Power Rankings: Cavs No. 1 seed, but are they the best?
Updated April 14
The Cavaliers will have home-court advantage as far as they go in the NBA playoffs. They don't deserve it.
Sure, LeBron and Co. have dominated the Eastern Conference pretty much from the get-go, thus earning the right to have Games 1 and 2 -- and potentially 5 and 7 -- at home in all series leading up to the Finals.
But why should a team that was swept by the other conference's regular-season champ and didn't play nearly as difficult a schedule get an advantage should it match up with the Lakers in the Finals?
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| Out West, Kobe Bryant's Lakers tangle with eight other teams that have at least 45 wins on the season. (Getty Images) |
Eight of the 11 winningest teams in the league reside in the West, and this is despite the fact these heavyweights beat up on each other all season. For the Lakers to play nearly one-third of their games within this elite group and still come within a whisker of matching the Cavs' record is remarkable.
I'm not saying the Lakers should get home court should they face the Cavs in the Finals. The point is: Having regular-season record in an unbalanced schedule dictate such an advantage is worse than awarding it to the winner of the All-Star Game.
Alas, the Cavs have clinched the home-court edge, and thus must be considered at least a co-favorite with the Lakers to win the championship. Here are the odds I'd put on each team:
Lakers (6/5): Nothing will come easy in the West, but key injuries to Manu Ginobili and Tracy McGrady should make the Lakers' march a bit smoother.
Cavaliers (7/5): They should enjoy watching the Celtics and Magic beat up on each other in Round 2 while they coast into the East finals. That freshness could be the difference in a relatively even battle with Boston.
Celtics (9/5): Make no mistake about it: Only three teams have a chance to win it all. The Celtics have coasted this far. The question is: Can they flip the switch now that the time has come?
Field (10/1): That's right, you get all 13 other playoff teams and 10/1 odds. You want it? You'd have to be a sucker to take it. The Mavericks could surprise in the West (until they run into the Lakers) and Orlando is the only other team in the East with a shot (no way it beats both Boston and Cleveland, though). Remember this about the NBA playoffs: You don't often get surprises.
That's why getting the home-court advantage throughout the playoffs was such a big thing for the Cavs.
And why it's not fair.
I'm picking the Lakers to go all the way, so I'm moving them ahead of the Cavaliers in my final regular-season CBSSports.com Power Rankings.
| Power Rankings | |||
| Current | Team | Previous | |
 | 1 | Bulls · Trends | 2 |
| Luol Deng is back. And there's no way you can miss that because Tom Thibodeau keeps playing him 37 minutes game. | |||
 | 2 | Heat · Trends | 1 |
| If it weren't for their second unforgiveable loss to Milwaukee in three weeks, they'd be on a seven-game winning streak. If it weren't for either loss to Milwaukee, it'd be eleven. | |||
 | 3 | Thunder · Trends | 3 |
| The Thunder's stars are playing better but their overall performance has stumbled a bit. So the head is shining and brilliant while the body's kind of knocking into things, clumsily. It's like Robin Williams in "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen," which I'm sure none of you have seen. | |||
 | 4 | 76ers · Trends | 5 |
| The Sixers respond to criticism over their inability to beat good teams by knocking off Chicago, Atlanta and the Lakers. So when we said they can't beat good teams, we really just meant the Heat. (Yes, you had injuries, Bulls fans, we hear you.) | |||
 | 5 | Pacers · Trends | 8 |
| They wind up losing the season series to the struggling Magic, but other than that have taken care of business. Their slamming of the door on Dallas' face was impressive. | |||
 | 6 | Clippers · Trends | 4 |
| The word "sustainable" comes to mind with the Clippers because some things seem very sustainable, while others, not so much. The words "Vinny Del Negro" keep popping up in the same conversation. | |||
 | 7 | Spurs · Trends | 13 |
| I criticize their defense, and the Spurs win five straight, hold their opponent under 100 five times and only give up a plus-100 defensive efficiency once in that stretch. San Antonio has re-entered "extremely dangerous" territory. | |||
 | 8 | Lakers · Trends | 14 |
| Kobe Bryant passes Shaq on Monday. Good for him. Then he wound up hurting his team by going 1-11 in the second half and watching the Sixers down his Lakers for a second straight loss. That's pretty much the Lakers' season so far. | |||
 | 9 | Hawks · Trends | 9 |
| "No change" is such an apt description of this team. | |||
 | 10 | Nuggets · Trends | 6 |
| The wheels are coming off in Denver. And I mean that literally, the Nuggets keep having foot injuries. The schedule is beating up the league's deepest team, which says a lot. | |||
 | 11 | Celtics · Trends | 18 |
| Celtics don't die, they multiply (wins). | |||
 | 12 | Trail Blazers · Trends | 11 |
| Magic 8 Ball says: Team outlook cloudy. Try again later. | |||
 | 13 | Magic · Trends | 20 |
| Beat up some scrubs to stabilize the ship. Big week starting with the Heat on Wednesday. | |||
 | 14 | Rockets · Trends | 12 |
| This team would be so much higher if it could just beat Minnesota. | |||
 | 15 | Jazz · Trends | 10 |
| Beat the Lakers, lose to a Knicks team playing without Melo or Amar'e Stoudemire. The Jazz should change their name to the Utah HEAD EXPLODES. | |||
 | 16 | Timberwolves · Trends | 16 |
| If the Timberwolves can just play the Rockets every game, they will have an excellent shot at the playoffs. | |||
 | 17 | Mavericks · Trends | 7 |
| Oh, hey, Dirk is playing better. Oh, hey, the rest of the team is not. Bottom fell out of Dallas in only a week's time. | |||
 | 18 | Grizzlies · Trends | 19 |
| The Grizzlies are infuriating to watch on a consistent basis until you remember their injury situation. But those injuries should not excuse their decision-making at times. | |||
 | 19 | Bucks · Trends | 17 |
| See, look what you did. You all screamed "Fear the Deer!" and then the Bucks ran back into the woods. | |||
 | 20 | Cavaliers · Trends | 15 |
| Does anyone else think it would be wise to avoid Kyrie Irving in a first-round playoff series? | |||
 | 21 | Knicks · Trends | 25 |
| ALL LINSANITY EVERYTHING. | |||
 | 22 | Suns · Trends | 23 |
| It's Tuesday, Feb. 7, and Steve Nash still deserves better. | |||
 | 23 | Kings · Trends | 27 |
| You really need to check out the Kings' under-sized scoring point guard. No, Isaiah Thomas. Who's this Jimmer guy you keep talking about? | |||
 | 24 | Nets · Trends | 22 |
| The Nets without their injuries are likely not as bad as their harshest critics suggest nor as good as their fans continue to claim. The question is how good would they be with Dwight Howard? | |||
 | 25 | Raptors · Trends | 21 |
| The effort is consistent. The production is not. | |||
 | 26 | Warriors · Trends | 24 |
| You have to wonder whether huge roster changes are coming from an aggressive management if this keeps up. | |||
 | 27 | Pistons · Trends | 29 |
| They're going streaking! They also lost to the Nets! But they're going streaking! | |||
 | 28 | Hornets · Trends | 28 |
| If you offered 90 percent of the Hornets to just go into cryogenic stasis for the rest of this year, as long as they still got paid, they'd likely take you up on it. | |||
 | 29 | Wizards · Trends | 26 |
| Still bad. Not as bad. But still bad. | |||
 | 30 | Bobcats · Trends | 30 |
| Their next four games are against playoff teams. Let the "record losing streak" watch begin. | |||
