The Los Angeles Lakers move up into the middle tier, while the Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Washington Wizards, and Indiana Pacers all drop a spot or two.
| Ranking | Team | Record | nERD | Last Ranking | Plus/Minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Los Angeles Lakers | 31-37 | 46.7 | 21 | 1 |
| 19 | Miami Heat | 36-33 | 48.8 | 18 | -1 |
| 18 | Denver Nuggets | 37-31 | 49.1 | 18 | 0 |
| 17 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 39-28 | 49.3 | 17 | 0 |
| 16 | Milwaukee Bucks | 36-32 | 51.6 | 16 | 0 |
| 15 | Charlotte Hornets | 29-39 | 52.0 | 15 | 0 |
| 14 | New Orleans Pelicans | 39-28 | 52.2 | 12 | -2 |
| 13 | Washington Wizards | 39-30 | 52.6 | 12 | -1 |
| 12 | Portland Trail Blazers | 41-26 | 54.3 | 12 | 0 |
| 11 | Indiana Pacers | 40-28 | 54.8 | 10 | -1 |
Risers
The Los Angeles Lakers owe their draft pick to either Boston or Philadelphia at the end of the season, so they have nothing to lose by winning games. To that end, they've won 8 of their last 11, including victories over the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers. The Lakers are still seven games out of a playoff spot, and we give them a negligible 0.1% chance of pulling off a miracle, but they rightfully move up a tier in our rankings for winning so darn much lately.
Fallers
The Miami Heat have lost three of their last five contests and have slipped all the way down to eighth in the Eastern Conference. They still have a fairly safe five-game lead on the ninth-place Detroit Pistons for that final playoff spot. We give them a near-certain 99.3% chance of making it, but they've lost a step over the last two months (11-16), and that's concerning with the playoffs just around the corner.
The New Orleans Pelicans are still one of the hottest teams in the league, having won 11 of their last 13, but losing 2 of their last 3 has caused them to slip two spots in the rankings this week. In a week with very minimal movement, that actually qualifies as the biggest drop of any team this time around. That makes them hard to ignore as fallers for the sake of this column, even if they're still a team on the rise in general.