PLAYA VISTA, Calif. – The Clippers bounced back from Toronto to win all four of their games last week, including wins against three of the top seven teams in the East.
What resulted was the Clippers getting ranked No. 6 across the board in the latest power rankings from NBA.com, ESPN.com, SI.com, CBSSports.com and NBCSports.com after last week’s action. Here are the rankings, along with a brief explanation for the position of the Clippers.
Click on the ranking under each publication to see the full explanations for each team.
NBA.com
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 6) – “Blake Griffin’s fight with the Clippers’ equipment manager has him out an additional 4-6 weeks, could earn him a suspension after that, and may have more serious implications when the team is making decisions this summer. For now, L.A. is 15-3 without him and faces a relatively easy February schedule. Seven of their 11 opponents have losing records and five of them will be playing the second game of a back-to-back.”
ESPN.com
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 7) – “The Clippers are up to 15-3 without Blake Griffin … and it’s not all down to a favorable schedule. Chris Paul has naturally led the way, but the Clips’ much-maligned bench is averaging 43.9 PPG in the 18 games without Griffin, compared to 31.3 PPG before Blake’s absence. DeAndre Jordan has stepped it up, too, but — in the ultimate snub — doesn’t even get mentioned much as an All-Star snubee.”
SI.com
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 5) – “…The Clippers punctuated a strong week with a blowout of the Bulls in which the bench, led by Jamal Crawford, outscored the starters. The oft-maligned reserves are averaging 46 points in the current four-game win streak.”
CBSSports.com
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 6) – “The Clippers, in typical Clippers fashion, are thriving when things should be falling apart around them, just as they tend to struggle during the good times. They’re just stubbornly contrarian, which is why it’s weird Twitter dislikes them.”
NBCSports.com
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 6) – “Winners of four in a row, and now they are 15-3 without Blake Griffin. You can argue that has come against a fairly soft schedule, and you’d be right, but that schedule continues on this week and through most of the month. Chris Paul continues to be phenomenal of late — 20 points and 10 assists a game shooting 43 percent from three his last 15 games.”
