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The small sample size theater of the opening weeks of the NBA season leads to wild swings and some jumbled NBA Power Rankings, like this one. The top is pretty straightforward (especially the top two), but I am willing to bet Dallas will be back in contender status soon, that Philadelphia will not be in the bottom 10 once healthy, and Milwaukee can’t be this bad, right? Nothing is settled, but here are this week’s rankings.
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1. Oklahoma City Thunder (7-0, Last Week No. 2). The 7-0 Thunder are taking 15.3% more 3-pointers a game this season compared to last, which is by design. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an interesting quote about why the team is leaning into the 3: “It doesn’t matter how you get it done every night, if you win, that’s all that matters. And the teams that have won in the past maybe a decade or so, they’ve shot a lot of 3s. I think that’s why the league’s gone the way it is, because teams want to win.” The Thunder are winning and they are unquestionably one of the best teams.
2. Boston Celtics (7-1, LW 1). The Celtics are averaging 50.9 3-point attempts a game, nearly seven more than second-place Charlotte. That can lead to some rough nights when the shots just don’t fall, like in the one loss to Indiana, when the Celtics shot 33.3% as a team (and still forced overtime). For the season, the Celtics are shooing 37.8% on 3-pointers, which is the eighth-best in the league. Boston starts its NBA Cup games next Tuesday night, hosting the Atlanta Hawks. Boston can win the mid-season tourney, will they prioritize it?
3. Cleveland Cavaliers (8-0, LW 4). It’s one thing to know the Cavaliers can blow out the Wizards or the Lakers on a night LeBron James is off his game, but the back-to-back tight wins over the Bucks last week showed some grit and moved them up to contender status for me (even if the Bucks are stumbling out of the gate). This week’s victories also showed Donovan Mitchell can drain game-winners under pressure. The Cavaliers have tied the franchise record for the fastest start, and they have done it largely thanks to the depth and bench units (the Cavaliers starting five…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-power-rankings-2024-25-203850740.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-11-06 20:38:00
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