PHILADELPHIA – The Clippers went 2-1 last week, ending it with wins in Orlando and Miami.
Here are the resulting 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 for each team.
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 6) – “The Clippers got another good win over the Heat and are now 17-4 without Blake Griffin after going 17-13 with him. Strength of schedule certainly has a lot to do with it (they’re 6-2 against winning teams without Griffin), but it’s hard not to prefer Chris Paul-DeAndre Jordan pick-and-rolls with more spacing around them and think that the Clips could get better with a trade that improves both their depth and their defense.”
Clippers No. 7 (Last week No. 6) – “The (17-4) mark since losing Blake Griffin on the day after Christmas is impressive enough, but even greater encouragement stems from the fact that the Blake-less Clips are starting to beat quality teams with some regularity. They’ve dumped the Heat twice in 2016, to accompany recent wins in Indiana and Atlanta and at home over Chicago, dropping Miami to 5-2 on Super Bowl Sundays.”
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 6) – “Blake Griffin trade rumors continue to swirl, Austin Rivers has a broken hand too, and the Clippers continue on their bizarre ride of a season…”
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 6) – “They are just over here racking up ‘guys with broken hands,’ ‘ridiculous trade rumors’ (which I treated as 100 percent possible when they came out) and wins. What a weird season for the Clippers. J.J. Redick is playing the best basketball of his career and almost no one is noticing.”
Clippers No. 6 (Last week No. 6) – “No, the Clippers are not trading Blake Griffin at the deadline, stop asking. That said, the Clippers have gone 17-4 without him (after a quality win in Miami Sunday) with a smaller lineup that spreads the floor more, creating space for the Chris Paul/DeAndre Jordan pick-and-roll, and that has to have Doc Rivers thinking about moves this summer.
