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For all the depth in the West — a team over .500 would miss even making the play-in right now — are the two best teams in the NBA in the East? They are in this week’s NBC Sports 2024-25 NBA Power Rankings.
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1. Boston Celtics (12-3, Last Week No. 5). Last season, the Celtics led the league taking 42.5 3-point attempts a game, which helped win them a ring. This season, they are taking even more — 50.5 a game — and if there was any doubt they are the team to beat their win Tuesday over the Cavaliers should have answered that. Boston “only” took 41 3-pointers against Cleveland, but they hit 22 and when the 3s are falling like that the Celtics are unbeatable. The Celtics are not playing with that focus nightly, they have often been flat. For example, last week they needed overtime to beat the Raptors, fortunately for Boston it had Jayson Tatum.
2. Cleveland Cavaliers (15-1, LW 1). Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson and his players will fall back on the cliche “There are no moral victories in the NBA,” and losing to Boston on Tuesday did knock the team down a notch in these rankings. But that was a moral victory. Cleveland withstood the best punch of a championship team shooting better than 50% from 3, came back thanks great play from Evan Mobley, and stood toe-to-toe with Boston down the stretch. They did all that without Isaac Okoro (they missed his defense on Tatum), Caris LeVert and Max Strus. This team is legit. There is a light schedule ahead for the Cavs this week with the banged-up Pelicans tonight, then hosting the Raptors on Sunday.
3. Oklahoma City Thunder (11-4, LW 3). Oklahoma City needs to keep its head above water until first Isaiah Hartenstein and later Chet Holmgren get back from injuries (Hartenstein is close) — losing to San Antonio without Victor Wembanyama (as the Thunder did Tuesday) is not how one stays afloat. The Thunder are 3-2 since Holmgren went down with a fractured hip and, unsurprisingly, they are struggling on the glass without either of their big men. OKC needs a better outing Wednesday at home against an athletic and feisty Portland team, then they are off until…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-power-rankings-2024-25-213825913.html
Author : NBC Sports
Publish date : 2024-11-20 21:38:00
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