NBA Power Rankings

1	Cleveland Cavaliers The Cavs definitely have their swagger back, and just at the right time.  If we have all been sitting around waiting for them to reach that Playoff level, we are pretty close.
2	Dallas Mavericks The Mavs streak came to a brief halt, but they have clearly separated themselves from the Jazz as the third best team in the Western Conference.  I’m licking my chops at the possibilities of a seven game Mavs-Nugs series.
3	Orlando Magic Vince Carter is finally getting a chance to show what he can do on a truly “good” team.  His jumper is falling and he is proving to be a reliable scoring option in the clutch.  The Magic look to have the 2 seed locked up, now we wait.
4	Los Angeles Lakers After an embarrassing game against the Warriors, Kobe claimed that “You won’t see that from us in the Playoffs.”  Which is good news because even though Los Angeles won, they looked disgusting in the shoot out.
5	Utah Jazz Deron Williams continues to be outstanding with no help on the wings.  While the Utah Jazz took steps backward as a team at the trade deadline, the Mavs moved forward.  They still continue to win games though, and always have the possibility of knocking off one of the juggernauts.
6	Denver Nuggets This team needs Kenyon Martin if they want to have a shot at knocking off the Lakers.  They are missing his presence on the defensive end and although he has not been statistically dominant this season, he is a necessary part of the Nuggets success.
7	Oklahoma City Thunder You can no longer consider the Thunder a fluke, phony, or scam.  The Thunder are fore real.  GM Sam Presti has assembled the perfect combination of young talent to become a playoff team in the West.
8	Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics are very close to waking up and deciding to play competitive basketball.  Whether or not they will be able to maintain that for a period of time is a dice roll.  If they get stuck in a 4-5 matchup with the Milwaukee Bucks, I’d look for the upset.
9	Atlanta Hawks With health being an issue, the Hawks are flying below the radar in the playoff picture.  They could make a quick move into the three spot but it will take a full lineup and some inspired wins in the home stretch.
10	Milwaukee Bucks The Bucks continue to be hot and seem inspired to lock up that 5 spot in the playoffs.  John Salmons may catch fire now, but he was not a prolific scorer in last year’s playoffs.
11	Phoenix Suns The Suns need to fight for the four spot with a poor road record, and as long as they can score half-a-300 a game, they might be able to grab it.  .
12	Portland Trailblazers Finally with Roy healthy the Blazers are starting to get some consistency to their game.  Additionally, Marcus Camby seems comfortable operating in the middle for Portland and serving as a great last line of defense.
13	Charlotte Bobcats The Bobcats have been winning impressive games without Gerald Wallce, which speaks to the leadership of Stephen Jackson.  He has said numerous times in interviews that this period would be a way to prepare for the playoffs, and they are doing it well.
14	Miami Heat They were supposed to be the team that gets left out of the playoff race, and then the Bulls decided they wanted that award more.  Dwyane Wade is as good as gone if they continue to play as sluggish as they have been.
15	San Antonio Spurs There are enough bald heads and bad knees in San Antonio to make home games look like Friday afternoons at the YMCA.  DeJuan Blair is the young guy who tries way too hard and makes the old men angry.
16	Toronto Raptors The only team that plays defense as bad as Monta Ellis is the Toronto Raptors.  A great collection of talent with no effort on the defensive end is no way to keep Bosh hanging around in Toronto.
17	Houston Rockets Time to move on and get ready for Yao’s return.  The playoff gap is growing quickly and there is nothing Houston can do to stop it.
18	Memphis Grizzlies Playoffs out of reach for the Grizz, but they continue to get out there and make things interesting.  Have to be happy to continue to see that kind of effort out of these guys.  I would not be surprised to see the Grizzlies be next year’s Thunder.
19	New Orleans Hornets Prediction: Chris Paul will return for a triumphant three games and score 25 points. Combined.
20	Chicago Bulls I think that someone must have had a vacation booked on the Bulls because they really don’t look like they want to make the playoffs.  Losing Noah was one thing, but this just looks like a lack of effort.
21	New York Knicks Jordan Hill is starting to show some progress in Houston.  New York 0, NBA 467.
22	Detroit Pistons I thought that they were going to be able to make things interesting, but as the playoff cut continues to be out Detroit’s reach, it’s time to start thinking about tanking.  You don’t have enough room in your budget for a free agent, might as well get a draft pick.
23	Philadelphia 76ers The 76ers continue to put together a few highlights a game with their super athletic lineup.  Unfortunately, the game film tells a completely different story.
24	Sacramento Kings Tyreke Evans may have shared the MVP Trophy with DeJaun Blair in the Rookie/Sophomore matchup, but he is not looking to share the Rookie of the Year honors.  Look for a big month from REKE HAVOC.
25	Indiana Pacers Watching “Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks” refuel my former obsession with the Pacers.  Then I watched the 2010 Pacers.
26	Washington Wizards It’s pretty pathetic when the biggest news out of Washington is a Gilbert Arenas number change.  Unfortunately the number of wins isn’t changing drastically anytime soon.
27	Los Angeles Clippers The bottom has fallen out in Los Angeles as the franchise reconstruction continues.  Look for Los Angeles to continue getting beat by double digits through the month.  Even sadder?  They have a few winnable games in that stretch.
28	Golden State Warriors Watching Monta Ellis play defense is a very entertaining aspect of Warriors games.  He refuses to get in defensive stance, or even keep his eyes on the play.  Recently I saw him placing an order with the waiter during a double team.
29	Minnesota Timberwolves Another team that will be paying more attention to college basketball in March than their own play.  The Timberwolves haven’t shown too many signs of improvement.
30	New Jersey Nets After John Calipari gets yet another Final Four vacated, the Nets will come calling so he can reunite with his lovechild John Wall.

