PBT’s Week 21 NBA Power Rankings: Denver takes the top spot away from Boston

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The Nuggets won the showdown of the top two teams in the NBA, giving them the top spot, but just below there is a lot of jockeying for position both in these NBC Sports NBA Power Rankings and in the league standings.

1. Denver Nuggets (45-20, Last Week No. 2). Denver’s win against Boston last weekend was a reminder of two things: 1) Nikola Jokic is the best player walking the face of the earth; 2) The road to the Larry O’Brien Trophy goes through the Rocky Mountains and Denver. Jokic doesn’t care about such trivialities, but his play in that game put a lot of distance between him and everyone else in the MVP race (sorry Shai). Last season Jokic didn’t win MVP in part because the Nuggets were so far ahead of the field that they coasted into the finish line over the last six weeks of the season, that will not happen this year with Denver needing to run through the tape to stay ahead of Oklahoma City and secure the No. 1 seed. Denver heads out on the road for four games this week, starting in Miami.

2. Boston Celtics (51-14, LW 1). Boston has been the best regular season team in the league — it is on pace for 65 wins with a net rating of 11 or better. However, losses last week to Cleveland and Boston rightfully give fans pause, is this team up to the postseason challenges ahead? Boston is 19-10 in clutch games this season (within five points in the final five minutes) with a +18.9 net rating in those minutes, but it doesn’t feel like that when you watch them, things get slow and bog down, leading to a lot of Jayson Tatum isolation. Boston’s problems are the problems of an elite team, but in a title-or-bust season they loom large.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder (45-20, LW 4). It still amazes me the pushback from some quarters of NBA fandom to the idea of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as a serious MVP candidate. SGA is on pace to join Jordan and Curry as the only players ever to average 30+ points while shooting 50%+ and having 2+ steals a game. With a little over a month left in the season, things are lining up as well as the Thunder could hope for the team to make a deep playoff run. With the Clippers appearing headed for…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/pbts-week-21-nba-power-213832573.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-03-13 21:38:32

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