NBA roundup: Warriors blitz Celtics in Finals rematch
Written by ABC AUDIO on December 11, 2022
December 11 – The Golden State Warriors picked up where they left off in June, riding Stephen Curry’s long-range shooting and a defense that frustrated Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum for a 123-107 victory Saturday night in a rematch of the NBA Finals in San Francisco.
Klay Thompson poured in a game-high 34 points, Curry had 32 and Jordan Poole 20 as the Warriors were able to outgun the league’s top offensive team without Andrew Wiggins, who missed his third straight game with a strained right adductor.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 31 points, but Tatum was held to 18 points on 6-for-21 shooting and 2-for-9 on 3-pointers as Boston was outshot 51.1 percent to 43.7 percent overall and outscored 39-36 from beyond the arc.
The Warriors trailed only briefly, and never by more than one point, before building a 14-point lead late in the third quarter. Seeking a fourth consecutive win to begin a six-game trip, the Celtics got within eight on two occasions in the fourth period, the last time when Derrick White hit a pair of free throws with still 5:29 to play.
But Tatum missed two free throws with a chance to close the gap to six, and when Kevon Looney and Draymond Green dropped in interior hoops and Curry buried his sixth 3-pointer of the game, Golden State regained command at 114-99 with just 3:51 left.
Nets 136, Pacers 133
Cam Thomas scored 21 of his career-high 33 points in the fourth quarter as undermanned Brooklyn rallied down the stretch to beat Indiana in Indianapolis.
Playing their first back-to-back in nearly two weeks, the Nets were without stars Kevin Durant (rest) and Kyrie Irving (adductor). Brooklyn also rested Ben Simmons (calf) after he returned from a four-game absence and sat T.J. Warren (injury management), Seth Curry (left ankle), Nic Claxton (hamstring) and Royce O’Neale (personal).
Thomas entered averaging 6.1 points per game but seized the opportunity to play major minutes. He made 13 of 20 shots and 8 of 11 in the fourth when the Nets scored 41 points and shot 75 percent (15-for-20). Tyrese Haliburton collected 35 points (7-for-8 from 3-point range) and nine assists in defeat for the Pacers.
Bulls 144, Mavericks 115
DeMar DeRozan collected 28 points and nine rebounds and Nikola Vucevic added 20 and eight, respectively, to propel host Chicago to a blowout victory over short-handed Dallas.
Chicago’s Ayo Dosunmu scored 17 points off the bench and Zach LaVine, Patrick Williams and Derrick Jones Jr. each had 16. Williams and Jones each drained four 3-pointers for the Bulls, who made 63.5 percent of their shots from the floor (54-for-85) and 55.9 percent from beyond the arc (19-for-34).
Spencer Dinwiddie scored 27 points with eight assists and Christian Wood added 21 points and nine rebounds for the Mavericks, who fell to 3-9 on the road this season. Dallas was without Luka Doncic, who entered Saturday with a league-best 32.9 points per game.
Spurs 115, Heat 111
Devin Vassell made two straight mid-range jumpers — including the go-ahead shot with 1:13 left in the fourth quarter — leading lowly San Antonio to a win over host Miami.
With the Spurs leading 113-111, the Heat went for the potential win on their final possession and missed two straight 3-pointers by Tyler Herro and by Caleb Martin. Miami was led by Jimmy Butler, who scored a game-high 30 points on 11-for-16 shooting. Herro added 23 points on 8-for-16 shooting, including 5-for-8 on 3-pointers.
San Antonio got 21 points from Keldon Johnson, 19 points from Romeo Langford and 18 from Vassell, who had missed San Antonio’s previous contest due to a knee injury. The Spurs, who entered the game tied with Houston for the worst record in the Western Conference, won their second straight following an 11-game losing skid.
Clippers 114, Wizards 107
Paul George scored 36 points and visiting Los Angeles rallied from a 13-point, third-quarter deficit to defeat Washington.
George had seven rebounds and shot 13 of 27 from the field, including 5 of 12 from 3-point range. Marcus Morris Sr. added 19 points for Los Angeles, which had lost four of five. Kawhi Leonard added 13 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Former Wizards star John Wall scored 13 points for the Clippers in his return to Washington.
