NBA power rankings 2024-25: Thunder remain on top, Milwaukee Bucks climb into top 10

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With a light week of games due to the NBA Cup, there wasn’t a lot of movement in the rankings, but with their Cup win Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Bucks keep climbing in the weekly NBC Sports NBA Power Rankings.

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1. Oklahoma City Thunder (20-5, Last Week No. 1). Losing the NBA Cup championship game doesn’t impact the Thunder’s regular season record (officially they have still won five in a row), so we’re not going to punish them here. However, the way they lost — an ice-cold shooting night and their halfcourt offense bogging down against a good defense with size — looked all too similar to how Dallas eliminated Oklahoma City from the playoffs last year. The Thunder still have to prove they can win these kinds of grinding, playoff-style games, but it will be April or May before they get another chance (losing in December is not the same).

2. Boston Celtics (21-5, LW 2). The NBA Cup was kind to Boston despite being eliminated in group play. Boston’s two added games to get to 82 were against Washington and Detroit, and with that, the Celtics kept rolling. All the talk about the Celtics this season focuses on their record-setting barrage of 3-pointers, but what goes unnoticed is that they are not fouling — Boston gives up a league-low 18 free throws a game. Despite being an average team at getting to the line (due to all the 3s), they are still +3.9 free throw attempts a game, second-best in the league.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers (23-4, LW 3). The Cavaliers are expected to get sharpshooting wing Max Strus back this weekend, giving Kenny Atkinson more options and depth on the wing. Isaac Okoro will likely stay the starter for the foreseeable future, with Strus and Caris LeVert coming off the bench, but that is a stronger wing rotation than we have seen in Cleveland for a long time. That Friday night game where Strus might return is against the Bucks, who are hot right now but also will be coming off the relative high of the NBA Cup and may not be in the right headspace (remember both finalists, the Lakers and Pacers, stumbled after the tournament a season ago).

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4. Dallas…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-power-rankings-2024-25-171700699.html

Author : NBC Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-19 17:17:00

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