NBA Power Rankings: Cavaliers reclaim No. 1 spot with huge win vs. Thunder, Warriors tumble again – CBS Sports
If not listed, please contact your TV provider.Various experiments have concluded that, when blindfolded, even connoisseurs with astonishingly refined palates cannot consistently tell the difference the most expensive wines on the planet and the five-dollar jug in the discount bin of your local supermarket. Sometimes we hype things up in our minds when, in reality, what we’re enjoying isn’t all that much better than replacement level.That was not the case on Wednesday night.During the entirety of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 129-122 statement win over the Oklahoma City Thunder, we knew we were watching the two best teams in the NBA — and that’s saying a lot with how well the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies have performed this season. But still, the Cavs and Thunder were, and are, a cut above this season.As for the Power Rankings, it doesn’t get much simpler than this. We’ve been wrestling with whom to place at the top pretty much every week, but the Cavs’ head-to-head win gives them the clear edge as they reclaim the No. 1 spot from the Thunder. Pretty crazy when you lose one out of 16 regular-season games and drop in the rankings, but that’s just how incredible both of these teams have been all season. And they play again next week — inject it into my veins.A team that had been incredible at the beginning of the season is the Golden State Warriors, but they’re now practically unrecognizable from the group that was near the top of the rankings for a good chunk of the year. Losing nine of 13 games has led to a crisis of identity, and they’ve fallen four more spots this week to No. 16 in the Power Rankings.Golden State sits just above one of the feel-good stories of the season, the Detroit Pistons, who climb four spots on the heels of five straight wins. They’ve already blown past last year’s league-worst win total of 14, and are knocking on the door of the sixth and final non-Play-In spot in the Eastern Conference.With movement from the very top to the very bottom, here are this week’s NBA Power Rankings.© 2004-2024 CBS Interactive. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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