Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What are the latest power rankings in the NBA?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily presented by Amazon Prime. I'm Zena Kada. Joining me is Law Murray. Coming up, Jared Weiss is going to join us to discuss how the Spurs were able to outlast Detroit's physicality. We're just going to talk a little bit about some contention around the NBA. Let's get into it. What up, Law? Law, it's been so long.
That's because I'm bouncing between all these neighborhoods in Los Angeles, figuring out which game I'm covering on a given day. Sometimes I cover two of them. So I'm glad we got a free night to talk.
I know, and I love it, and I'm happy that we got you here on a Monday. We got the power rankings that came out, and I think this is one of the most interesting, consistent pieces of news that we get on The Athletic. I do some power rankings, a Sabrina scale, on the women's basketball side during college, and I always ask her about her process of how does she go about taking the top 25.
Chapter 2: How does Law Murray create his NBA power rankings?
This doesn't always match up with AP poll, and I know that you're top 30 teams and how you break them out is so interesting the top contenders in a good place the bubble and each week you don't evenly distribute them they switch and they move etc so i want to ask you how do you go about creating your power rankings
I feel like, first of all, shout out to Sabrina, one of my favorite people ever. She was definitely hitting me up about some other stuff earlier. And I read so many other people's power rankings, you know, the power rankings at other sports, at the athletic, everybody who does their power rankings across the NBA. Like,
I want to have a feel for the conversation because I actually enjoy putting this together. Describing it is like Dennis Rodman talking about the angle of a rebound. You have to have a feel for this thing. And I think there are so many people who read this and this is going to upset people anytime I put a number next to their team. And I got over that real quick.
I mean, we can argue and if y'all want to argue about this, we're going to do that. And for me, it's like...
Chapter 3: What factors influence the Spurs' recent success?
I do look at the standings. I do look at net ratings. But I also look at how are teams playing, who has actually got a reason to feel they can be better with what we're given. And I'm also... I got to find a theme every week. I don't like static power rankings because... Quite honestly, that would make it easier. It would be easy to just get through 25 weeks of the NBA season.
Yes, I count the weeks out. That's how diligent I am. I'm like, I'm going to hit this on this week. I'm going to find a way to hit this. It's like a video game for me. And it's like sometimes if you ever played the Mario games in the past and it's like you dealt with a pipe level, you dealt with a water level. It's like, oh, you won't see this again, but it's going to be harder the next time.
And we're at the point, Xena, where it's hard because you know there's not a lot of movement in the standings. You know that teams have... revealed who they're going to be to a certain extent. Some of these teams didn't make any real changes to discuss as far as their personnel. So it's like they're not integrating wholesale changes.
They have the same group of dudes that they rolled out in October. So how do you separate certain things? And so...
Chapter 4: How did the Spurs outlast the Pistons in their recent game?
The tiers help a little bit. I really just I look at how teams are playing. I look at who's played who. I look at what's coming up and it's like, oh, I'm going to put this team here. But I know that these two teams are going to play each other like the Pistons. It's like, well, I can put them here, but they're literally going to play the number two San Antonio Spurs.
They're going to play the number three Oklahoma City Thunder. Am I going to have a week where I learn a lot about this team? Yes. And I feel like broadcast partners do the same thing. They put these teams and it's like there's two weeks where it's like, oh, we ignored this team.
But then all of a sudden, oh shoot, we need to feature the Minnesota Timberwolves this week because they about to play some dudes. We about to learn some things. There's going to be some litmus tests.
Yeah.
There really is. And so I just try and put teams where they are, have a position, but tell everybody, don't don't think that this position is is it might be a little sticky, but it's not going to be permanent.
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Chapter 5: What role did Devin Vassell play in the Spurs' victory?
I have a right to change things every week. And so that's that's how I've tried to approach it.
Well, we love the fact that it isn't, it's sticky, but not stuck. And that's really important because a lot of these teams, especially after all-star break, some teams did make some moves, right? Look at the Cuban Cavs. You saw them come out. James Harden joins their team. They went six in a row. Yes, they got a loss.
They were able to, that streak was broken, but it was still something to be said about, okay, Cavs can maybe make some moves in the East. I'm looking at your power rankings this week and I bring up the Cavs because they're in tier two in a good place. Yet, I feel like there were some moves that could get them unstuck from where they were before. You also look at, you know, the Houston Rockets.
