranked), but the defence has taken a major dip with the club in the bottom half of the rankings there (No. 18).

After dropping six straight, the Nuggets have won five of their last six, including four in a row. However, as good as it looks on the surface right now, within the front office, coaching staff and locker room there appears to be much turmoil, particularly when it comes to fan favourite Kenneth Faried, who reportedly isn’t well-loved by the entire Nuggets organization.

Their 42-point loss to the Raptors aside, the Bucks have been a good defensive team, ranking in the top 10 in only giving up 100.7 points per 100 possessions. If they find a way to improve their bottom-five offence this team has a real shot at the playoffs this season.

Cleveland was able to snap a four-game losing skid on Monday with a very convincing win over the Magic. Still, the Cavaliers are a mess defensively, and the team still has chemistry issues. LeBron James left the well-oiled custom-built machine in Miami for this. It’s frustrating to watch, but it’s still going to take time for “the Land” to start bearing any fruit.

The Pacers have been ravaged by injuries, but are still finding ways to get it done. After dropping six straight, Indiana has won five of its last seven and is right there back in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. You gotta love the East.

Doc Rivers is right, Nikola Vucevic is playing at an all-star level. The Swiss seven-footer is averaging 19.4 points, 12.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game, while shooting 52.5 percent from the field and 78 percent from the free-throw line. The kid’s a monster.

Having fallen out of favour with Nets coach Lionel Hollins, Andrei Kirilenko has taken an indefinite leave of absence from the team. As a result, the rumour mill around the veteran forward is churning with the 76ers, Cavaliers and Jazz being connected to Kirilenko’s name.

Maybe Trey Burke’s a better player than we first thought?

The Hornets have lost six straight games and eight of their last nine, making them the biggest letdown this season. I guess this is what happens when expectations are heaped upon a team that was formerly the Bobcats.

The Celtics have lost five of their last six games with more losing likely to come, but Rajon Rondo has been spectacular. The revitalized Rondo has been so good, in fact, that Boston GM Danny Ainge is reportedly saying he won’t trade his team’s best player, despite the fact that Rondo’s an expiring contract who likely wants to leave Beantown for a shot at another championship.

As expected, Minnesota is bad, but at least No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins has been living up to his billing. The Canadian is the leading rookie scorer, putting up 12.5 points per game, and exploded for 29 points Saturday against the Kings. In that game Wiggins got to the free-throw line 10 times – an indication that he’s a whole lot more aggressive than his critics would want you to believe.

The Knicks are bad, but Carmelo Anthony still appears to be pretty good. With that said, his listening skills could use some work though.

The Pistons are the worst shooting team in the league, converting on just 41 percent of their field goals, despite getting up the ninth-most field goal attempts per game (83.7). Perhaps Stan Van Gundy should consider getting more shots up in practice.

Kobe Bryant set the all-time missed field-goal attempts record, but that shouldn’t be viewed as particularly negative. After all, he’s an all-time great player and one of the best scorers ever (he’s even leading the league in scoring this season) and his 32,000 point milestone that he achieved should put all those misses into proper context.

Losers of six straight, the Thunder are truly an awful team without Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Good thing both of OKC’s all-NBA stars have been participating in practice and are closing in on a return sometime this week.

The Suns’ Eric Bledsoe said that his alma mater Kentucky could beat the 76ers and earned a shot in the mouth for it. The little bit of pain seems worth it though, because an experiment using NBA 2K15 shows that Kentucky probably can actually take a game off Philly.