The San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers continue to rise as two of the hottest teams in the Association, while the Los Angeles Lakers and Toronto Raptors hit bumps in the road.
| Ranking | Team | Record | nERD | Last Ranking | Plus/Minus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Los Angeles Lakers | 21-17 | 56.8 | 9 | -1 |
| 9 | Philadelphia 76ers | 25-14 | 58.8 | 8 | -1 |
| 8 | San Antonio Spurs | 22-17 | 59.0 | 10 | 2 |
| 7 | Denver Nuggets | 25-11 | 61.2 | 6 | -1 |
| 6 | Golden State Warriors | 25-14 | 62.3 | 7 | 1 |
| 5 | Toronto Raptors | 28-12 | 64.7 | 3 | -2 |
| 4 | Boston Celtics | 22-15 | 66.5 | 4 | 0 |
| 3 | Indiana Pacers | 25-12 | 67.4 | 5 | 2 |
| 2 | Oklahoma City Thunder | 24-13 | 69.6 | 2 | 0 |
| 1 | Milwaukee Bucks | 26-10 | 72.8 | 1 | 0 |
Risers
Roughly one month ago, the San Antonio Spurs had a record of 11-14 and sat in the bottom tier of our power rankings. Since December 7th, they've been a team possessed, going 11-3 over that 14-game span while posting the league's best net rating at 15.2. Over the past couple weeks, they've had signature wins against top-tier teams like the Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics, and Toronto Raptors, and aren't likely to be slowing down anytime soon with a fairly easy schedule on the horizon. They now sit in seventh place in the Western Conference with a record of 22-17, and are only one game behind the fourth-place Houston Rockets. Reminder: never ever count out the Spurs.
The Indiana Pacers are arguably the hottest team in the NBA right now. They've won 12 of 14 games over the past month, and have posted the league's best net rating of 10.8 over that span. They're currently on a five-game winning streak, right on the heels of rattling off seven in a row. They've arguably been beating up on easy competition -- 9 of those 12 wins came against teams in this week's bottom-10 -- but their 25-12 record places them third in the Eastern Conference and fourth in the entire NBA, and that's not nothing.
Fallers
The Los Angeles Lakers have gone 1-3 since losing LeBron James to a groin injury, and have now dropped seven of their last 11. There's no real need to panic just yet, but the hyper-competitive Western Conference leaves very little margin for error, so they can't afford to slip too much. The Lakers currently sit in eighth in the Western Conference, and their playoff chances have dwindled to 75.4% in recent weeks. The eventual return of LeBron will no doubt help in turning things around, but we don't really have any indication of when that help will be coming as of now.
The Toronto Raptors have held onto the top spot of the Eastern Conference for the majority of the season to date, but the Milwaukee Bucks have officially caught up, and technically take over first place since they hold the tiebreaker over Toronto with a 2-0 lead in the season series. The Raps are still winning their fair share of games, but their 8-8 record of their last 16 has brought them crashing back down to earth after a blazing 20-4 start to 2018-19. They play six of their next nine at home -- where they are 12-4 -- so brighter times might lie just ahead.