Kyle Kuzma led the Wizards with 35 points and 12 rebounds, and Kristaps Porzingis finished with 30 points and 15 rebounds. The Wizards, who have lost six straight, were missing several players, including Bradley Beal (strained hamstring) and Rui Hachimura (right ankle soreness).
Cavaliers 110, Thunder 102
Caris LeVert scored 22 points to lead host Cleveland to a win over Oklahoma City.
Evan Mobley scored 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, making all five of his shots. He also finished with 12 rebounds. Jarrett Allen also scored 21 points and had 11 rebounds for Cleveland, which won for the fourth time in six games. Darius Garland had 13 points and eight assists.
The Thunder drained four left-corner 3-pointers in the first four minutes of the fourth — two each by Aleksej Pokusevski and Isaiah Joe to tie it with a 17-4 run. But the Cavs quickly regained control, thanks to Mobley’s 3-pointer and Allen’s dunk. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting, his fewest field-goal tries of the season. Josh Giddey had 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Nuggets 115, Jazz 110
Nikola Jokic had 31 points, 14 assists and 12 rebounds, Jamal Murray scored 30 points and host Denver beat short-handed Utah.
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Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope finished with 15 points each, and Bones Hyland scored 11 for the Nuggets.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 27 points, Talen Horton-Tucker and Malik Beasley had 19 points each and Kelly Olynyk finished with 18 points for the Jazz. Utah was already without Mike Conley (left leg), Lauri Markkanen (illness) and Simone Fontecchio (left ankle sprain), and Jordan Clarkson was scratched from the lineup with a right hip contusion.
Trail Blazers 124, Timberwolves 118
Damian Lillard recorded 36 points and eight assists to lead Portland to a victory over visiting Minnesota in the first game of a back-to-back set.
Anfernee Simons made five 3-pointers and scored 31 points as the Trail Blazers ended a five-game losing streak against Minnesota. Jerami Grant added 17 points and seven rebounds, and Josh Hart had 11 points and eight rebounds. Anthony Edwards had 26 points, seven assists and six rebounds for the Timberwolves. Rudy Gobert registered 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting and collected nine rebounds, and D’Angelo Russell also scored 24 points.
Russell made a trey to bring the Timberwolves within 120-116 with 1:08 to play, but Lillard made a jumper with 46.8 seconds remaining and later added two free throws to cap off a 15-of-15 effort from the line.
5 takeaways from Warriors-Celtics Finals rematch
Splash Bros. outshine Boston’s duo, Jonathan Kuminga continues to grow and more takeaways from the 2022 Finals rematch.
SAN FRANCISCO — On the same night a blockbuster storm off the Pacific slammed much of California, a force of similar magnitude from the Atlantic made its way to Chase Center on Saturday night.
The Boston Celtics brought the NBA’s best record (21-5) and highest scoring offense (120.8 points per game) to San Francisco to face the Golden State Warriors in a rematch of the 2022 NBA Finals.
It had been 178 days since these teams last met on June 16, when the Warriors clinched their fourth title in eight years by winning the final three games of the series. Nearly six months later, the Warriors extended that win streak to four in a row as they topped the Celtics 123-107 behind a combined 66 points from Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry. Here are five takeaways from the Warriors win in this marquee matchup:
- Warriors keep first Finals rematch win streak alive
The Warriors have followed up each of their four championships during this current run by winning the first Finals rematch game against their championship opponent.
2015 Finals: Warriors 4, Cavaliers 2
First rematch (Dec. 25, 2015): Warriors 89, Cavaliers 83
2017 Finals: Warriors 4, Cavaliers 1
First rematch (Dec. 25, 2017): Warriors 99, Cavaliers 92
2018 Finals: Warriors 4, Cavaliers 0
First rematch (Dec. 5, 2018): Warriors 129, Cavaliers 105
2022 Finals: Warriors 4, Celtics 2
First rematch (Dec. 10, 2022): Warriors 123, Celtics 107
What makes Saturday’s game stand out from the rest of those initial rematches is the fact that for the first time, Golden State came into the rematch as the inferior to their previous Finals opponent. In 2015, the Warriors were 27-1 compared to the 19-7 Cavs. In 2017, the Warriors were 26-7 and the Cavs were 24-9. In 2018, the Warriors were 16-9 while the Cavaliers (following LeBron’s departure to L.A.) were 5-18. Entering Saturday’s game, the Celtics were an NBA-best 21-5 while the Warriors were playing .500 ball at 13-13.