Chip Patterson, graduate of University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, writes for TheHoopDoctors.com and serves as Basketball Editor for BusterSports.com.

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I’m sure you remember Stacey King. You know, the former Oklahoma star, who had the good fortune of being drafted by the Chicago Bulls during the Jordan era, circa 1989, and went on to win 3 NBA Titles? King was part of that Bulls draft which also brought Chicago their starter at point guard in BJ Armstrong. King was the guy who backed up the ancient Bill Cartwright at center, even though he was the better player. Actually, he was a very reliable role player for the Bulls, providing valuable scoring and rebounding off the bench, until he was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves during the ‘93-’94 season for the 7′2, Australian born, Luc Longley(Ugh, what a deal).

Upon his retirement from basketball after the ‘97 season, King has gone on to become a really good commentator for Comcast Sportsnet in Chicago, broadcasting Bulls games. By dumb luck, I stumbled across this youtube video of Stacey King doing a spoof of the now popular NBA Defense commercial by free-styling to video of Derrick Rose highlights. Maybe he has a future in hip-hop?

Watch and enjoy(courtesy of Bulls Confidential):

Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.  Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, UpperDeckblog.com, and his own site, Hoops Haven.

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You know how ESPN comes up with their catchy names for certain days of their college hoops coverage like Big Monday? Day one should have been called Thrilling Thursday because it could quite possibly be the best opening day in the history of the tournament.  Unfortunately, CBS always gets to cover the NCAA Tournament, but just doesn’t compare to the 24 hour full blitz coverage of ESPN, and they basically just do their best not to screw it up. They even brought on a few of the ESPN announcers like my favorite, Bill Raftery and Jay Bilas. With that being said, the actual games helped to overshadow some of the announcers shortcomings by giving us an amazing 3 buzzer beaters and a 3/4 court shot which didn’t count.

The first day of March Madness surely lived up to it’s nickname by giving us some helacious basketball, chock full of upsets, blowouts, and of course game winning buzzer-beating shots. First we will start of with the Murray State Racers(just love the name). It a tightly played contest with Vanderbilt, the Racers helped me stay perfect in my bracket up to this point(until Georgetown laid an egg), when Danero Thomas drained a 20 foot jumper to become part of March Madness lore.

