NBA Power Rankings: Celtics soar to No. 2, Knicks quietly move into top five
Boston has rattled off the league's most impressive stretch of wins this season
By
Brad Botkin
•
1 min read
The Boston Celtics are on an absolute tear behind an offense that has remained elite in the absence of Jayson Tatum. They've won 10 of their last 12 games, and this isn't a soft-schedule sort of run. Boston is taking out some of the league's best teams one after another.
Speaking of the Celtics, they are the only team to beat the Knicks over the past two weeks and change. As a result, New York has quietly risen in this latest Power Rankings installment, though it should be noted that their recent schedule has been pretty weak.
Denver is getting back on track. The Rockets are very good. The Lakers are solid. Everyone is still chasing the Thunder, and the gap is only getting bigger.
- Note: As a general Power Rankings rule, we're going to try to strike a balance between what we've seen in the last week, the season as a whole so far, and what can reasonably be expected to play out over the next few weeks.
- We will not go so far as to rank these teams based on championship expectations, because in that case it would take a lot more to alter, at least in tiers, the generally accepted hierarchy. Winning matters, and it will get you on the move up this board form week to week. But if you're beating bad teams, just as an example, and probably playing a little above your head, it's not necessarily going to be reflected in a completely commensurate climb up the rankings. Or vice versa.
Biggest Movers
7
Celtics
7
Bulls
Rk | Teams | Chg | Rcrd | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | The Thunder's 104.1 defensive rating is 11.54 points better than the league average, per PBP Stats, which would be an NBA record by a country mile. They have outscored their opponents by a total of 388 points so far, also an NBA record through the first 24 games of a season. They can match the 24-1 start by the 2015-16 Warriors, who won an NBA record 73 games, with a win over the Suns on Wednesday. | -- | 23-1 |
| 2 |  | Who knows how long it will last, but there is no way anyone other than the Thunder (who are basically in their own league) is playing better than the Celtics right now. Boston has won five straight and 10 of its last 12 with six of those victims being the Magic, Pistons, Cavaliers, Knicks, Lakers and Raptors. That is probably the best run of wins any team has put together this season. The offense is humming behind a league-leading 16 3-pointers per game and absolutely incendiary mid-range campaigns from Jaylen Brown and Payton Pritchard. Throw Derrick White's shot coming around, a couple hidden gems in Neemias Queta and Jordan Walsh, the lowest turnover rate in the league and a defense that forces you into a 3-point shooting contest by prioritizing paint and rim protection, and Boston is making up for the absence of its superstar in the aggregate. | 7 | 15-9 |
| 3 |  | Just as the Thunder are making NBA history with their relative defensive efficiency, the Nuggets are doing the same offensively. Their 124.0 rating is 9.42 points per 100 better than league average, an all-time gap. After their first rough patch of the season with three losses in five games, the Nuggets have bounced back with three straight wins including a tight one over Atlanta in which Denver erased a nine-point fourth-quarter deficit. | 1 | 17-6 |
| 4 |  | Houston suffered its second loss inside of a week on the back end of a back-to-back, this time against Dallas. The Rockets have concluded a stretch of five games in seven days, and the win over a tough Phoenix team without Alperen Sengun was a quality one. Right now the biggest concern for the Rockets might be their 28th-ranked 16.1% turnover rate. They get a ton of offensive rebounds to make the possession math work, but it could be an Achilles heel at the wrong time for a team still lacking a true point guard. | 2 | 15-6 |
| 5 |  | The Knicks are a 31-10 run from a red-hot Boston team from having won nine straight. Eight of nine will have to do after New York cruised past Toronto in the NBA Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday. The schedule has been pretty soft over this stretch, but there are a lot of good signs showing up. Karl-Anthony Towns has made 10 of his last 20 3-pointers. The Knicks continue to protect the ball and defend the paint at an elite level. The bench isn't great but it's more productive that last season Over the last 10 games the defense has allowed four points fewer per 100 possessions. That's a very good sign for a team that doesn't need to be elite defensively but just effective enough given how great they are offensively. | 7 | 17-7 |
| 6 |  | LeBron is actually showing signs of his age at 16 PPG and 33% 3-point shooting on the lowest usage rate of his career. He doesn't turn the corner and get downhill the same way anymore, but he can still be plenty effective as he showed in dishing the game-winning assist to Rui Hachimura in a win over Toronto and putting up 29-7-6 in a win over the Sixers on Sunday. The Lakers have split their last four but the loss to Boston was without Luka Dončić and LeBron. | 3 | 17-6 |
| 7 |  | Cade Cunningham is coming through in the clutch this season. That's a big deal for the Pistons, who are 13-4 in games within five points inside the final five minutes. Six of Detroit's last seven games have been decided by six points or fewer. | 2 | 19-5 |