“Definitely. Crowd was excited, we were excited,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said when asked if this game felt different than a regular-season game. “I mean just the feeling of going against a team you just played in The Finals and especially the way they’ve played this year. They’ve just been so good and so dominant. I thought we needed a game like that. We’ve been a little stuck in the mud and it feels like we’ve gotten better over the last few weeks, but not a whole lot to show for it. So, this was an important win for us.”
Boston entered the game averaging a league-best 120.8 points per game. The Warriors held them to 107, which is tied for Boston’s third fewest points in a game this season.
- Splash Brothers prove to be the better duo on Saturday
Boston’s Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown entered Saturday’s game averaging a combined 57.2 points per game. That not only makes them the highest scoring duo in the league this season, but it could be just the 11th such season in NBA history and only the fourth since the NBA/ABA merger in 1976-77, as they would join the Shaq and Kobe Lakers (2000-01 and 2002-03) and the James Harden and Russell Westbrook Rockets from 2019-20.
But on Saturday, it was another scoring duo that stole the show as the Splash Brothers combined for 66 points compared to 49 points for Tatum and Brown. Klay Thompson led all scorers with 34 points, while Curry added 32 for Golden State. Brown had a strong night for Boston, finishing with 31 points on 13-for-23 shooting, but Tatum was held to 18 points on 6-for-21 (28.6%) shooting – with each mark being his second-lowest of the season.
The Warriors improved to 14-0 all time when Curry and Thompson each score 30 or more points in the same game. The duo combined to shoot 26-for-27 (55.3%) from the field and 10-for-22 (45.5%) from 3-point range. Thompson had it going from the opening tip, scoring 12 of Golden State’s first 29 points. He scored a dozen points in each of the first two quarters, had 32 at the end of three quarters.
And this wasn’t a game that saw him just knocking down catch-and-shoot 3s. He scored from all over the court: four 3-pointers, four buckets in the paint, six from the mid-range and a pair of free throws. When Klay is scoring on all three levels like this, the Warriors are tough to beat, especially when Curry is also having a strong shooting night.
Ever the showman, Curry capped off the first quarter with a 30-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer, while turning his back on the shot with the ball still in mid-air. Curry finished 6-for-11 from beyond the arc as he and the Warriors consistently had answers to every Celtics’ push to cut into their advantage.
- Jonathan Kuminga is coming along at the right time
Consistency has been a tough thing to find for second-year forward Jonathan Kuminga both in terms of minutes and production. This season, he’s had games where he’s played as many as 40 minutes but has seven games in which he logged fewer than 10 minutes. But the past three games have seen Kuminga play at least 21 minutes each night and score in double figures each night.
On Saturday, Kuminga finished with 14 points on 6-for-9 shooting to go with five rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes off the Warriors bench. But as Kerr said after the game, it was much more than his offense that kept Kuminga on the floor against Boston.
“I thought JK was great,” said Kerr. “Just his athleticism in size and strength to be able to bring him off the bench and put him on either Brown or Tatum and then the he can switch and stay in front of people, whether it’s those two I just mentioned or Marcus Smart, (Malcolm) Brogdon or Derrick White, the guys who are attacking, JK has really helped solidify our defense and give us another weapon that we can put on the best players on the opponent.”
Kuminga’s signature moment of the night came early in the fourth quarter as he had back-to-back dunks to help push the lead to 16 points. The first dunk came on a fast break as Donte DiVincenzo found him on a cut to the basket. The second was the showstopper as he posted up Tatum on the left block, faced up and made a move to the basket. Tatum stripped him, but Kuminga recovered the ball and immediately went up for a dunk over Tatum.
Not only did the Chase Center crowd go crazy, but watch the celebration from Draymond Green, who may have celebrated harder than Kuminga after the dunk.
- Can the Warriors build off this win? How will Celtics respond?
With a win on Saturday, Golden State improved to 14-13 on the season and 12-2 at Chase Center – tied with Cleveland for the best home record in the NBA. However, the Warriors are just 2-11 on the road, which is where their next six games will come as they get set to embark on a nine-day road trip with stops in Milwaukee, Indiana, Philadelphia, Toronto, New York and Brooklyn before returning to Chase Center for a Christmas Day matchup against Memphis.
