Thinking (way) ahead here.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say the Clippers are for real and let\u2019s say they go deep into the playoffs.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s say that they actually win the championship. <\/p>\n
Besides having to take sharp objects away from Kobe Bryant, that means that sometime in mid-June David Stern will have to award the championship trophy to Clips owner Donald Sterling, one of the all-time goofball owners in any sport. Awkward to the nth.<\/p>\n
Stern says he plans to retire in the middle of the 2013-14 season. If the Clippers win a few playoff series, he might want to move up that date . . . to like late-May 2013.<\/p>\n
1. CLIPPERS (21-6)<\/strong> \u2013 Clips Nation blog (yes, there actually is one) says that the LAC deserve to be ranked No. 1 because they win their games by a tenth of a point more than Oklahoma City does. It also points out that of all the top teams in the league, only the Clippers have played them all.<\/p>\n 2. HEAT (18-6)<\/strong> \u2013 Four straight wins, four straight covers. And Heat games are trending under, which means the defense is stepping up. Miami hasn\u2019t given up 100 in a game since the Dec. 6 debacle against the Knicks.<\/p>\n 3. THUNDER (21-5)<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s not like they didn\u2019t go after the Timberwolves in that loss. Every starter except Kendrick Perkins played at least 40 minutes. Should be a fun game at Miami on Christmas with both teams rested and preening on national TV.<\/p>\n 4. SPURS (21-8)<\/strong> \u2013 Gregg Popovich seems to have righted the ship after a rough stretch in which the Spurs went 1-4. SA hit 20 3-pointers in 30 attempts in that 38-point win over the depleted Mavericks. 16. NETS (14-12)<\/strong> Larry’s NBA Power Ratings Thinking (way) ahead here. Let\u2019s say the Clippers are for real and let\u2019s say they go deep into the playoffs. Let\u2019s say that they actually win the championship.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":24926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[260,4977,22803,11586,22804,22805,57179,3126],"class_list":["post-58608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","tag-cappers-picks","tag-nba-power-ratings","tag-nba-power-ratings-online","tag-nba-rankings","tag-nba-ratings","tag-nba-team-power-rankings","tag-nba-weekly-power-rankings","tag-team-rankings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58608"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58631,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58608\/revisions\/58631"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n5. KNICKS (20-7)<\/strong> \u2013 Not sure what NY will be able to get out of Marcus Camby at this point in his career, but the skinny vet says he\u2019ll be back when the Knicks face the Lakers on Christmas.
\n6. GRIZZLIES (18-7)<\/strong> \u2013 Caution flags are out. Memphis is dynamite at home, but starting on New Year\u2019s Eve the Griz play five of six on the road in a stretch that starts in Boston and finishes at Golden State.
\n7. HAWKS (16-9)<\/strong> \u2013 OK, that win over the Bulls was in Atlanta, but the Hawks were playing with tired legs (fourth game in five nights) and still held a pretty good Chicago team to 75 points.
\n8. WARRIORS (18-10)<\/strong> \u2013 Warriors are scratching their heads today after giving up 131 points to the Sacramento freaking Kings last week. They also crashed and burned late against the Lakers at home, raising defensive concerns.
\n9. PACERS (16-12)<\/strong> \u2013 The Pacers are keeping their heads above water despite playing the second-fewest home games in the league. They\u2019re also 16-12 ATS, under the radar as usual.
\n10. ROCKETS (14-12)<\/strong> \u2013 Kevin McHale\u2019s personal tragedy has obscured the fact that he\u2019s doing a solid job with a team built around a few good men (Harden, Lin) and a bunch of guys half the league has never heard of.
\n11. TIMBERWOLVES (13-12)<\/strong> \u2013 The Wolves survived a brutal three-game stretch (Heat, Thunder, Knicks) intact. Now the worry is about Kevin Love\u2019s eye injury (he didn\u2019t travel to New York).
\n12. BULLS (15-11)<\/strong> \u2013 Chicago Sun-Times reports that with Derrick Rose starting to participate in drills, Nate Robinson may be the odd man out. Robinson\u2019s contract is guaranteed for the year if he\u2019s still suiting up on Jan. 10.
\n13. NUGGETS (15-13)<\/strong> \u2013 Overall the Nuggets are a solid 17-11 ATS, but the more-interesting stat is that they are 7-1 SU at home and 7-12 SU on the road. [ad-6571516]
\n14. JAZZ (15-14)<\/strong> \u2013 Next man up at the point, where Mo Williams (thumb injury) could be out for a long time. Jamaal Tinsley is OK, but Williams had been having a good season.
\n15. LAKERS (13-14)<\/strong> \u2013 The arrow is trending up now \u2013 they can\u2019t be as bad as they were in the first six weeks, and now Steve Nash is back.<\/p>\n
\n 17. BUCKS (14-12)<\/strong>
\n 18. CELTICS (13-13)<\/strong>
\n 19. TRAIL BLAZERS (13-13)<\/strong>
\n 20. 76ERS (13-15)<\/strong>
\n 21. MAGIC (12-15)<\/strong>
\n 22. SUNS (11-17)<\/strong>
\n 23. MAVERICKS (12-16)<\/strong>
\n 24. KINGS (9-18)<\/strong>
\n 25. PISTONS (9-21)<\/strong>
\n 26. RAPTORS (9-19)<\/strong>
\n 27. BOBCATS (7-20)<\/strong>
\n 28. HORNETS (5-22)<\/strong>
\n 29. CAVALIERS (6-23)<\/strong>
\n 30. WIZARDS (3-22)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"