Image via Getty/John Fisher
The NBA makes jobs like this one pretty easy because the continuous storylines produce endless amounts of content to scribble words to. Last week’s batch was no exception. Kevin Durant injured himself during warmups in what was supposed to be his Phoenix Suns home debut and could be out for the remainder of the season. The Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green absolutely ethered Memphis Grizzlies’ guard Dillon Brooks on his podcast when he really should be concerned that the Dubs share the same road record as the Detroit Pistons, the worst team in the Eastern Conference (7-26). Speaking of Bluff City, even though Ja Morant continues to be away from the team for his off-court struggles, the Grizz continues to “Grit-N-Grind,” with character-defining wins over the Warriors and Dallas Mavericks. Regardless of their win over the Los Angeles Lakers last night, have Knicks fans tell it, the orange and blue skies were falling with a three-game losing streak, which is always entertaining to watch. We can go on.
As for which teams we believe run the NBA landscape, other than teams rising, falling and standing pat among four squads, everything has stayed the same from last week. But there’s a new addition, our first entry, who rightfully deserves all their flowers and is one of the most surprising on-court stories in the league. With all that being said, here are the five best NBA teams right now.
Sacramento Kings
There hasn’t been a more fun team to watch this season than the—checks notes—winningest team in the state of California. By taking it to the Phoenix Suns in a victorious road win Saturday, the Kings notched their 40th win of the season. They haven’t achieved that feat since 2006. For you math majors, that’s 17 years ago—damn near two decades! Many of us were still hooking up our MySpace page while blasting Gnarls Barkley’s St. Elsewhere debut the last time Sac Town hit that mark. Crazy!
If Mike Brown isn’t Coach of the Year, Kings fans might riot up and down K Street because he has gotten the absolute best out of a young team a lot of pundits projected would battle for the Play-In Tournament. They’re riding a three-game win streak and have won eight of their last ten. Along with Brown, props go to their All-Star duo of De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, who lead the team in points (Fox, 25.4), rebounds, and assists (Sabonis, 12.3 boards and seven dimes) for the year. The Kings’ defense can’t stop a nosebleed, ranking 26th in the league, but they make up for it by simply overpowering opponents with their No. 1 ranked offensive rating of 119.5.
The remainder of the season will be a dogfight between them and the Memphis Grizzlies for the second seed in the Western Conference with Sacramento owning the tiebreaker. Though they should handle road games against the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards easily, matchups at home against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Brooklyn Nets in the Barclays Center will make their road to playoff-seeding prosperity a little bumpy this week.
Boston Celtics
Things have been a little wonky with the C’s as of late. Yeah, they managed to win two straight games, including staving off an Atlanta Hawks comeback to gut out a 134-125 win last night. But Boston has only won two of their last five games. Playing only four of those five, Jayson Tatum has averaged over 33 points on 50 percent shooting and 11 boards. His running mate, Jaylen Brown, produced during the same stretch with a 24.5/6.2/4.7 stat line. But, it’s either big leads they’ve blown or ending up in deficits they have to rally from that prompted Brown to rightfully admit, “ain’t no moral victories in this shit.” They blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead in their overtime loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. In a double-overtime loss to the New York Knicks the previous night, the Celtics were seven points down with a minute to go in regulation before they surged back to force the first overtime.
The Celtics are still not at full strength, so killing them with criticism can come with a pinch of salt. Their big man Robert Williams is sorely missed and could still be on the mend this week with a strained hamstring. Still, Beantown was sitting atop the Eastern Conference just a month ago, and with 14 games left, they’re losing their hold on the second seed. More than likely, nervous Boston fans will constantly check the standings with the Philadelphia 76ers a game and a half back and winners of five in a row. On paper, they should bounce back this week with four straight games against teams .500 and below—Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz—but Boston has not been a sure bet lately.
Denver Nuggets
Even though they dropped three in a row to the lowly Chicago Bulls, San Antonio Spurs and the anything-but-lowly Brooklyn Nets, the Nuggets are still on easy street in the Western Conference. The Memphis Grizzlies’ somewhat implosion without Ja Morant had them fall out of the second seed to the surging Sacramento Kings, who, at five games back, are pretty much out of reach of Denver for the top spot. So, even though Denver is on a bit of a slide—currently the longest losing streak amongst teams over .500—with Nikola Jokic continuing his MVP campaign averaging a near triple-double during last week’s stretch of games (26.7ppg, 14rpg, 9.7apg), they can sustain the blow in the win-loss column.
You can say the Nuggets’ biggest issue has been them playing with their food and not taking their opponents seriously. In two of their three defeats, Denver has lost the rebounding battle, including an unacceptable showing against the Spurs, being out-boarded 50 to 33. Add to that; you won’t win many games when you leave points on the floor with a pathetic 46.7 percent free throw average against the Bulls.
But, again, they have a cushion to turn things around this week. Kicking off a five-game road trip with upcoming games against the Toronto Raptors, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, and a rematch with the Nets offers The Joker and company, who are still the number two offense in the league, the chance to get back some wins they’ve coughed up.
Philadelphia Sixers
We did say last week that Philly “should be embarking on yet another winning streak,” didn’t we?
Those boys from the City of Brotherly Love have tallied five straight victories, the longest active winning streak in the NBA. Their recent success has them holding firm as the third seed in the Eastern Conference, distancing themselves from the Cleveland Cavaliers and closing in on the second-seeded Boston Celtics. During last week’s games, specifically against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Portland Trailblazers and the Washington Wizards, Embiid put up numbers that will surely intensify the MVP debate between him and Nikola Jokic, averaging 40 points on 63.8 percent shooting from the field, and an effing ridiculous 71.4 percent from beyond the arc.
Tyrese Maxey continues to be a solid third-scoring option averaging up to 20 points during this win streak. The second option, James Harden, has been a double-double facilitating machine (23.2 points per game , 13 assists per game), playing the kind of “Beard Ball” we’re accustomed to seeing. That includes a 20-assist masterpiece against the Indiana Pacers—the former MVP’s second 20-dime game this season and the first player in Sixers’ history to do so.
The Sixers’ win streak will be put to the test in Wednesday’s showdown against the Cavs in “The Land.” After that, they should have a manageable time with the Charlotte Hornets and Indiana Pacers.
Milwaukee Bucks
Despite Saturday’s thrilling overtime loss to the Golden State Warriors—without Giannis Antetokounmpo—the Bucks still reign supreme over the league with its best record (48-19) and this power ranking. When you’re winners of 21 of your last 25 games, it’s hard to argue that distinction. The “next man up” mentality has been Milwaukee’s identity during the Greek Freak’s absence, with Brook Lopez leading the team in points, averaging 23 points. His frontcourt mates, Bobby Portis and Khris Middleton, have been tremendous, with Portis’ double-double clip of 19.7 points per game and 12.3 rebounds per game, and Middleton’s 18 points per game on 45.5 percent from three. The team has averaged 122.7 points during this Giannis-less small span of three games.
However, we’ll see how strong their hold on the number one seed in the Eastern Conference is with back-to-back road games against the exciting Sacramento Kings and Phoenix Suns, without their own superstar, Kevin Durant. So, even though they have the third-best record away from Fiserv Forum (20-13), the status of their superstar MVP’s health will be scrutinized. They have a game and a half lead on the Boston Celtics, who appear to be getting back on the winning track and face losing teams next week, so it would behoove the Bucks not to get cute and set their sights on locking in homecourt advantage in the playoffs. Milwaukee currently has the best home record in the East at 28-6.