“It just gives you the recipe on the intensity and focus you have to have to beat a team like that and then, knowing how hard it is to win on the road, we haven’t done it well at all this season,” said Curry. “So, for everybody to understand again, their role, when they’re going to be in the game, who they’ll be playing with, the defensive intensity that we need to give ourselves a chance knowing we haven’t been able to sustain that level in these first 27 games. We want to feel good about ourselves getting on the plan and going to these four cities and five games and figure out how to really take advantage of the opportunity in front of us.”
The Warriors enter the road trip in a crowded pack in the middle of the Western Conference standings. Golden State is ninth following Saturday’s win, but just a half-game back of sixth place. If they hope to emerge from this pack during this road trip, they’ll have to do so against some strong competition as they will face four team currently ranked three through six in the East. Can taking down the top team in the conference be the boost the Warriors need to translate their home success to the road?
For the Celtics, this was the fourth game of a six-game road trip that concludes with back-to-back games in Los Angeles against the Clippers and Monday and the Lakers on Tuesday. The Celtics follow up this six-game road trip with a seven-game homestand that takes them through the remainder of 2022, including a marquee Christmas Day game against Milwaukee.
Boston has not lost consecutive games since falling to Chicago and Cleveland on Oct. 24 and 28, respectively. In their four most recent losses, the Celtics have bounced back with wins by 18 points, four points, 13 points and 11 points for an average margin of victory of 11.5 points.
- Warriors choose perfect moment to retire Bill Russell’s No. 6
Following his passing in August, the NBA and Players Association announced that they would honor the legacy of Bill Russell by retiring his No. 6 throughout the entire league – an honor that has never been bestowed upon another player.
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A black No. 6 patch emblazons every player jersey this season, every coach wears a No. 6 pin, and every court has the No. 6 on the sideline near center court. Prior to Saturday’s game against Boston, the Warriors added Russell’s No. 6 to the Chase Center rafters, right next to longtime rival Wilt Chamberlain and other former Warrior greats. In addition to his record 11 NBA championships with Boston, Russell also won a pair of NCAA titles with the University of San Francisco.
The pregame ceremony included reflections from Russell’s daughter, Karen Kenyatta Russell as well as Warriors advisor Rick Welts — who first met Russell during the legend’s run as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics in the 1970s. Warriors legend Tom Meschery joined them as they counted down from six to unveil the jersey.
Celtics-Warriors takeaways: Splash Bros sink C’s in NBA Finals rematch
The Golden State Warriors fed the first-place Boston Celtics some humble pie in Saturday night’s NBA Finals rematch.
Boston simply couldn’t keep up with the defending champions in the much-anticipated matchup at Chase Center. That largely was due to the performances of Warriors stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. The Splash Brothers combined for 66 points (26-47 FG, 10-21 3-PT) in Golden State’s 123-107 victory.
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Jaylen Brown (31 points, nine rebounds) did his part, but it was an off night for the rest of the C’s roster. Jayson Tatum couldn’t get much of anything going as he finished with 18 points on 6-of-21 shooting.
Here are our takeaways from the Celtics’ humbling defeat. They’ll look to bounce back in Monday’s late-night matchup vs. the Los Angeles Clippers.
Robert Williams, Al Horford absences are glaring
The Celtics have done a tremendous job without Robert Williams and without Al Horford at points this season. Saturday night, however, they really missed their starting bigs.
Blake Griffin got the start at the 5 and the Warriors’ sharpshooters took advantage of him in drop coverage. Boston had no answer for Curry and Thompson coming around screens on the perimeter. The result was the Splash Brothers getting countless open looks with predictable results.
Klay Thompson’s 24 first half points are more than he scored in 5 of the 6 Finals games he played in last season. He scored his series-high 25 in Game 3.
It’s his 4th straight game with 20 points, his longest streak since he did it in 8 straight games in 2019. pic.twitter.com/hF0f9iG0mR— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 11, 2022
Thompson finished with a game-high 34 points on 14-of-26 shooting (4-11 3-PT). Curry added 32 while shooting 12-of-20 from the floor (6-11 3-PT).
Griffin was helpless against the Warriors’ shooters, but he did his part otherwise as a starter. The veteran big man notched 13 points (4-5 FG) and seven rebounds in 20 minutes.
