{"id":651385,"date":"2026-03-10T18:51:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/651385\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T18:51:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T18:51:53","slug":"nba-power-rankings-race-to-top-thunder-tightens-pistons-stumble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/651385\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Power Rankings: Race to top Thunder tightens, Pistons stumble"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a new (old?) team atop the USA TODAY Sports NBA power rankings.<\/p>\n

As the NBA calendar turns to the final month of the regular season, races for playoff seeding are tightening.<\/p>\n

In the East, the difference between the top two teams, the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics, is just 2 \u00bd games. In the West, that margin between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs is only 3 games.<\/p>\n

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But there\u2019s also a glut of teams in the middle of the Eastern Conference vying to climb out of the play-in picture, all of which points to a thrilling finish in the 2025-26 regular season.<\/p>\n

Here are\u00a0USA TODAY Sports<\/a>\u2019 NBA power rankings after Week 18 of the 2025-26 regular season:<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Dallas Mavericks’ Cooper Flagg dunks the ball past the Toronto Raptors’ Sandro Mamukelashvili at the American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

2 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Washington Wizards’ Cam Whitmore dunks the ball against the Charlotte Hornets at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

3 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 26: The Brooklyn Nets’ Michael Porter Jr. dunks in front of the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama at Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

4 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 25: The Denver Nuggets’ Christian Braun dunks the ball against the Phoenix Suns’ Grayson Allen at Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

5 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. dunks against the Miami Heat at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

6 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 24: The Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo dunks over the Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr. at FedExForum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

7 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The New York Knicks’ OG Anunoby goes up for a reverse dunk against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

8 \/ 8<\/p>\n

Dribble into this collection of dunk photos as NBA stars posterize opponents<\/p>\n

Oct. 22: The Utah Jazz’s Lauri Markkanen dunks against the Los Angeles Clippers at Delta Center.<\/p>\n

USA TODAY Sports NBA power rankings<\/p>\n

Note:\u00a0Records and stats through March 9. Parentheses show movement from\u00a0last week\u2019s rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NBA Week 19 power rankings: Top 10<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>, 51-15 (+1)<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0San Antonio Spurs<\/a>, 47-17 (+1)<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Detroit Pistons<\/a>, 45-18 (-2)<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Boston Celtics<\/a>, 43-21 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

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5.\u00a0Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>, 40-24 (+1)<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0New York Knicks<\/a>, 41-25 (-1)<\/p>\n

7.\u00a0Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>, 40-25 (\u2014 ) <\/p>\n

8.\u00a0Houston Rockets<\/a>, 39-24 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

9.\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, 39-25 (+1)<\/p>\n

10.\u00a0Denver Nuggets<\/a>, 39-26 (-1)<\/p>\n

The Pistons have picked a terrible time to sputter. For the first time this season, Detroit is on a four-game losing streak, and the Pistons have lost those games by an average margin of 8.0 points. One of those losses came against the 17-win Nets. Detroit\u2019s defensive rating in the last four games? It\u2019s 119.7, which ranks 25th in the NBA. Compare that to the team\u2019s overall defensive rating this season: 108.9, which ranks second in the league.<\/p>\n

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That has opened the door for the Thunder to reclaim their spot as the top team in the NBA. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Oklahoma City are doing this with mounting injuries, and SGA is coming for his second-consecutive Most Valuable Player award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not only that, but the return of Jayson Tatum has given the Celtics a massive boost, and with Boston sitting just 2 \u00bd games back of Detroit, the Celtics may very well make a push for the top seed in the East. Boston, according to Tankathon.com<\/a>, has the third-easiest remaining schedule in the NBA.<\/p>\n

NBA Week 19 power rankings: Nos. 11-20<\/p>\n

11.\u00a0Phoenix Suns<\/a>, 37-27 (+1)<\/p>\n

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12.\u00a0Miami Heat<\/a>, 36-29 (+3)<\/p>\n

13.\u00a0Orlando Magic<\/a>, 35-28 (+1)<\/p>\n

14.\u00a0Toronto Raptors<\/a>, 36-27 (-1)<\/p>\n

15.\u00a0Los Angeles Clippers<\/a>, 32-32 (+4)<\/p>\n

16.\u00a0Atlanta Hawks<\/a>, 31-31 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

