play0:21SGA ties Wilt Chamberlain’s record streak of 20-point gamesShai Gilgeous-Alexander joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to score at least 20 points in 126 consecutive games.
play1:05Toronto Raptors vs. Houston Rockets: Game HighlightsToronto Raptors vs. Houston Rockets: Game Highlights
play1:14Dallas Mavericks vs. Atlanta Hawks: Game HighlightsDallas Mavericks vs. Atlanta Hawks: Game Highlights
play1:13Washington Wizards vs. New Orleans Pelicans: Game HighlightsWashington Wizards vs. New Orleans Pelicans: Game Highlights
83 points?! Bam passes Kobe for second-highest-scoring game in NBA history (2:33)Bam Adebayo erupts for 83 points for the Heat, passing Kobe Bryant’s iconic 81-point performance for the second-highest-scoring game in league history. (2:33)
SGA ties Wilt Chamberlain’s record streak of 20-point gamesShai Gilgeous-Alexander joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to score at least 20 points in 126 consecutive games.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to score at least 20 points in 126 consecutive games.
Toronto Raptors vs. Houston Rockets: Game HighlightsToronto Raptors vs. Houston Rockets: Game Highlights
Dallas Mavericks vs. Atlanta Hawks: Game HighlightsDallas Mavericks vs. Atlanta Hawks: Game Highlights
Washington Wizards vs. New Orleans Pelicans: Game HighlightsWashington Wizards vs. New Orleans Pelicans: Game Highlights
The NBA season is dwindling down but the matchups are heating up, including the Miami Heat’s Bam Adebayo scoring 83 points — the second most in a game in NBA history — on Tuesday.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, coming off a convincing win over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night, and the San Antonio Spurs continue to rule the Western Conference, while the Boston Celtics, following Jayson Tatum’s return, are eyeing a move up the Eastern Conference.
The Detroit Pistons’ recent struggles have cast some doubts on their hold on the East, while the Western Conference standings, outside of the top two, continue to fluctuate daily as teams jockey for position ahead of next month’s playoffs.
With a little over a month to go ahead of the play-in tournament, here are this week’s NBA Power Rankings.
Note: Team rankings are based on where members of our panel (ESPN’s Anthony Slater, Dave McMenamin, Jamal Collier, Michael C. Wright, Bobby Marks, Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon, Vincent Goodwill and Zach Kram) think teams belong.
SGA ties Wilt Chamberlain’s record streak of 20-point games
The return of Ajay Mitchell was lost in the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander fireworks show on Monday night against the Nuggets.
Mitchell had missed 20 games because of both oblique and ankle injuries, but looked every bit himself in 29 productive bench minutes, scoring 24 points on 9-of-16 shooting with an array of slick drives and self-created pull-ups.
Mitchell could be one of the most important reserves in the next few months, especially as Jalen Williams tries to ease back into the lineup after a recurring hamstring problem. — Anthony Slater
So far, San Antonio is passing with flying colors with a win over Detroit, a 25-point comeback victory over the LA Clippers and a 25-point trouncing of in-state rival Houston.
Jayson Tatum is back, and his first two games couldn’t have gone better. Not only did the Celtics pick up a pair of victories with Tatum back in action, but he — quite remarkably — looked like he hadn’t missed any time at all, outside of his shot being a bit off. He shot a combined 12-of-32 in Boston’s wins over the Mavericks and Cavaliers.
Tatum’s return has only reinforced the notion that Boston is, once again, the team to beat in the Eastern Conference. — Tim Bontemps
Adversity, meet the Pistons. Even with Cade Cunningham getting a night off and missing Ausar Thompson with a right ankle sprain, Detroit shouldn’t have given away 107-105 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, but they rebounded with a 138-100 win over the very same Nets on Tuesday.
Thompson’s ankle should have him out around a week, sources tell ESPN, but the Pistons want to be sure he’s OK before allowing him to play. He’s their most versatile defender, and his perimeter defense in particular was sorely missing in their loss to Miami on Sunday.
