NBA Western Power Rankings Week 6: Clippers start rising
By Tom West
Dec 12, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin (32) reacts after a basket during the first quarter against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports
The Golden State Warriors somehow lost, the Oklahoma City Thunder are heating up, and the Los Angeles Clippers have finally been getting more wins. Here are our NBA Western Conference Power Rankings for the first two weeks of December.
After surviving another set of challenges over the start of December, the Golden State Warriors still couldn’t be stopped as they pushed their undefeated streak to 24-0. It came so close to ending as the highly underrated Boston Celtics took them to two overtime periods on Friday night, but the Warriors managed to hang in to win 124-119. Essentially, despite the scare to the Celtics and two three-point wins over the Toronto Raptors and Utah Jazz, the defending champions are on a level above everyone else.
At least, they were, except for Saturday night in a remarkable 95-108 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks.
For this episode of our Clipperholics rankings, myself, and Jose Salviati have combined our thoughts on the West to form a collective ranking for all 15 teams. To achieve this result, we used a weighted point system to see how our personal votes would position each team. For every 1st place vote a team gets, they receive 15 points. For every 2nd place vote a team gets, they receive 14 points, and so on until the worst of the bunch in 15th place earns just one point.
To provide our reasons for each pick and have a look at the state of each franchise over the first two weeks of December, Salviati, myself, and my fellow editor Trisity Miller have discussed each team’s performance.
Let’s start with the Los Angeles Lakers, and work our way up to see which teams are coming closest to the Warriors.
Next: Los Angeles Lakers