NBA power rankings 2024-25: Cavaliers remain on top, Timberwolves and Rockets climbing fast

As the basketball world turns its eyes toward the NCAA Tournament and the top prospects headed to the teams at the bottom of this rankings, the NBA keeps on rolling (but dials back the number of marquee matchups for a week or two).

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1. Oklahoma City Thunder (53-12, Last Week No. 2). Oklahoma City has played in just 21 clutch games this season (within five points in the final five minutes), the fewest in the league. While that’s a sign of just how good this team has been — they are blowing teams out — in the playoffs the Thunder will need to win close games. Will that lack of experience in the moment come back to bite them? On the positive side, they beat the Celtics in a clutch game last week. However, they are 7-6 in really tight games (within three points in the final three minutes) and are 0-4 in one-possession games this season.

2. Cleveland Cavaliers (56-12, LW 1). Cleveland has dropped two straight and it’s given coach Kenny Atkinson something to target as he readies his roster for what will come when the playoffs tip-off next month: “That kind of defensive performance, you’re not surviving in a playoff atmosphere, he said after Tuesday’s loss to the Clippers. That game was the first of a five-game road trip.

3. Boston Celtics (50-19, LW 3). Last Wednesday’s loss to Oklahoma City sparks the question: Could the Thunder beat the Celtics if they meet in the Finals? Yes, the Thunder could, it’s a rough matchup for Boston. This wasn’t a one-time thing, the Thunder swept the season series. OKC is one of the few teams with the size, versatility, and — as it showed last week — physicality to match or exceed Boston. Sure, the Celtics were without Kristaps Porzingis, but the Thunder were without Jalen Williams and Alex Caruso. This would be a fantastic Finals.

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4. Denver Nuggets (44-25, LW 5). When the Lakers beat the Nuggets back on Feb. 22, they held Nikola Jokic to 12 points on 2-of-7 shooting, leading some to wonder if the Lakers had figured something out with their fronting of the three-time MVP with smaller players and aggressive double-teams. Apparently not. In the 11 games he has played since then, Jokic is averaging 27.7 points a game on 57.9% shooting, with 13.5 rebounds and 10.5 assists a night. He remains in the thick of the MVP race and shows no signs of slowing down.

5. Golden State Warriors (40-29, LW 4). Steve Kerr is trying to walk a tightrope. The Warriors need wins as just one game separates 6/7/8 in the West (with a red-hot Minnesota team pushing Golden State for sixth), but Stephen Curry looks a little worn down. “He’s tired. Steph’s been carrying us for a month…” Kerr said after the Warriors’ sloppy loss to a shorthanded Denver team Monday. “You can see it – he doesn’t have his energy right now.” Mark your calendars now — Jimmy Butler returns to Miami next Tuesday (March 25).

PLAYOFFS OR BUST

6. Houston Rockets (44-25, LW 12). Houston has won seven in a row, and you can say they did it against a soft stretch of the schedule but you have to beat the team in front of you — and some other top teams couldn’t do that this week. You know Ime Udoka isn’t going to let up on his guys. Houston has an easier schedule than the three teams chasing them for the No. 2 seed (Nuggets, Lakers, Grizzlies) and it just got floor general Fred VanVleet four games ago and he is crucial to them. Huge game Sunday against the Nuggets.

7. Minnesota Timberwolves (40-30, LW 13). Minnesota’s first-round matchup will be tough — there are no easy outs in the West — but the Timberwolves should be hoping for another series against the Nuggets. Even without Karl-Anthony Towns, Minnesota’s win last week over the Nuggets shows they still seem to have Denver’s number, going 3-0 against them this season (with one more meeting to come).

8. New York Knicks (43-24, LW 7). Jalen Brunson is going to be out a couple more weeks, but as long as the Knicks continue to tread water — they are 3-2 since he went down with a sprained ankle — they will be fine as they are locked into the No. 3 seed. Brunson needs to return and play four more games to reach 65 and qualify for postseason honors (he is a lock for All-NBA). While the Knicks miss Brunson in the clutch, Mikal Bridges did a pretty good impression of him last week.

9. Los Angeles Lakers (42-25, LW 6). The biggest beneficiary of the Luka Doncic trade might be Austin Reaves. Since the All-Star break, with Doncic drawing the attention of defenses, Reaves is averaging 21.2 points a game shooting 38.3% from 3, with 5.1 assists and 4.6 rebounds a game. “I mean, this guy just scored 30 in his 4th game in 5 days…” Doncic said this week. “He’s an amazing player. For him to go undrafted is unbelievable. It’s not easy to go undrafted and play at this level.”

