Rowan Kavner
PLAYA VISTA, Calif – Another week, another three wins.
The Clippers keep rolling, stretching their winning streak to nine games, and people are starting to take notice. Here are the latest power rankings from NBA.com, ESPN.com, SI.com, CBSSports.com and NBCSports.com after last week’s action, along with a brief explanation for the position of the Clippers.
Click on the ranking under each publication to see the full explanations.
NBA.com
Clippers No. 5 (Last week No. 5) – “The Clippers are 8-0 without Blake Griffin, with top-six marks on both offense and defense. They’ve scored 119 points per 100 possessions with starting forwards Paul Pierce and Luc Mbah a Moute on the floor, even though Pierce has shot 9-for-31 over his last four games and Mbah a Moute has made 10 shots outside the restricted area all season. That says a lot about Chris Paul, J.J. Redick and DeAndre Jordan.”
ESPN.com
Clippers No. 8 (Last week No. 10) – “Any win without Blake Griffin is a good win, which is why the Clips — now 8-0 without him — have justifiably returned to our top 10 after crashing to No. 17 when they initially lost him. Yet there’s no ignoring the fact that all eight of those Griffin-less wins came against teams currently under .500, which is what keeps you from saying they belong in the Warriors/Spurs tier.”
SI.com
Clippers No. 4 (Last week No. 6) – “Nine straight wins makes the Clippers the hottest team around, and 52.8% three-point shooting from J.J. Redick during that winning streak makes him the NBA’s hottest shooter. He’s on one of the best runs of his career and has galvanized the league’s third-most efficient offense over that span.”
CBSSports.com
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 8) – “Oh, what’s that? You’ve written off the Clippers as complete paper tigers who can never put together a meaningful run, but always pop off a win streak to force themselves back in the conversation? What do you know; they just rattled off a nine-game winning streak — the longest in the league — and now built a 4.5-game lead over the sixth spot…”
NBCSports.com
Clippers No. 4 (Last week No. 5) – “Winners of nine in a row, eight of those without Blake Griffin, and in their last 10 they are scoring 110.4 points per 100 possessions (tied for third best in the NBA with Golden State). Without Griffin, the Clippers are doing it with more of a spread pick-and-roll in which Chris Paul (and J.J. Redick) are thriving.”