We saw their kind of fallout against the Knicks. That fourth quarter meltdown was real bad.
Chapter 6: What did the Spurs learn from their win against a physical team?
As well as the Denver Nuggets. Cavs, Rockets, Nuggets in tier two in a good place. The Knicks crept to number five in your top tier, the top contenders. What did you see in the Knicks that made them in that top tier versus being in tier two? And what do you need to see from the Rockets, the Cavs, and the Nuggets to get them to move up?
I'll start with the Knicks because they actually slipped a bit where I could have kept them over the Celtics. Now, for most of this month, I had the Knicks over the Celtics. Why? Because they beat the Celtics in Boston, right? On Super Bowl Sunday, and that was kind of a statement win, but it's like since then, what has Boston done? They played extremely well. They are in the 40 before 20.
Well, they are still eligible for the 40 before 20 club, which the Knicks, great win over the Celtics, but they've had some losses that are... that are a little concerning. It's not that you lose to the Pistons. It's that you lose again and you get blown out again. So it's like, all right, I'm going to take you down. But I look for statement wins.
That win against the Rockets, it's like, look, I remember the convo we had this time last year.
Chapter 7: What are the implications of the Spurs' performance for their championship hopes?
The Knicks couldn't buy a win against a... bona fide contender. And what did they do in the semifinals? They stole games against a Boston team that none of us saw coming based off of what they saw. So it's like, all right, let me give the Knicks a little bit of equity. Zena, can I tell you something?
I stared at that little triumvirate between the Cavs, the Rockets, and the Nuggets for a long time at an ungodly hour. And I was... Because what happens is... Sometimes you take the power rankings and you're looking at two teams and that's easy. Hey, have they played especially recently? Who's playing better? What's the record looking like? Are they blowing teams out? That kind of thing.
But when it gets to be rock, paper, scissors, and you know that one team is better than the other. I mean, the Cavaliers, it's like, oh, yeah, big win against Denver. But it's like. okay, but what about the Cavs and the Rockets? That makes you a little bit more uncomfortable because here's the thing.
The Cavs and Rockets, we're not going to see them play each other again, and the Rockets had double-digit wins against the Cavs both times, so that makes you uncomfortable.
Chapter 8: How do the Spurs compare to other top NBA contenders this season?
It's like, oh, the Cavs just beat the Nuggets, but if the Cavs didn't beat the Rockets and we're not going to get an opportunity to see that match begin, do you feel good putting them over? And ultimately I said, yes, because the Cavs are a different team now than when they were playing the Rockets. They have James Harden now.
And so now you're just taking the guesswork out of it a little bit and you're just saying, all right, I'm going to trust the Cavs. And then you got to be like, okay, so how do you feel about the Rockets and the Nuggets? The bottom line is, I didn't like the Nuggets week. They lost a close game to the Clippers. That was a coin flip.
It was a little bit less of a coin flip how they lost in Golden State. And the theme to both of those losses is the fact that their defense does not make me feel good. Do you feel good about the Denver Nuggets? Yes, because they have championship equity. But what they don't have is the kind of defense that makes you think they're going to repeat that and the health. Everyone loves it.
And this is a big thing with power rankings. Everyone loves to say, oh, we're not healthy. I'm sorry. I still got to rank you. I can't I can't rank 20 teams this week. I got to rank 30.
Right.
This is how often do fans do this? They say you we're we can't be fully judged because we don't have our whole 15 man available roster.
Right. That's part of it. That is a factor that has to be folded in. I mean, it's true. I see it all across all types of basketball. It's like, oh, we don't have our starting this. We don't have our starting that. Or so-and-so's been missing for 30 games. Like, well, yeah, that's basketball. Like, that is a part of the season.
I mean, I imagine that it's an incredibly tough thing to do for the fans to watch their teams maybe slip or maybe not be ranked over others. But overall... I do appreciate you, one, watching the games and finding the themes, and two, really taking the time, it seems, to assess movement and growth in these teams.
Because especially after All-Star break, that is when it seems to be the part that everyone's kind of forgetting what was happening in October, what was happening in November. People are just looking at a team in that moment, and it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They've come a long way, though. Or they've actually progressed.
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