Still, C’s fans will cross their fingers and hope Williams’ return is just around the corner.
NBA Finals flashbacks for Jayson Tatum
Jayson Tatum undoubtedly had this game circled on his calendar as he eyed revenge on the team that ruined his NBA championship hopes. The night didn’t go as planned for the NBA MVP frontrunner.
Tatum was given a harsh reminder of his struggles against Golden State in the 2022 Finals. He looked off from the opening tip, shooting 1-for-6 from the floor with two fouls in the first quarter.
It didn’t get much better from there. Tatum couldn’t get the job done in crunch time and finished with just 18 points, his second-lowest total of the season (14 in the Dec. 2 OT loss to Miami). He was just 6-for-21 from the floor and 4-of-7 from the free-throw line.
You can bet on a Tatum bounce-back performance Monday night in L.A., but these are the types of games in which an MVP candidate needs to step up. He’ll have to wait until the Jan. 19 rematch at TD Garden to make up for it.
Jaylen Brown picks up the slack
Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce believe Jaylen Brown should be receiving MVP consideration alongside Tatum. They may have a point.
Brown stepped up on Tatum’s off night, particularly in the fourth quarter to propel an 11-2 Celtics run that cut the deficit to eight points. It wasn’t enough, but the final score would have been far more lopsided had Brown not played at such a high level.
Brown continued his stellar season with a team-high 31 points on 13-of-23 shooting. He added nine rebounds and three assists with only two turnovers.
Through 27 games, Brown is averaging 26.8 points and 7.2 rebounds while shooting 50.1 percent from the floor. Those numbers aren’t too far off from Tatum’s. If nothing else, Saturday night’s game was a reminder that Brown deserves far more national recognition than he’s been getting.
Warriors’ dominant win over Celtics shows glimpse of potential postseason juggernaut waiting to be unleashed
Golden State handily took down the league’s best team, answering some questions in the process
SAN FRANCISCO — Klay Thompson’s washed. Jordan Poole was a one-year wonder. The defense isn’t the same. The young guys just aren’t ready. The rotation is a mess.
We’ve all heard some version of these storylines as the Golden State Warriors plodded along to a .500 record through the first six weeks of the season, seemingly nursing a lingering hangover from last June’s championship run. And on Saturday night they were scheduled to run into a buzzsaw, a 21-5 Boston Celtics team that was leading the league in wins, offensive efficiency and net rating. The meeting was the first since Golden State beat Boston in last season’s NBA Finals. A Celtics win, and they’d be hearing the “changing of the guard” narrative every day until their next matchup in Boston in mid-January.
Instead, in front of a buzzy Chase Center crowd that seemed to understand the stakes, the Warriors showed exactly why the early-season concerns ultimately don’t mean much, as they cruised to a 123-107 win in which they never trailed after the six-minute mark of the first quarter. Every Boston run was met with fevered resistance from a Warriors group that, despite its flaws, has only lost two home games so far this season.
“I thought we needed a game like that,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said after the win. “We’ve been a little bit stuck in the mud, and it feels like we’ve gotten better over the last few weeks but not a whole lot to show for it. So this was a an important win for us.”
The glitzy story was Klay Thompson, who was electric from the jump. Left for dead at times this season by both the fans and media, Thompson finished with 34 points on 14-for-26 shooting, including 4-for-11 from the 3-point line. His fellow Splash Brother Stephen Curry was steadily breathtaking, exuding the precise combination of patience and bravado that has made him impossible to defend for the better part of a decade. All told, he ended up with 32 points on 21 shots and was a game-best plus-20 in his minutes. Ho hum. He also added a wrinkle to one of his signature look-away 3-pointers, asking the fans if it went in after beating the first-quarter buzzer.
As exciting as Curry and Thompson’s offense was, Golden State’s defense was the story of the game. The Warriors entered Saturday allowing 112.7 points per 100 possessions, good for a bottom-10 league ranking and a far cry from the 106.6 they gave up last season. With their best perimeter defender, Andrew Wiggins, missing the game due to an adductor injury, Kerr elected to start Poole in his spot. That left either Thompson or Curry to cover one member of Boston’s dynamic duo, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
Call it instinct, but Kerr chose Thompson, whose defensive capabilities have diminished from his previous All-NBA standard, to begin the game guarding Tatum — perhaps the leading MVP candidate at this point in the season. Thompson set the tone immediately by pinning Tatum’s very first shot attempt against the glass, preventing what would have otherwise been an easy layup. Thompson said he hasn’t had that type of block in at least four years, so it felt “amazing,” and he’s going to rewatch the film.
