There’s some movement in our weekly power rankings as things continue to get more jumbled in the NBA. Entering Monday, 20 teams were separated by eight games in the middle of the pack. We’ll look at the teams above them and below them in an effort to help out with some online gambling.
Let’s check the latest NBA news, stats, injury report, and NBA lines. We’ve got plenty of NBA picks for you to consider.
Top Five
1. Celtics
They’ve been quite streaky of late, following up a 5-7 stretch with a nine-game winning streak and then three consecutive losses. They then snapped that slide with a hard-fought and a somewhat fortuitous overtime win against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night.
Through it all, the Celtics are just 15-10 since December 10 and their offense, not long ago on a historic record-setting pace, ranks 22nd in the NBA in points per game (114.6) and 26th in 3-point shooting in that stretch. Remember when Boston seemingly got a good look from the arc every time down the floor? It’s just not happening regularly, and the team’s hold on the top spot is tenuous.
- +400 NBA Championship Odds
2. 76ers
The Denver Nuggets still have a better record, but the 76ers took them out in a head-to-head Saturday night and are charging fast. Their winning streak is at seven games and they’ve won 20 of 24 since a 12-12 start.
Joel Embiid, snubbed by fans in the All-Star voting, has regained the top spot in the scoring race. James Harden will soon have enough games under his belt to qualify for the lead in assists per game. Tyrese Maxey is healthy and standing out again. And all the complementary pieces are slotting into place.
You can do a lot worse than a bet online in favor of the Sixers winning it all, especially at the current odds.
Boston visits Philadelphia next Wednesday. Circle it on the calendar, as we see the Sixers taking over the top spot that night if they haven’t gained it already.
- +1400 NBA Championship Odds
3. Nuggets
They’ve hit a few bumps after a torrid stretch, but the schedule has been difficult, and the losses are nothing to worry about. There was a streak-busting loss to Oklahoma City by two points with Nikola Jokic in street clothes, an eight-point loss at a streaking Milwaukee with Jokic again on the sidelines and then the seven-point setback at Embiid and co. in a game the Nuggets led in the fourth quarter.
Jokic was back and healthy for that one and Denver had all its pieces on the court together. The Nuggets start a three-game homestand Tuesday and don’t have anyone on the schedule currently ranked in the top four in either conference until a visit to Memphis on Feb. 25, after the All-Star break.
The current 1-3 stretch means little. They’ll be just fine, and any NBA betting expert knows that.
- +800 NBA Championship Odds
4. Bucks
After a few weeks out of the mix, we welcome back the 2021 champs, who are finally healthy and starting to put things together. Their winning streak is at four in a row following a 25-point rout of the Pelicans on Sunday behind the second 50-point game of the season by Giannis Antetokounmpo.
“He made it look easy all night long,” Bucks forward Khris Middleton said of Giannis. “He’s playing efficiently. He’s playing dominant. He’s playing unstoppable. He’s playing like the MVP again.
That’s a bit of a scary thought for the rest of the East. Milwaukee enters Monday tied with the Sixers just 2½ games behind Boston.
- +700 NBA Championship Odds
5. Grizzlies
Sometimes road trips can just suck. You lose one and get a bit down on yourself. You lose another and get a bit desperate. You lose a third and you get angry. You lose a fourth and you throw your hands up. You lose a fifth and you’re the Memphis Grizzlies, who completed their 0-5 road trip at Minnesota the other night.
We don’t know if they went through all those emotions and in that pattern, but the slide was quite notable, coming on the heels of an 11-game run in which they looked like the best team in the NBA.
A dominant second-half Sunday against Indiana in the Grizzlies’ return home helped them get back in the win column. The Steven Adams injury (knee, out at least a few more weeks) is huge, but Desmond Bane will return this week from his own knee issue.
A dominant home team, Memphis has a handful of games at FedExForum on the horizon. That should help keep them in the top five for now.
- +1100 NBA Championship Odds
Bottom Five
26. Magic
The foundation for future success is there and we just might be talking about one of the better teams in the East in a year or two. The fact that they’ve won three straight meetings against the Celtics speaks volumes, as does the simple fact that they’re a solid 14-11 since that woeful 5-20 start.
A four-game trip begins Monday with two in a row at Philadelphia. It’ll be a great test for Rookie of the Year front-runner Paolo Banchero and his mates, who have been exceptionally good late in games (+1.6 point differential in the fourth quarter during the 14-11 stretch, sixth-best in the NBA), a sure sign of a team growing up.
- +100000 NBA Championship Odds
27. Hornets
Like the Bucks, the Hornets are finally healthy (somewhat) after months of non-stop injuries and the wins are beginning to pile up. They’ve won four of the last six after toppling a streaking Miami team on Sunday night. It’s clear that they’ll rise up the East standings if the injuries are kept at a minimum.
“Getting ’Melo and Gordon back, obviously you’re a different team,” coach Steve Clifford said of LaMelo Ball and Gordon Hayward, who was part of a starting five that scored 107 points vs. the Heat. “If we can get into playing set groups then we’ll have a good chance to hopefully put some good stretches together. (It helps) when they know who they’re playing with and they know where the shots are coming from.”
- +100000 NBA Championship Odds
28. Pistons
Lose a few in a row, knock off a good team on the road, then lose a bunch more. That’s been the pattern for the Pistons, who have road victories against Miami, Golden State and Brooklyn in the past several weeks that exhibit some of their potentials.
Then they do things like lose at home to the Houston Rockets, who’ve been entrenched at the bottom of our rankings for weeks. It’s all part of the process, but there’s a lot of work to be done before the Pistons consistently win.
- +100000 NBA Championship Odds
29. Spurs
The current losing streak is at five in a row. A separate losing streak ended at five in a row earlier in the month. It all makes for a difficult stretch for Gregg Popovich’s bunch, which is now 9-34 since the start of November.
Pop turned 74 the other day. He celebrated with an overtime loss to Phoenix.
- +100000 NBA Championship Odds
30. Rockets
They picked up two wins in their last four games after dropping 13 straight, so perhaps this crew is turning a corner. It can be a pretty good defensive unit at times, and it’s held each of its last five teams to 114 points or fewer.
That’s not the kind of stat that jumps off the page, but it’s something for a team just trying (or not, perhaps) to get out of the cellar.
- +100000 NBA Championship Odds