17.\u00a0Philadelphia 76ers<\/a>, 34-30 (-4)<\/p>\n

18.\u00a0Charlotte Hornets<\/a>, 32-33 (-1)<\/p>\n

19.\u00a0Golden State Warriors<\/a>, 32-32 (-1)<\/p>\n

20.\u00a0Portland Trail Blazers<\/a>, 31-34 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

The most exciting race in the NBA? It might be the fight for the No. 5 and 6 seeds in the Eastern Conference, where six teams (Raptors, Magic, Heat, 76ers, Hawks, Hornets) have a legitimate shot to climb into those spots.<\/p>\n

The team with the most momentum in that group is Miami, which is on a five-game winning streak. In the absence of All-Star Norman Powell, Tyler Herro has returned to form and the Heat have the NBA\u2019s top offensive rating (123.3 points per 100 possessions) over the last five games. The key will be to keep that consistency and offensive flow once Powell returns. The Hawks have also won six consecutive and the Magic have four in a row. Things are tightening up.<\/p>\n

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And, with a huge win Monday, March 9 over the Knicks, the Clippers climbed back to .500 for the first time since Nov. 3, when L.A. was 3-3. Kawhi Leonard has been ultra consistent, and the moves for Darius Garland and Bennedict Mathurin (18.4 points per game since joining the Clippers) have stabilized the offense.<\/p>\n

NBA Week 19 power rankings: Nos. 21-30<\/p>\n

21.\u00a0Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, 27-36 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

22.\u00a0Chicago Bulls<\/a>, 26-38 (+1)<\/p>\n

23.\u00a0Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>, 23-40 (-1)<\/p>\n

24.\u00a0Dallas Mavericks<\/a>, 21-43 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

25.\u00a0New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>, 21-45 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

26.\u00a0Utah Jazz<\/a>, 20-45 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

27.\u00a0Brooklyn Nets<\/a>, 17-47 (+2)<\/p>\n

28.\u00a0Washington Wizards<\/a>, 16-47 (-1)<\/p>\n

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29.\u00a0Indiana Pacers<\/a>, 15-49 (-1)<\/p>\n

30.\u00a0Sacramento Kings<\/a>, 15-50 (\u2014)<\/p>\n

Frankly, there\u2019s not a whole lot to be excited about in this group, other than the upcoming draft. The bottom three teams in the West by record, the Pelicans, Jazz and Kings have each won their most recent games. That may not seem like much, but it is progress.<\/p>\n

Consider this: as NBA reporter Tom Haberstroh (and later, Marc Stein) noted at one point last week, the bottom 10 teams in the league had combined to lose their last 44 games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One team that hasn\u2019t been looking to tank, however, the Bucks, have sputtered even as Giannis Antetokounmpo has returned. Milwaukee has lost five of their last six, as new addition Cam Thomas has been wildly inconsistent.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NBA power rankings have tight race for Thunder, Spurs as Pistons drop<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a new (old?) team atop the USA TODAY Sports NBA power rankings. As the NBA calendar turns…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[208,7,363,75,959,473,329,193,149,791,633,187,296,188,3860,1409,123,164,194,126,77,529,135,150,177,189,121,152,6,671,470,191,558,475,179,76,207,472,297,471,10831,477,474,209,476,492,8837,427,468],"class_list":["post-651385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-detroit-pistons","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-basketball","tag-bennedict-mathurin","tag-boston-celtics","tag-cam-thomas","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-darius-garland","tag-defensive-rating","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-detroit","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-detroitpistons","tag-eastern-conference","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-houston-rockets","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-los-angeles-clippers","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-miami-heat","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-minnesota-timberwolves","tag-nba","tag-nets","tag-new-orleans-pelicans","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-norman-powell","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-orlando-magic","tag-philadelphia-76ers","tag-phoenix-suns","tag-pistons","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-power-rankings","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-toronto-raptors","tag-tyler-herro","tag-usa-today-sports","tag-utah-jazz","tag-washington-wizards"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}