The Cleveland Cavaliers are starting to heat up, the Charlotte Hornets continue to look a little better than their record suggests, and the Denver Nuggets and New Orleans Pelicans each lost a step or two.
| Ranking | Team | Record | nERD | Last Ranking | Plus/Minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | Denver Nuggets | 40-35 | 48.9 | 19 | -1 |
| 19 | Detroit Pistons | 34-40 | 49.1 | 20 | 1 |
| 18 | Miami Heat | 40-35 | 50.7 | 17 | -1 |
| 17 | Cleveland Cavaliers | 45-30 | 50.8 | 18 | 1 |
| 16 | Milwaukee Bucks | 39-35 | 51.6 | 16 | 0 |
| 15 | New Orleans Pelicans | 43-32 | 52.1 | 13 | -2 |
| 14 | Washington Wizards | 41-33 | 52.4 | 14 | 0 |
| 13 | Charlotte Hornets | 34-42 | 53.7 | 15 | 2 |
| 12 | Los Angeles Clippers | 41-34 | 54.1 | 12 | 0 |
| 11 | Indiana Pacers | 44-31 | 54.4 | 11 | 0 |
Risers
The Cavaliers are peaking at just the right time, having won six of their last seven with a fairly favorable schedule down the stretch (five of their remaining seven contests are at home). They may have punched their ticket to the postseason this week, but they still need to watch out for the Philadelphia 76ers and Indiana Pacers, both of whom are knocking on the door of third place in the Eastern Conference.
The Hornets are pretty much toast with six games standing between them and the eighth-place Milwaukee Bucks and only six games remaining on the schedule, but they move up this week because they beat the Memphis Grizzlies by 61 frickin' points. We give the Hornets only a 0.5% chance of making the postseason, but 61 points is 61 points.
Fallers
The Nuggets are only two games out of a playoff spot with seven left to play, but they are not doing much to help their case. They’ve lost five of their last eight and are now down to a mere 12.6% chance of making the postseason, per our numbers, compared to 40.1% for the ninth-place Los Angeles Clippers and 78.3% for the eighth-place Utah Jazz.
New Orleans has been one of the hottest teams in the NBA since early February, but they sputtered a bit this week, going 1-2 since our last installment. They’re still fifth in the Western Conference with an impressive 43-32 record and an 85.0% chance of making the postseason, but the fact that they’re only two games up on the ninth-place Clippers with seven games to go probably has Pelicans fans a bit nervous.