| 8 |  | The Spurs have now won eight of their last 11 games without Victor Wembanyama. They blew a 20-point halftime lead against the Zion-less Pelicans but recovered to avoid disaster. This is a top-seven offense and, when Wemby is on the floor, an elite defense. Dylan Harper went for a career high 22 points in the win over New Orleans. Devin Vassell is shooting 40% on seven 3s a game. De'Aaron Fox is playing at an All-Star level. Take the Spurs very seriously. | 2 | 16-7 |
| 9 |  | Orlando breathed a huge sigh of relief when Franz Wagner's injury, which looked really bad, turned out to be a high ankle sprain. He's still going to be out multiple weeks, but now we get to see if Paolo Banchero can lead the team without Wagner the way Wagner did without Banchero. In his three games back, Banchero hasn't done much. On Tuesday it was Desmond Bane leading the charge with 37 points and six 3-pointers as Orlando, which has won 11 of its last 15 games with a top-10 offense and top-five defense, secured a spot in the NBA Cup semifinals. | 2 | 15-10 |
| 10 |  | Phoenix has lost three of its last five as a brutal stretch of schedule is taking its toll. Fortunately they sprinkled in two tough wins over the Lakers and Wolves to avoid what could've easily been a five-game skid. It won't get any easier over the next two weeks with games against Oklahoma City and the Lakers sandwiching a pair against the Warriors. | -- | 14-10 |
| 11 |  | Minnesota had its five-game win streak snapped by the Suns on Monday. Jaden McDaniels had a chance to tie the game but missed a late 3. Anthony Edwards logged his fifth 40-point game of the season, tied with Luka Doncic for the most in the league. To start the winning streak, Minnesota beat Boston and San Antonio for its first two wins against an above-.500 team of the year. Prior to that, Minnesota was within one point of OKC with under a minute to play. That's as good as a win against against anyone else. | 2 | 15-9 |
| 12 |  | Considering how brutal their schedule has been and the fact that Stephen Curry has missed nine games, the Warriors actually have to be pretty pleased to be 13-12 at this point with Curry on his way back and the schedule relenting considerably. This past week has seemingly put some juice back in the Warriors' locker room as they played the Sixers to the wire and beat the Cavs without the services of Curry, Butler or Green. Then they throttled the Bulls without Curry or Green. The defense is elite even playing as small as Steve Kerr mostly does. Pat Spencer is about to earn himself a standard NBA contract (if the Warriors can clear a roster spot to get him off his current two-way deal) and millions of dollars on his next deal. | 5 | 13-12 |
| 13 |  | Toronto has lost four straight and six of seven with the only win being a narrow one over the similarly sliding Blazers. Since their stretch of 13 wins in 14 games came to and end, the Raptors have been the third-worst defense and 24th-ranked offense in the league as the shooting that was propping them up early has fallen off considerably. | 5 | 15-11 |
| 14 |  | The Sixers had a seven-point lead at halftime against the Lakers with a chance to extend their winning streak to four, but they managed just 24 points in the third quarter, one below their season average, which is the lowest scoring third-quarter mark in the league. The Sixers also have the worst third-quarter shooting percentage and point differential; they need to figure something out at halftime. Glass-half-full Joel Embiid enthusiasts will tell you he's moving better and they'll really make a big deal out of his plus-11 showing against the Lakers. Of course, he shot 4 for 21 in that game and is 3 for his last 26 from 3. For the season, the Sixers are dramatically better defensively with him off the floor. Still, three wins in four games is a step back in the right direction for Philly, and Tyrese Maxey remains awesome. | 2 | 13-10 |
| 15 |  | Atlanta has lost three of four. It played Denver to the tape after losing to the Clippers without Jalen Johnson. The defense is a top-10 unit and has been even better than that without Trae Young, but Young's absence can be felt in the offensive inconsistencies. That said, Johnson has really developed as a playmaker; only six players have created more point via assists this season, per PBP Stats. The Hawks are the only team in the league with a losing record at home and a winning record on the road. | 1 | 14-11 |
| 16 |  | Four straight losses has at least paused the Miami hype train. The Heat had two shots at a game-winner against Orlando but couldn't convert either in a one-point loss on Friday. Tyler Herro missed two of the last four games, but for what it's worth the offense has declined by more than four points per 100 possessions since Herro's return in late November. | 5 | 14-11 |
| 17 |  | Cleveland took a brutal loss to an already shaky Warriors team that was playing without Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. It was Cleveland's fifth loss in its last seven games. The numbers when the big four are playing remain dominant, but we've hardly seen that core together yet. Cleveland really needs to rattle off a bunch of wins against a soft schedule over the next few weeks, because starting on Christmas they face the Knicks, Rockets, Spurs, Suns, Nuggets, Pistons, Wolves (twice), Sixers (twice) and OKC over a three week-stretch. If they're not careful, the Cavs are going to be fighting to stay above .500 as the trade deadline approaches. | 2 | 14-11 |
