NBA Power Rankings: From the tanking teams to the top title contenders

It is time again for the world’s most accurate power rankings, where we set all 30 NBA teams in so perfect an order that you could not possibly complain about their placement on our ledger.

As we reach the regular season’s three-quarter point, the playoff picture is coming into clearer view. In the Eastern Conference, where the Detroit Pistons hold a five-game lead for first place, the Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers are vying for home playoff seeds.

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The Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers are holding firm to the final two guaranteed playoff spots, and only Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Milwaukee Bucks appear capable of upending a play-in tournament field that currently includes almost the entirety of the East’s Southeast Division.

Out West, the Oklahoma City Thunder are fending off the San Antonio Spurs for the No. 1 seed, holding on to a three-game lead atop the conference, as the Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers vie for the remaining guaranteed playoff seeds. The play-in tournament field is all but set, as a handful of the West’s teams are tanking.

Meanwhile, the NBA’s MVP race is heating up, as the award’s last two winners, Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who met in a head-to-head battle over the weekend, try to stay ahead of the 65-game rule. Victor Wembanyama and Cade Cunningham lurk as darkhorse candidates. Not far behind them are Jaylen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Luka Dončić and Anthony Edwards.

It is a loaded field, full of superstars jockeying for position at the top of the standings, each hoping his team’s position can do as much for individual honors as it does for their title hopes.

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So, without further ado, our biweekly power rankings …

(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

“I don’t really have words to explain it, to be honest,” Keegan Murray said when his Kings ran their streak to a franchise-record 15 losses. “I don’t know if anyone has words to explain what’s transpired these last 3-4 years, but obviously we’ve got to change something, because this obviously…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/nba-power-rankings-from-the-tanking-teams-to-the-top-title-contenders-173852542.html

Author : Ben Rohrbach

Publish date : 2026-03-03 17:38:00

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