10. Memphis Grizzlies (43-26, LW 8). The Grizzlies went 3-1 with Jaren Jackson Jr. out — their leading scorer and best defender — a testament to Memphis’ depth. The big playoff question for the Grizzlies: As good as Jalen Wells and Zach Edey have been (they likely are voted two of the top three in Rookie of the Year), can a team leaning that heavily on its rookies make a deep playoff run?

11. Los Angeles Clippers (39-30, LW 14). The Clippers have won 5-of-6 because they suddenly found their offense. The Clippers have been middle of the pack on that end of the floor all season long — it was a top-five defense that carried the team — but over the last six games the Clippers have the best offense in the NBA. The latest win came over the Cavaliers — when Kawhi Leonard is playing like this the Clippers are a very tough out in the West (and they are just a game back of the Warriors for the No. 6 seed).

12. Detroit Pistons (38-31, LW 9). In what has been an amazing season, the Pistons are not going to fall out of the top six in the East, but they should set their sights higher — Detroit is one game back of Indiana for the No. 4 seed. The Pistons have a tougher remaining schedule than the Pacers or Bucks (the teams they would need to leap to get to fourth), which is why they can’t afford ugly losses like last Thursday to the Wizards. That lesson should resonate this week with games against struggling teams in the Heat, Mavericks, Pelicans and Spurs.

13. Milwaukee Bucks (38-30, LW 11). Milwaukee is a good team and its win against Indiana last week keeps it in the running for a top-four seed and hosting a first-round playoff series. However, the loss to the Thunder last weekend was a reminder that the Bucks are now 0-11 against the teams with the four best records in the league, and the last five of those were by double-digits. This Bucks team is not striking fear in the hearts of top opponents.

14. Indiana Pacers (38-29, LW 10). If anyone needed more evidence of Tyrese Haliburton’s value to this team, the Pacers going 0-3 against the Hawks (twice) and the Bulls without him should answer that question. Two weeks in a row we have a leaning corner-three game-winner for the Pacers, but this time it was more stunning because who saw Obi Toppin draining it?

15. Sacramento Kings (34-33, LW 15). Domantas Sabonis’ sprained ankle keeping him out a couple of weeks is terrible news on a few fronts. First, the Kings are 3-6 in games he’s missed this season and have a -3.8 net rating in the minutes he is off the court — this team is going to have to fight to hold on to the No. 9 seed and at least host one play-in game. Second, with Sabonis having played just 58 games this season, it’s unlikely he will make it to the 65-game cutoff for postseason awards, ending his legitimate chance at an All-NBA spot.

16. Atlanta Hawks (33-36, LW 16). Can we just stop for a second and marvel at Dyson Daniels’ 194 steals on the season, a number that is the most in the NBA in more than a decade. It’s an impressive feat and he’s going to get some Defensive Player of the Year down-ballot votes this season, ones well deserved. Atlanta needs to start stacking some wins to hold off Orlando for the No. 7 seed in the East (and getting to host the first round of the play-in), but that will be tough to do against the Warriors and Rockets this week (a loss to Philly would be ugly).

17. Orlando Magic (32-37, LW 18). Orlando’s win snapping Cleveland’s 16-game win streak last Sunday is a reminder why the Cavaliers want to avoid the Magic in the first round (as of today, that would be the 1 vs. 8 matchup, pending the play-in). Orlando’s defense made Donovan Mitchell inefficient (9-of-28 shooting), and as good as Cleveland’s defense can be, it struggles to slow Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. That series went seven games a season ago and it feels like a rematch would be another long series.

PLAY IN HOPEFULS

18. Phoenix Suns (32-37, LW 19). There are a lot of things about this season’s Suns I don’t understand, but this is near the top of the list: Why have Kevin Durant work off the ball so much? Especially early in games, where the Suns have Devin Booker and Bradley Beal as the primary shot creators, with KD as the late-clock bail-out option? We can only question it so much, the Suns have a top-10 offense in the league and Durant is averaging 26.7 points a game, but the fit just never seems smooth with this trio. Beal is out for a week, at least, with a hamstring strain. The Suns need wins, one game behind Dallas with 13 games left, and things get tough with games against the Cavaliers, Bucks and Celtics starting Friday.

19. Chicago Bulls (29-39, LW 21). Chicago has won 5-of-6 thanks to the team having the fourth-best defense in the NBA over that stretch. That win streak plus the free-fall in Miami has the teams tied for the 9/10 seeds in the East — Chicago looks like it will host a play-in game the way things are trending.