| 18 |  | Don't look now but the Grizzlies have won seven of their last nine games. They haven't beaten a single good team over that stretch, so keep this in perspective, but over that span, all without Ja Morant, the Grizzlies have the 10th-ranked offense and third-ranked defense and they are obliterating the Zach Edey minutes. | 2 | 11-13 |
| 19 |  | The Mavericks are in the middle of an actual good stretch of basketball. They have won four of their last five, and three of those wins came against three very good teams in Denver, Miami and Houston. Cooper Flagg is averaging over 23 PPG over this span and Anthony Davis has been a monster with the exception of his two-point showing against OKC in which he didn't score a single point through the first three quarters. But honestly, does anyone play good against the Thunder? | 5 | 9-16 |
| 20 |  | The Hornets have split their last six games with two wins over Toronto. Over that stretch LaMelo Ball averaged under 26 minutes per game. That number is skewed by the 12 minutes he played against Toronto before getting hurt, but he went a month without cracking the 30-minute mark. You can argue about whether you think he's a winning player, but coaches know and playing time tells the tale. And now his ankle is hurt. Again. | 3 | 7-17 |
| 21 |  | Portland has lost five of its last six. Jrue Holiday hasn't played in nearly a month, and not coincidentally the defense has gone from a top-five to a bottom-10 unit. Shaedon Sharpe's efficiency still hasn't come around. Scoot Henderson still hasn't played. | 3 | 9-15 |
| 22 |  | Utah can't defend a lick, which is great for a tank job in which you're trying to "overcome" what can be a pretty good offense on any given night. Falling into a 23-0 hole to start their loss to the Knicks helped the lottery-pick cause, as did following that up with a game against the Thunder. Utah lost those two games by 34 and 30 points, respectively. | -- | 8-15 |
| 23 |  | Milwaukee has lost 10 of its last 12 games and Giannis Antetokounmpo is out for probably the next month with a calf strain, if he's even on the team by then. Kevin Porter Jr. has been incredible since returning to the lineup at better than 24 points and six assists on 61% 30-point shooting, and yet the Bucks are still comfortably losing his minutes thanks to what would rank as a bottom-five defense (Giannis being out obviously skews this, but even with Giannis on the floor Milwaukee's defense has ranked in just the 46th percentile among all lineups, per CTG). | 2 | 10-15 |
| 24 |  | The Pacers have won four of their last six. For a team with just six wins all season, that sounds pretty good, but the rub is those wins came over the Kings, Wizards and Bulls twice. Basically, if Indiana, which is 1-13 against winning teams, doesn't play a team sharing the bottom of the barrel with them, you can pretty much mark an L in ink. | 4 | 6-18 |
| 25 |  | The Kings have played the toughest schedule in the league so far. Only seven players have tallied more assist points that Russell Westbrook. These are a few random facts about a Kings team that is basically waiting around to see who they can trade. If they have it their way, it will be damn near everyone. | 2 | 6-18 |
| 26 |  | Make it seven straight losses for the Bulls with the latest being a 32-point shellacking at the hands of a Warriors team playing without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. Chicago drives more than any team outside the Blazers but has the worst at-rim finishing percentage in the league, per CTG. Pair that with the fewest mid-range makes per game in the league and a bottom-10 defense, and you're basically hoping for a hot 3-point shooting night to bail you every game. It's not happening. During this losing streak the Bulls are making just 34% of their 3s -- 22nd in the league over that span. The Bulls have only won two games this season in which they did not make more 3s than their opponent. | 7 | 9-14 |
| 27 |  | What a debacle. The Clippers are 4-10 with Kawhi Leonard in the lineup and getting outscored by 5.7 points per 100 possessions when he and James Harden share the floor, per CTG. The only West team with a worse record is the Pelicans. The fact that neither New Orleans nor the Clippers own their first-round pick in 2026 when they are this bad is salt in the wound. | 2 | 6-18 |
| 28 |  | The good news is the Nets have won three of their last four (against terrible opponents, but whatever), and Michael Porter Jr. is lighting the world on fire, as he has been all season. The bad news is every win for the Nets is actually a loss in their quest for as high a 2026 draft pick as possible. If the lottery were held right now, Brooklyn would not have a top-three chance at the top overall pick. | 2 | 6-17 |
| 29 |  | Derik Queen posted his first career triple-double is a narrow loss to the Spurs on Monday. Queen scored 29 of his 32 points in the second half and continues to look like a future star, even though the trade the Pels made to get was still overzealous. Stop me when you've heard this before: Zion Williamson is hurt again. This time its a hip adductor. There is no timeline on his return. The Pelicans have lost 16 of their last 17 games. | 3 | 3-22 |
| 30 |  | Alex Sarr hasn't played in December (adductor strain). The Wizards have won two of their last 20 games. One of those wins came against the Bucks with Giannis playing. That says a lot more about the Bucks than the Wizards, who find themselves in the Power Rankings cellar this week. | 1 | 3-19 |
