Power Rankings: In wacky season, contending Clippers no shock
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| Griffin no longer has to carry the load in the paint as DeAndre Jordan and Kenyon Martin pitch in. (Getty Images) |
Updated Feb. 14
It's Valentine's Day, and that means it's time to be with the one you love, or at least love the one you're with. And with the NBA, that means coming to understand a bit more about who exactly your team is.
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We're starting to figure out ceilings on these teams, but it's the teams for which we haven't located their ceiling yet that could do the most damage.
That explains what we're seeing when looking at the Los Angeles Clippers.
If you take a through-the-looking-glass approach, depending on which side you're standing, the Clips are either a powerhouse built around Chris Paul's brilliance and surrounded by a devastating front court, or a sheep in wolf's clothing that's hiding significant issues at both ends.
I tend to land on the side of metrics, but in the Clippers' case, you have to consider the potential for this team to make a significant step forward in the playoffs. In a wacky year, with a shortened schedule and in a wide-open West, there's no reason that what the Clippers do well can't be replicated in the playoffs, spurring a deep run.
If you have to pick a horse to run with, is Chris Paul handling the ball late in a close game while the Clippers' shooters hang and Griffin draws attention that poor of an option?
The Clippers -- along with the Mavericks, Spurs and, yes, the Knicks -- have a shot at making a run -- or falling apart. We don't know. But if we're looking at highest potential ceiling, you can do worse than thinking Chris Paul and Blake Griffin can put something tremendous together in the playoffs.
Vinny Del Negro will have to surprise everyone, but in this season, who knows?
| Power Rankings | |||
| Current | Team | Previous | |
 | 1 | Heat · Trends | 2 |
| Fully expected the Bucks to topple the Heat for the third time this season, but instead Miami turned on the afterburners on the flying death machine and flew right past. Still, it took injury to get them back in the top spot. | |||
 | 2 | Bulls · Trends | 1 |
| The minute Derrick Rose returns, Chicago will likely re-take its position at No. 1. This is as close to a tie as you can have. | |||
 | 3 | Thunder · Trends | 3 |
| The Sacramento loss was bad and revealed some blemishes, but not enough to affect the Thunder's inclusion in the elite tier, which contains only the top three. | |||
 | 4 | Clippers · Trends | 6 |
| The Clippers' relationship with title contention on Facebook is listed as "It's complicated." | |||
 | 5 | Spurs · Trends | 7 |
| They say the French are experts in love. From where I sit, watching Tony Parker this season makes it seem like they know more than a little about basketball too. | |||
 | 6 | 76ers · Trends | 4 |
| The Sixers aren't winning all their games against the good teams, but combined with their regular stomping of bad teams, they're winning enough to make you think they're as good as their record indicates. | |||
 | 7 | Pacers · Trends | 5 |
| A losing streak against tough competition may crest at three games Tuesday night against Miami, but then the schedule evens out for Indy. Not ready to bury the Pacers after some great play the last couple of weeks. | |||
 | 8 | Hawks · Trends | 9 |
| To the tune of "Proud Mary:" "Going ... going ... going through the motions." | |||
 | 9 | Mavericks · Trends | 17 |
| The Mavericks still don't look like they have everything together, and they're still winning games. That's got to be scary for the rest of the league. | |||
 | 10 | Lakers · Trends | 8 |
| Never has going .500 on a long and grueling road trip been so disappointing. | |||
 | 11 | Nuggets · Trends | 10 |
| Stopped the slide for the moment, but they're in need of some TLC in order to get healthy. | |||
 | 12 | Magic · Trends | 13 |
| We intercepted the Magic's Valentine's Day card to Dwight: "Roses are red, lilies are white, you're not really going to do this to us, are you, Dwight?" | |||
 | 13 | Trail Blazers · Trends | 12 |
| The Blazers need to spend V-Day with that special person. That is, Nate McMillan, because they are wobbling like that single girl tonight at the bar from your office whose mom keeps asking why she's not married and who will be clearing out the pineapple rum. | |||
 | 14 | Celtics · Trends | 11 |
| The Celtics are big believers in that old saying, "Work like you don't need money, love like you've never been hurt and play basketball like you're 600 years old." | |||
 | 15 | Knicks · Trends | 21 |
| Jeremy Lin's like Cupid for Knicks fans ... if Cupid could run the pick and roll. | |||
 | 16 | Rockets · Trends | 14 |
| The Rockets had such a great week they treated themselves to losing to Golden State. On this special day you have to treat yourself, you know. | |||
 | 17 | Jazz · Trends | 15 |
| Did the Jazz overachieve earlier this month or underachieve the past two weeks? It's like a mystery no one cares about. | |||
 | 18 | Timberwolves · Trends | 16 |
| Danger, Ricky Rubio! Danger! The Wolves are either just weathering a rough patch or starting to disassemble. | |||
 | 19 | Bucks · Trends | 19 |
| Does Brandon Jennings think if he talks about considering leaving Milwaukee in free agency, people will think he's on the level of Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James? This is the worst game of charades ever. | |||
 | 20 | Grizzlies · Trends | 18 |
| You could use a random number generator to simulate the rest of the Grizzlies' season and have 75 percent-plus success rate. | |||
 | 21 | Warriors · Trends | 26 |
| Hands up, Dubs up? | |||
 | 22 | Kings · Trends | 23 |
| Oh, so that's what DeMarcus Cousins with his head between his shoulders and not, um, elsewhere looks like. Neat. | |||
 | 23 | Suns · Trends | 22 |
| Steve Nash deserves better. | |||
 | 24 | Cavaliers · Trends | 20 |
| It's not every day you get to read your own obituary, and yet the Cavaliers have had it happen twice in two years when reading medical diagnostic results for Anderson Varejao. They're like the groundhog of the NBA, only they see six more weeks of indie-film-level depression. | |||
 | 25 | Raptors · Trends | 25 |
| The Lakers game was like coming from behind on a world-class sprinter only to dive for the finish line and land two inches short. On your face. | |||
 | 26 | Pistons · Trends | 27 |
| Breaking: Pistons lobby NBA to play only the New Jersey Nets for remainder of season. | |||
 | 27 | Nets · Trends | 24 |
| No truth to the rumor Mikhail Prokhorov sent a dump truck of heart candies to Dwight Howard's house, nor that they said "I know where you live" in Russian. | |||
 | 28 | Wizards · Trends | 29 |
| (To the tune of Sam Cooke's "Cupid":) Cupid, draw back your bow, show McGee which way to go. | |||
 | 29 | Hornets · Trends | 28 |
| Sadly, David Stern will not be receiving that Valentine's Day gift package from Hornets fans because security says they have to spend the next two weeks screening it. | |||
 | 30 | Bobcats · Trends | 30 |
| For Valentine's Day, the Bobcats are going to spend time with someone special. So, not each other, clearly. | |||
