It was always something with John Wall. Unrealistic expectations. Clowns for teammates. Lack of coaching. Injuries. Something. Now the kid is finally showing what he can do. <\/p>\n
This past week\u2019s 37-point throwdown against the Pacers cemented Wall as a legit top-five point guard in the league and has at long last given Wizards fans reason to make the trek downtown to the Verizon Center. For the first time in a long time there is optimism surrounding the Wizards and something to look forward to.<\/p>\n
1. HEAT (60-16)<\/strong> \u2013 They really have to win the title after all this, no? Larry’s NBA Power Ratings It was always something with John Wall. Unrealistic expectations. Clowns for teammates. Lack of coaching. Injuries. Something. Now the kid is finally showing what he can do.<\/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-61473","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\/61473","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=61473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61576,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61473\/revisions\/61576"}],"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=61473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2. SPURS (57-20)<\/strong> \u2013 Why don\u2019t we just scrap the rest of the regular season and let San Antonio and Oklahoma City play one game at a neutral site, winner getting the No. 1 seed.
\n3. THUNDER (56-21)<\/strong> \u2013 The Thunder have lost that new car smell with their erratic play over the last month.
\n4. KNICKS (51-26)<\/strong> \u2013 Things can change quickly in the NBA, and it\u2019s unlikely the Knicks and Heat will be quite the same when and if they meet in the Eastern Conference finals in a month or so. But if they do, it could be more competitive than we thought just a few weeks ago.
\n5. NUGGETS (53-24)<\/strong> \u2013 An ACL can tear in less time than it takes to say Danilo Gallinari, and now the Nuggets will have to soldier on without their best offensive player.
\n6. GRIZZLIES (52-25)<\/strong> \u2013 With four tough games (Houston, Clippers, Dallas, Utah) left, it will be interesting to see how many minutes the Gizz\u2019s core plays. Lionel Hollins can either go hard for seeding or keep his troops somewhat fresh for Round 1.
\n7. CLIPPERS (51-26)<\/strong> \u2013 Season sweep on the Lakers. You could have taken some serious coin from your brother-in-law if you offered that bet in late October.
\n8. NETS (44-32)<\/strong> \u2013 Keep an eye on Joe Johnson, whose role in the offense has grown smaller with each game.
\n9. PACERS (48-29)<\/strong> \u2013 No shame in losing to OKC, but that mail-in job in Washington was a head-scratcher. Soon-to-be Central champs were outscored 201-160 in the two games in their worst week since early November.
\n10. WARRIORS (44-33)<\/strong> \u2013 Enough of everyone getting minutes as Mark Jackson has already shortened his rotation and is in full playoff-prep mode.
\n11. ROCKETS (43-34)<\/strong> \u2013 Either Houston or Golden State will avoid OKC and\/or SA in the first round. Houston has an easier schedule down the home stretch.
\n12. BULLS (42-34)<\/strong> \u2013 Getting the feeling that Derrick Rose has never had any intention of playing this season. [ad-6571516]
\n13. HAWKS (42-36)<\/strong> \u2013 Atlanta starters were absolutely toasted in the last 3 games \u2013 losses to San Antonio, Philadelphia and New York.
\n14. JAZZ (41-37)<\/strong> \u2013 They seemed meaningless games at the time, but Utah\u2019s Nov. 7 and Dec. 9 wins have given the Jazz tie-breaker rights over the Lakers and just might get Utah into the playoffs.
\n15. CELTICS (40-37)<\/strong> \u2013 The recently-injured gang\u2019s all back: Garnett, Pierce, Bradley. But it\u2019s likely to be a brief playoff run, and Celtics Nation will be left wondering how far they could have gone had Rondo stayed healthy all year and Sullinger continued his rapid development.
\n16. LAKERS (40-37)<\/strong> \u2013 From this point on every game is a playoff game for the Lakers.
\n17. MAVERICKS (38-39)<\/strong>
\n18. BUCKS (37-39) <\/strong>
\n19. TRAIL BLAZERS (33-44)<\/strong>
\n20. 76ERS (31-45)<\/strong>
\n21. RAPTORS (29-48)<\/strong>
\n22. WIZARDS (29-48)<\/strong>
\n23. TIMBERWVOLES (29-47)<\/strong>
\n24. HORNETS\/PELICANS (27-50)<\/strong>
\n25. KINGS\/SONICS (27-50)<\/strong>
\n26. PISTONS (26-52)<\/strong>
\n27. CAVALIERS (24-52)<\/strong>
\n28. SUNS (23-54)<\/strong>
\n29. MAGIC (19-59)<\/strong>
\n30. BOBCATS (18-59)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"