Brand spankin new S&M Power Poll! Plus bonus commentary!
By Brian Serra
New week, same team up top. The Spurs continue to win games but are starting to show signs of returning back to earth. The Heat, Celtics and Lakers are all rolling along right now and you can make an argument for any of those teams to be at the number one spot. The Magic, while playing great and having won 9 in a row, still have a lot to prove before they are to be considered on that level. The upcoming road trip should tell a lot about the Blue and White.
Below are the updated Power Rankings through games played on January 9th:
| 1 | San Antonio Spurs (1) (31-6) | Good: Tony Parker is still getting divorced from the crazy Eva Longoria who apparently has a “TP” tattoo on her lady parts. |
| Bad: Tony Parker is still getting divorced from the freaky Eva Longoria who apparently has a “TP” tattoo on her lady parts. | ||
| 2 | Boston Celtics (2) (28-8) | Good: The team is slowly getting healthy and should have their full championship squad back by the end of February. |
| Bad: They have lost 3 of their last 4 and there is no guarantee that the geriatric C’s nagging injuries won’t stick around. | ||
| 3 | Miami Heat (4) (30-9) | Good: 21-1 in last 22 games and BronBron and Wade were named co-people of the month in December. |
| Bad: In last night’s OT win, the rest of the team outside of the big three scored a combined 11 points. | ||
| 4 | Los Angeles Lakers (3) (27-11) | Good: Andrew Bynum is back and healthy in the middle. |
| Bad: Kobe is shooting his lowest FG% (44.5) since he was getting the ball distributed to him by Chucky Atkins. | ||
| 5 | Orlando Magic (9) (25-12) | Good: Hedo is back to having the ball in his hands and had a career high 17 assists Saturday night. |
| Bad: Despite the 9 game winning streak, cohesion will continue to be somewhat of a problem until more practice/game time is spent together. | ||
| 6 | Oklahoma City Thunder (7) (25-13) | Good: Kevin Durant |
| Bad: Lack of true inside presence will likely limit them in the playoffs. KRS-Tic and Ibaka can only provide so much. | ||
| 7 | Utah Jazz (6) (25-13) | Good: The Jazz have won 7 games this season after trailing by 15+ points. |
| Bad: This team clearly gets down 15+ points WAY too much. | ||
| 8 | Chicago Bulls (10) (24-12) | Good: Derrick Rose proves regularly that fast don’t lie. |
| Bad: Carlos Boozer being benched the entire 4th quarter of a winnable game due to a lack of defensive effort. | ||
| 9 | Dallas Mavericks (5) (26-10) | Good: They still have a great record despite Dirk missing 7 straight games. |
| Bad: Season ending injury to Caron Butler makes this team significantly less dangerous. | ||
| 10 | Atlanta Hawks (13) (25-14) | Good: Ball movement has increased significantly this year and they rely on iso-Joe much less. |
| Bad: Mike Bibby’s corpse is still running the offense. | ||
| 11 | New York Knicks (11) (21-15) | Good: The media has jumped all over Amar’e and proclaimed him the greatest Knick of the decade (10 days in). |
| Bad: The Knicks are 6-9 against teams with winning records. | ||
| 12 | New Orleans Hornets (12) (22-16) | Good: Stern ownership means CP3 won’t get traded. |
| Bad: The entire franchise, sadly, needs to be traded out of New Orleans. Kansas City River Flies? | ||
| 13 | Portland Trail Blazers (16) (20-18) | Good: LaMarcus Aldridge is averaging a career high in points and rebounds 20.5 and 8.8. |
| Bad: This franchise will continue to meddle in mediocrity as long as they employ Brandon Roy’s knees. | ||
| 14 | Denver Nuggets (8) (20-16) | Good: Chris Anderson still has very colorful skin. |
| Bad: They are gutting their entire team to get rid of a top-10 NBA player and going from a team that is one player away from contending to a perennial basement dweller. | ||
| 15 | Memphis Grizzlies (17) (17-20) | Good: Tony Allen is training with Anderson Silva. |
| Bad: O.J. Mayo is training with Kimbo Slice. | ||
| 16 | Phoenix Suns (14) (15-20) | Good: Great quotes from Marcin Gortat longing for Stan Van Gundy. |
| Bad: Lots and lots of Vince Carter finger-pointing defense. | ||
| 17 | Houston Rockets (19) (16-21) | Good: China still loves this team despite the lack of Yao. |
| Bad: A team once known for its stout defense is now ranked 25th in the league in points allowed. | ||
| 18 | Golden State Warriors (20) (15-22) | Good: Monta Ellis is a scoring machine. |
| Bad: David Lee has been far from what the team expected him to be when they did a sign and trade for him this summer. | ||
| 19 | Milwaukee Bucks (18) (14-21) | Good: Brandon Jennings is going to participate in the dunk contest. |
| Bad: This will only give Brandon Jennings even more false confidence in his abilities. | ||
| 20 | Indiana Pacers (15) (14-20) | Good: Tyler Hansbrough is finally getting minutes and showing some production. |
| Bad: Despite starting the season strong, Roy Hibbert has been struggling and has started to see a sports psychologist. | ||
| 21 | Philadelphia 76ers (22) (15-22) | Good: The 76ers have played .500 basketball since the beginning of December. |
| Bad: Number 2 overall pick Evan Turner still looks like he should be playing basketball for the Springfield Armor. | ||
| 22 | Detroit Pistons (24) (12-24) | Good: Tracy McGrady and Richard Hamilton are coming off the bench for this team, showing its depth. |
| Bad: It’s not 2004. | ||
| 23 | Toronto Raptors (23) (13-24) | Good: Demar DeRozan is showing that he has the potential to be a very good NBA player. |
| Bad: Andrea Bargnani is nowhere near capable of being the best player on an NBA team. He is that for Toronto though. | ||
| 24 | Charlotte Bobcats (21) (13-21) | Good: Michael Jordan has found a way to keep Kwame Brown in the league. |
| Bad: Kwame Brown is their starting C right now…….. | ||
| 25 | Los Angeles Clippers (29) (12-24) | Good: The Clips are 7-3 in their last 10 games and apparently Baron Davis decided to care this month. |
| Bad: Quake Griffin will sadly be struck by the Clipper Curse during the 2011 Slam Dunk Championship. | ||
| 26 | Washington Wizards (25) (9-26) | Good: John Wall getting healthy again. |
| Bad: 0-18 on the road this season. ZERO for EIGHTEEN. | ||
| 27 | Minnesota Timberwolves (28) (9-29) | Good: Kevin Love has decided that every single rebound is HIS and nobody elses. Averaging 15.7 per game. |
| Bad: For this team to win it has to rely on big games from Michael Beasley and Darko Milicic. Ouch. | ||
| 28 | New Jersey Nets (26) (10-27) | Good: Melo might be coming! Melo might be coming! |
| Bad: Melo might not come… Melo might not come… | ||
| 29 | Sacramento Kings (30) (8-26) | Good: This hilarious GIF of Tyreke Evans, Cousins and Casspi (scroll to bottom). |
| Bad: Rumors of trading Omri Casspi and alienating the entire nation of Israel. | ||
| 30 | Cleveland Cavaliers (27) (8-29) | Good:? |
| Bad: An already bad team lost one of it’s best players for the year with Anderson Varejao |
Brian Serra is the Big Cahuna at Howard the Dunk and the founder of MagicBasketballOnline.com. You can follow/add him on Twitter and on Facebook. Compare pricing and find the cheapest tickets for all future Orlando Magic games using TiqIQ technology!