Next up was Washington’s Quincy Pondexter, who took out his frustrations of losing the Pac-10 POY to Cal’s Jerome Randle, hitting a driving lay-up in traffic to beat Marquette:

In quite possibly the most impressive shot of the day, Northern Iowa’s Ali Farokhmanesh, showed why he was his conference’s POY, by knocking down a 33 foot trey with under 5 seconds remaining to beat Lon Kruger’s UNLV squad:

And just to prove that the NCAA Tournament is the best season ending event in all of sports, I bring you Washington’s point guard, Isaiah Thomas(no, not that one) hitting a 75 footer at the end of the first half against Marquette. The sad part is that it didn’t even count since a foul was called on the floor.

And of course, if we are talking upsets here, we can’t fail to mention our beloved Georgetown being upset by Ohio 97-83. It was the first tournament win for Ohio in 27 years! The Hoyas had finished their season strong leading up to the tournament and were thought to be poised for a solid run at the Final Four this year. Instead Georgetown’s season ended early, and now many people are looking to Ohio to be the cinderella feel good story of the tournament.

If you are a fan of NCAA hoops, then don’t forget to enter our March Madness giveaway of 2 Final Four Gear Prize Packs. It’s easy and free to enter, so don’t wait get your name in now!

Allen Moll is an avid NBA and College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania.  Allen is a regular columnist for thehoopdoctors.com, Bleacherreport.com, UpperDeckblog.com, and his own site, Hoops Haven.

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College Basketball Fans Listen Up! March Madness is upon us, and to celebrate The Hoop Doctors and Coca-Cola have partnered to bring you a March Madness Giveaway! It’s FREE to enter, so don’t wait, get your entry in now.

First off, The Hoop Doctors want to give a special thanks to Coke Zero for sponsoring the prize package for this contest. Actually Coke Zero has been heavily involved with the March Madness this year and has been giving away tons of great stuff. Coke Zero challenged fans the last few months to think of ways to improve the overall NCAA fan experience by submitting ideas to the Dept. of Fannovation for a shot at $10,000 and a trip for two to the 2011 NCAA Final Four. The top 64 ideas have been chosen, and fans can head over now to www.cocacolazero.com/ncaa to vote for their favorites in the “Coca-Cola Zero Brain Bracket Championship”– a survive and advance tournament similar in format to NCAA March Madness.

Back to our contest for a second…entering is easy and free! We will be drawing the two winners on April 4, 2010. I apologize to our international readers but this one is only open to US Residents. To have your name entered for the draw just follow these three easy steps:

1. If you haven’t already done so subscribe to our RSS Feed by either using the button on the top right of our website titled ‘news feed’ or subscribing by email using the email subscription box on the right sidebar titled “ENews & Updates”. All entrants must subscribe to our feed to be eligible to win. (Do not forget to do this simple step, as in many of our previous contests there were a number of great caption entries from people who did not complete this, and they were therefore deemed ineligible for the prize!)

2. Fan us on facebook by visiting our facebook fanpage here, and click on the ‘Become a Fan’ button.

3. You need to find the answer to the following question from our most recent video podcast and email it to us. You can access THD Podcast – Episode 003 here. “What does Kevin compare the NCAA March Madness tournament to?” If you email us with the correct answer, and we verify you have completed steps 1 and 2, then your name will be entered into the draw for the Final Four prize package.

Alright folks, there is only two weeks to enter the contest. So email us with your answer to the question about our Podcast to admin@thehoopdoctors.com as soon as possible. The contest deadline is Friday, April 2, 2010. Check The Hoop Doctors website on Monday, April 5, 2010 for our winner’s announcement.

The prize was provided by The Coca-Cola Company. The Coca-Cola Company is not a sponsor, administrator or connected in any other way with this giveaway.

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I’m sure you are all as excited as I am today about the start of March Madness!! So it got me thinking about all the amazing NBA talent we have today that came through the college ranks, and how many of them were thrust into the national media spotlight due to their performances in March.

Throughout the tournament we will try and provide you with a few throw back clips of your favorite NBA players when they were still wet behind the ears, college ballers. Enter Dwyane Wade – Marquette’s star guard. How about this for a classic Dwyane Wade circus shot:

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