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DC4
#TeamHeat
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1 (1) Celtics 22-2 You have to go back to the 1991-92 season to find the last time a defending champ won 14 games in a row. And you have to go back to the magical season of 1985-86 for the last time the Celtics did so. Wicked.
2 (3) Cavaliers 20-4 The Cavs didn't lose their 11-game win streak until Zydrunas Ilgauskas rolled an ankle … and didn't face a single second-half deficit during the streak. Impressive stat no matter how weak the competition was.
3 (2) Lakers 20-3 Even if we were to ignore the L in Sacramento and the slippage on D, we might have been forced to put the West's best here. But Phil Jackson doesn't want us to ignore the L -- to rile up his guys.
4 (5) Magic 18-6 The Magic are just one basket away from a 4-0 start on a five-game West Coast swing. But we're keeping the praise for Orlando's great road work on the quiet side 'til we know for sure that Dwight Howard's knee is OK.
5 (9) Spurs 15-8 Even a total Spurs homer like me has to acknowledge that they've beaten only five teams with winning records. Good luck, though, trying to convince Denver and Dallas of any slippage from Team Duncan.
6 (6) Nuggets 16-7 The schedule is about to get a lot tougher, but the Nuggets must feel doubly good about where they are with Chauncey (15-4) when you count how many teams that made big moves since July are struggling.
7 (10) Hornets 13-7 If Antonio Daniels proves to be a dependable backup PG to Paul, trading for him could turn out to be as important as signing Posey. The Hornets have simply been asking CP3 to do too much, and they know it.
8 (8) Mavericks 13-9 Despite generally getting the results they're supposed to get out of a seven-game homestand at 5-1 so far -- and even though No. 41 is indeed rollin' -- Dirk's Mavs have played well maybe twice in the six games.
9 (7) Rockets 15-9 We invite you to try to tell us definitively which of the West's top nine teams will miss the playoffs come April. Injuries could be the deciding factor, which must be the last thing Rockets fans want to hear.
10 (12) Hawks 14-9 True, they found no mercy on an 0-3 swing through the Texas Triangle, but only three teams in the East have played better ball than the Hawks through the first quarter of the season. As the Cavs could tell you.
11 (14) Jazz 15-10 D-Will sat out 13 games. Boozer has missed the past 13. Yet you have to think Utah, like the Spurs when Manu and Tony were out, will wind up stronger for the long term by hanging in there without two main guys.
12 (4) Trail Blazers 15-10 At first we thought Turkoglu's banked-in buzzer heave merely canceled out what that Brandon Roy heave did to the Rockets. Harder to shrug that ending off after Portland blew its next home game to the Clips.
13 (13) Suns 14-10 The only ones left from the glory days: Nash, Amare, Barbosa. Sunday's reaction from Nash: ''I feel like I've been traded. I feel like I'm on a different team because everything's changed so much around here.''
14 (15) Pistons 13-9 After the week's ugly start -- blowing a big lead at lowly Washington -- Curry's new small-ball lineup of Iverson, Rip, Stuckey, Prince and Sheed eked out two shaky victories over Indy and Charlotte. Baby steps.
15 (18) Bulls 11-12 Paid cynics like us are obligated by J-school law to cast doubt upon Derrick Rose's apple-knife story, although we concede that the rookie would have to have quite an imagination to invent a story that original.
16 (20) Knicks 11-12 D'Antoni's Knicks ain't just snoozin' 'til the summer of 2010. Our friends at the Elias Sports Bureau say they've scored 2,415 points in 23 games, New York's best since piling up 2,620 in the first season after Pitino left.
17 (11) Nets 11-11 Uh-oh. What's happened in December -- home losses to the Wiz, Knicks and Raptors already -- definitely suggests that we jinxed Jersey by rewarding Devin Harris' November explosion with that bump to No. 9.
18 (16) Heat 12-11 Proof that this isn't some arbitrary rule writers invented: D-Wade himself says that while his play is ''MVP-caliber'' on a better-than-expected team, only players from ''great'' teams sit at the ''top of the MVP discussion.''
19 (25) Grizzlies 9-15 Let Coach Iavaroni enjoy this bump. He probably won't have a better week all season when you add up four straight wins and a public proclamation of support from owner Mike Heisley.
20 (19) Bucks 10-15 The Bucks were doing OK on the road until they went west last week and gave up 105, 125 and 119 points in three successive defeats. Three more roadies await this week to make it 18 of the first 28 games away.
21 (17) Pacers 7-16 How do we know that the Pacers' schedule has been brutal? The Cavs played 10 teams with losing records during their 11-game win streak. Indy has only played five teams with losing records all season.
22 (21) Raptors 10-13 One of those what-if questions Simmons is dying to ask … and a timely one on the day D'Antoni returns to Phoenix: Would D'Antoni be in Toronto instead of NYC if Sam Mitchell had been fired after last season?
23 (22) 76ers 10-14 C'mon, Sixers. If you don't respond to the coaching change, I'm going to have to publicly admit Simmons was right back in October when he told me this team would never live up to the hype. And no one wants that.
24 (26) Clippers 6-17 You can call it the best 48 hours of the Clips' season: 68 points from Zach Randolph and wins over Portland and Houston. Whether you also can call it the start of something, well, you'd better check back next Monday.
25 (23) Bobcats 7-17 How do we know Larry Brown is serious that the Bobcats will make more moves, even though we're talking about Larry Brown? The NBA's lowest-scoring team can't trade away its best scorer and be done, can it?
26 (24) Wizards 4-17 The Wiz are the only team in the East besides Detroit to have reached the playoffs in each of the past four seasons. Seemed appropriate to mention with two games against the Pistons in a span of eight days.
27 (28) Kings 6-18 Don't tell me that all the goodwill Theus generated from the Kings' momentous upset of the Lakers was undone by a one-sided home loss to the Knicks on Saturday night. (I asked you not to tell me that.)
28 (27) Warriors 7-17 As if the Dubs didn't have enough to lament, with Maggette's injury offsetting the progress being made by Monta Ellis, have you tracked what Al Harrington has been doing since they shipped him to NYC?
29 (29) Timberwolves 4-19 Not sure how much this factoid will encourage the brave Wolves fans out there, but did you know that McHale is the only coach of the six interims hired this season with any prior NBA head-coaching experience?
30 (30) Thunder 2-23 We interrupt the Blake Griffin Watch to point out the magnitude of Tuesday's date with the Clips. If the Thunder don't win, our man Scotty Brooks will have the same 1-12 record P.J. Carlesimo had when ousted.
