The Raptors are riding high heading into a treacherous road trip to end 2016, while the Warriors and Spurs battle it out for tops in the West in Sportsnet’s latest NBA power rankings.
This week Sportsnet’s panel includes NBA editor Dave Zarum, senior editor Craig Battle, associate editor Steven Loung, and staff writer Donnovan Bennett.
| Rank | Team | Previous | |
| 1 |  |
Don’t look now but they are on pace to win 70 games and they are still learning to play with each other. Christmas Day against the defending champs will be the true litmus test. (DB) |
1 |
| 2 |  |
With the 13-point cruise-control victory over the Pelicans Sunday, the Spurs have now won 17 of their last 19. A fitting time to retire Tim Duncan’s jersey. (CB) |
2 |
| 3 |  |
The Raptors’ historic offence has hit the 115 points per 100 possession mark. Even nuttier is they’ve done it while playing the league’s seventh-slowest pace (97.3 possessions per game) and taking the seventh-least threes per game. (SL) |
4 |
| 4 |  |
The Cavs are 5-0 when hitting 15 or more three pointers. At 19-6 they have a better record by one game then they did at this time a year ago but aesthetically they are light years ahead. (DB) |
3 |
| 5 |  |
The streak reaches 10. Undertold story: Patrick Beverley is a huge factor in this team’s success. The team is 15-2 since his delayed season debut, and he’s 13.4 points better by net rating when he’s on the court than when he’s off it. (CB) |
5 |
| 6 |  |
The Jazz are starting to put it all together. They’ve won seven of their last eight with the one loss in that stretch coming to the league-leading Golden State Warriors. Impressive stuff. (SL) |
9 |
| 7 |  |
Blake Griffin is expected to miss 3-6 weeks with yet another knee surgery. This seems like a yearly occurrence that LA has to tread water during. (DB) |
6 |
| 8 |  |
Mike Conley is back from fractured vertebrae after just three weeks on the shelf, but the Grizz have lost both since his return. That said, they’re 18-11 despite scoring the second-fewest points per night in the entire league and having a negative point differential. Nothing about this team makes a whole lot of sense. (CB) |
7 |
| 9 |  |
Isaiah Thomas is one of the best free throw shooters in the league, converting on 89 per cent of his attempts. As such he’s the Celtics’ obvious choice for technical free throws, but what happens when he’s not on the floor to shoot the techs? Rock-paper-scissors, obviously! (SL) |
13 |
| 10 |  |
So Russell Westbrook comes out and says he’s tired of the whole averaging-a-triple-double discussion and then goes out and gets another one (his 13th on the season) that just happens to also be a 20-point, 20-assist monstrosity of a game. Sorry Russ, we’ll never stop talking about this. (SL) |
8 |
| 11 |  |
Snapped a four-game road losing streak on Saturday versus the Hawks, who were on the second half of a back-to-back. Still holding onto fourth in the murky middle of the East playoff picture. (CB) |
10 |
| 12 |  |
Back spasms have kept Derrick Rose out of three of New York’s last four games. Durability has actually been a relatively non-issue with Rose this season, but back problems tend to be a recurring thing, so this, unfortunately, could lead to the former MVP’s “injury prone” label rearing its ugly head again. (SL) |
12 |
| 13 |  |
The Bucks swept a home-and-home vs. Chicago— when they move the basketball and back-cut they can be a pretty good offensive team. (DB) |
16 |
| 14 |  |
Chicago had a late collapse against Minnesota and a blowout loss to Milwaukee during a recent back-to-back. They signify the level of mediocrity and inconsistency in the East. (DB) |
11 |
| 15 |  |
Not sure how much worse the Blazers’ defence can get (they give up a league-worst 110.4 points per 100 possessions) but after a week that saw them surrender at least 132 twice, things are looking like they’ll get even uglier. (SL) |
14 |
| 16 |  |
Indiana got back to .500 with a win over Detroit. Glenn Robinson III has looked great since being inserted in the starting line up. (DB) |
19 |
| 17 |  |
The Nuggets really don’t understand this whole tanking thing. They’ve won three of their last four and seem perfectly content being completely mediocre. The only silver lining to all this is the wins are highlighting the strengths of many of the players who they should make available come trade deadline time. (SL) |
23 |
| 18 |  |
The Pistons were blown-out in consecutive games and now are looking to shake up their line-up. The team seems to still be adjusting to Reggie Jackson’s return to the line-up. (DB) |
15 |
| 19 |  |
Lost at home to the Hornets and Magic last week—and beat the Raptors on the road in between, avenging a 44-point loss earlier in the month. Not a bad consolation prize. (CB) |
18 |
| 20 |  |
They won in Memphis for the first time since 2009. Yet still with another outburst at the media, all the talk is about DeMarcus Cousins’ attitude and trade value. (DB) |
22 |
| 21 |  |
They’re alive! They’ve now won six of their last eight, and it’s thanks in large part to Bradley Beal, who’s on fire in December: 24.6 points, 4.0 assists and 3.2 threes per game on 49-percent shooting from the field and 46 percent beyond the arc. (CB) |
24 |
| 22 |  |
Six of Orlando’s 10 worst two-man lineups (min. 50 minutes) include D.J. Augustin, and yet he started his 13th straight on Sunday against Toronto. He somehow managed to be -30 in only 13 minutes in that game. (CB) |
20 |
| 23 |  |
The Lakers broke their eight game losing skid with a win over Philadelphia. Larry Nance Jr continues to put opposing players on a poster which still makes them fun to watch despite a slip in results. (DB) |
17 |
| 24 |  |
Allowed San Antonio to hit on 48.8 percent from the field and score 113 points Sunday while playing all 13 guys. Spurs starters barely needed to break a sweat. (CB) |
21 |
| 25 |  |
The Suns have the 5th worst record in the NBA. They are already so young but the 2017 draft is all their fans have to look forward to. (DB) |
25 |
| 26 |  |
Karl-Anthony Towns had his second 40-point game this season, scoring 41 against the Rockets in a painful OT collapse. That’s very indicative of the T-Wolves this season, whose young talent show brilliant flashes but in the end an’t consistently turned them into wins. (SL) |
27 |
| 27 |  |
They’re not going to win getting nothing from Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow and Tyler Johnson, like they did Sunday night in their loss to the Celtics. (CB) |
26 |
| 28 |  |
Dirk Nowitzki is making progress with his Achilles for about the fourth straight week. The one thing working in this team’s favour is it looks like a seven-team conference—despite the fact the Mavs are just 7-20, they’re only five games back of the Blazers for the final West playoff spot. (CB) |
30 |
| 29 |  |
How you know for sure the NBA is fully onboard with every player shooting threes: Seven-foot centre Brook Lopez, whose previous career-high in three-point attempts per game was 0.2 is hoisting up 5.3 per contest this season. Weirder yet, he’s shooting the not-horrible percentage of 34.6 per cent. (SL) |
28 |
| 30 |  |
The Sixers experimented with starting both Joel Embiid and Jahlil Okafor on Sunday. It worked out great for Embiid as he came away with a career-high 33 points on 12-for-17 shooting. Okafor, on the other hand, only had three points on a remarkably awful 0-for-10 day from the field. (SL) |
29 |