“I love to compete on both sides of the ball, and Tatum and Brown are two of the better one-on-one players in the league,” Thompson said after the game. “It’s not easy when you’re tasked with chasing those guys, but it’s what you cherish as competitors — playing against the best of the best. There’s really nothing better.”
Thompson guarded Tatum and Brown at various times throughout the game, while Draymond Green and emerging second-year forward Jonathan Kuminga, one of the Warriors’ brightest spots of late, shared the responsibility. The result was a 6-for-21 shooting night from Tatum, including 2 for 9 from beyond the 3-point line. The Warriors will be the first to admit that the All-NBA forward missed some shots he usually makes, but the energy and effort was there to run him and Boston’s other league-leading 3-point shooters off the line.
After dropping out of the rotation early in the season, Kuminga is developing into one of the Warriors’ most consistent defenders, which has earned the trust of the coaching staff. It’s a learning process, and going up against two of the league’s best scorers can only hasten the improvement.
“Especially if I get more matchups with [Tatum and Brown], knowing that they like to go left or right, doing different moves on the floor, I think it was good for me,” Kuminga said. “It’s part of my growth that when I go back and watch film, and just know what I need to do better.”
The Celtics entered Saturday’s game with an offensive rating of 119.9, the best in NBA history, while boasting league-best marks in 3-pointers per game (16.6) and 3-point accuracy (40 percent). The Warriors held them to 107 points and 12-for-40 (30 percent) shooting from deep. Obviously teams miss shots, but Kerr thought Golden State’s defensive tenacity caused problems for Boston.
“Our guys did a good job of playing with a lot of energy and trying to challenge,” Kerr said. “We did a pretty good job of keeping them from getting into a good rhythm. But it’s one game, and it wasn’t their best night for sure. But it was a good night for us.”
Now the task is to string more of these two-way efforts together, a tall task given the 14-13 Warriors’ next six games will come on the road, bookended with matchups against Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks and the suddenly red-hot Brooklyn Nets, led by a familiar face in Kevin Durant. Golden State won’t play another home game until Christmas Day against the Memphis Grizzlies.
But that’s the thing with the Warriors. Even if they go winless on the road trip, Saturday’s win over the league’s best team shows what they have in the tank, and could potentially be waiting for opponents when the postseason arrives.
“These games matter in the sense of preparing yourself mentally for what playoff basketball is like, and figuring out how to build as much of a presence in those type of games as possible,” Curry said of Saturday’s win over the Celtics. “You also have to assess the team as it stands, like what do we have out there? How do the matchups go? Kind of foreshadow what a playoff series will look like. So it was a good feeling tonight to win a game like that.”
NBA Power Rankings: Luka Doncic, Mavericks on fire; Celtics undeterred by loss; Pelicans, Grizzlies rising
There was plenty of movement in this week’s rankings as star players returned throughout the league
Every season has injuries that complicate matters and sully the crystal ball we all try to use to determine who will be the last team standing come June, so it’s nice to see star players getting back on the court. This week alone, former All-Stars Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, Damian Lillard, James Harden, Chris Paul, Khris Middleton and Jarrett Allen all returned from lengthy absences, leading to the excitement surrounding those teams and ripples throughout their respective conferences.
Another welcome sight, for the rest of the NBA at least, was a loss by the Boston Celtics, who fell to the Miami Heat in overtime. A quick winning streak later, however, and the Celtics are back on top of this week’s Power Rankings as the clear top team in the league. They’re facing pressure, however, from the New Orleans Pelicans, who jumped two more spots this week to No. 2 behind Zion Williamson’s potent offensive attack and a stout defense.
The biggest risers of the week were Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks, who put a hurting on the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns while jumping 13 spots all the way to No. 6. Speaking of the Suns, they were the week’s biggest fallers, tied with the Los Angeles Clippers and Indiana Pacers.
With all of those star players back in the fold, it’s safe to say that the rankings will be in flux over the next couple of weeks. So before that, enjoy this snapshot of where the league currently sits.