20. Portland Trail Blazers (30-39, LW 22). The spark of optimism coming out of Portland based on the play of Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara, Scoot Henderson, and even the steps Donovan Clingan is taking has been fantastic — but Portland would be better off dropping a few games. They beat Toronto and Washington this week and currently would enter the lottery with the No. 11 pick, but they are just one game “behind” Chicago, Miami and San Antonio. Rack up a few extra losses in the coming weeks and the Trail Blazers could really help their lottery odds.

21. Miami Heat (29-39, LW 17). Jimmy Butler returns next Tuesday (March 25), and for the Heat the timing couldn’t be much worse. How ugly is Miami’s eight-game losing streak — a streak where Bam Adebayo played in every game and Tyler Herro in seven of the eight? This is the longest Heat losing streak of Erik Spoelstra’s 17-yr career. The problem is on the offensive end, where the Heat are dead last in the league since that streak started. They miss Butler’s shot creation. Miami has some hard questions to answer this summer, and Pat Riley is far from blameless for this mess (he’s not changing Heat Culture, but he may need to step back and re-examine how that is playing in the modern NBA).

22. Dallas Mavericks (33-36, LW 20). It’s easy to get where P.J. Washington is coming from as a player, saying, “All that ‘Fire Nico’ stuff, we’re sick and tired of hearing it. We just want to go out there and play and we need the fans to support us no matter who’s on the floor.” I think the fans support the players on the court, but it’s easy to empathize with the Mavericks fans who feel they had the rug pulled out from under them with the Doncic trade. They are not over it, nor should they be.

CAPTURE THE (COOPER) FLAGG

23. Toronto Raptors (24-45, LW 23). Toronto has the easiest remaining schedule in the NBA, which could mean a few more wins, but it shouldn’t hurt their lottery positioning. As of today, the Raptors would enter the NBA Draft Lottery as the No. 7 seed, but they have a five-game cushion to the No. 8 Spurs. No reason to rest Scottie Barnes and company too much over the remaining 13 games.

24. San Antonio Spurs (28-39, LW 26). This is what Victor Wembanyama’s Defensive Player of the Year candidacy was based on: Without him, the Spurs have the worst defense in the league since the All-Star break. It’s still worth tuning in to Spurs games to watch Stephon Castle make his push for Rookie of the Year, he’s averaging 20.6 points and 4.1 assists a game over his last 10.

25. Brooklyn Nets (23-46, LW 27). Cam Thomas, the Nets leading scorer at 24 points a game when healthy (he has played in just 25 games this season) is out for the rest of the season with a strained left hamstring. The big question: Will the restricted free agent this summer be back in Brooklyn next season? He says he wants to be, but he also wants to get paid. The money will talk.

26. Philadelphia 76ers (23-45, LW 24). Quentin Grimes is bringing the offense the 76ers thought Joel Embiid and Paul George — now both officially out for the season — would bring from Day 1. Since March started, Grimes is averaging 28.6 points a game, shooting 41.3% from 3, and has two 40+ point games and three more 30+ point games. He has been a force. Which means don’t be surprised if Nick Nurse is forced to sit him a little, Philly isn’t looking to win a lot of games as it tries to hold on to its top-six protected pick.

27. Charlotte Hornets (17-51, LW 28). The Hornets and Pelicans are in a “race” to see which team ends up with the third worst record in the NBA, and with that a 14% chance at the No. 1 pick (Cooper Flagg, if you want to know why, tune in to the NCAA Tournament this weekend). The Hornets have the third-worst record right now, just half a game worse than New Orleans, but games like the win last week over the Spurs make holding that spot difficult. Miami and Toronto (two struggling teams) are on the docket this week.

28. Washington Wizards (15-52, LW 29). Washington was so bad early in the season that things like surprising wins last week over Detroit and Denver don’t hurt its lottery odds — the Wizards can play to win, it will not matter in the standings. Well, it does a little, Wednesday night we get a tank-off game against the Jazz with two teams targeting the worst record in the league. We’ll see what rotation the Wizards roll out for that game.

29. New Orleans Pelicans (18-51, LW 25). While the most important development in the last month with the Pelicans is the impressive play of Zion Williamson — he’s built up his value, whether that’s to trade him or keep him is the question — it also matters that the Pelicans have found long-term depth in players such as s GG Jackson, Scotty Pippen Jr. and Vince Williams Jr. New Orleans is poised for a massive leap next season.

30. Utah Jazz (15-54, LW 30). While they may understand what is happening intellectually, all this losing—10 straight right now—is hard on Jazz fans. Utah doesn’t tank like this. If they finish with the worst record in the NBA, the Jazz are guaranteed a top-five pick, and the last time they had a pick in the top five was more than a decade ago, in 2014 (Dante Exum).