For a team that creates offense with its defense, any small slippage shows exponentially, and that’s where the Pistons are. — Vincent Goodwill
It might not be time to panic after a weekend in Los Angeles, but losing to the Lakers and Clippers on back-to-back days following one of their most impressive wins of the season — an utter beatdown in Denver against the rarely-whole Nuggets — isn’t ideal.
Mikal Bridges often gets lost in the offense and went nearly six quarters over the weekend without a bucket. They need him engaged on both ends to keep their defense at the level it’s been the last two months. Going scoreless against the Lakers and scoring just seven against the Clippers raised some eyebrows. — Goodwill
The last 10 games entering Tuesday night’s showdown with the Lakers fairly perfectly encapsulate Minnesota’s season.
The Timberwolves went 8-2 in that stretch, including an impressive win over the Nuggets. But in the two losses, the Wolves lost to a pair of mid-tier East teams — Philadelphia, which was playing without guys on the second night of a back-to-back, and Orlando — by 27 points each.
That underscores the volatility surrounding the Wolves on a nightly basis, and why they remain so confounding in determining where they sit in the West pecking order. — Bontemps
Toronto Raptors vs. Houston Rockets: Game Highlights
Toronto Raptors vs. Houston Rockets: Game Highlights
Houston’s inconsistency showed up in a major way Sunday as the Rockets suffered their largest defeat of the season against the San Antonio Spurs — just the team’s second 25-point loss over the last two seasons. The Rockets allowed 25 points off turnovers and struggled to contain San Antonio guards De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle, who combined for 43 points, at the point of attack.
Center Alperen Sengun ranks as the Rockets’ second-leading scorer (20.4 PPG) behind Kevin Durant, but he’s been inconsistent in March with his scoring average dropping by nearly six points from last month. — Wright
The top four teams in the East have created some distance between themselves and the rest of the conference, which sets the final month of the season up as a playoff seeding battle.
Cleveland sits at the No.4 seed, but the Cavs are only .5 game back from the No. 3 seed, which could be the difference in a second-round matchup with Detroit or Boston.
Which side of the bracket they prefer to land on could present an interesting dilemma for the Cavs, especially with such a light schedule coming up. Following Wednesday’s game against the red-hot Magic, the Cavs play the Mavericks twice before games with the Bucks, Bulls and Pelicans. — Jamal Collier
The Nuggets have lost both games since Aaron Gordon’s return from a hamstring strain, but his performance in Oklahoma City was encouraging.
Gordon scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in 28 minutes in the loss to the defending champion Thunder. And wing Peyton Watson is close to returning from his hamstring strain, potentially by the end of the week, sources said. — Tim MacMahon
Luke Kennard has scored in double digits in four of the Lakers past six games coming into Tuesday’s matchup against Minnesota – all of them wins – and L.A.’s trade deadline pickup is chasing history, too.
Only six players in history have ever finished a season shooting 50% or better from 3 for an entire season, and Kennard has a shot at doing so, shooting 50% from deep so far. He just missed the cut in 2022-23, finishing that season at 49.4%. — Dave McMenamin
Bam Adebayo’s 83-point performance on Tuesday aside — which is a big aside — the offense in Miami has been a case study of inconsistency.
In the first 15 games of the season, the Heat ranked eighth in the offense before they plummeted to the bottom-10 over their next 30 games. Since the All-Star break, the Heat are 8-2 and rank first in offense and points per game as they moved into a tie for sixth place in the East heading into Wednesday’s games.
In those 10 games, Tyler Herro has averaged 22.2 PPG, while shooting 50.3 FG% and 45 3P%, as the Heat are one three unbeaten teams in March — Bobby Marks
Phoenix won four out of five before starting a season-long six-game road trip Tuesday in Milwaukee, which the Suns won 129-114.
Devin Booker’s usage rate is at 33.8% in March — his highest in any month this season — as the five-time All-Star has fully taken the reins for the Suns while Dillon Brooks is out with a fractured left hand. They enter Wednesday 1.5 games out of the No. 6 spot in the West. — McMenamin
The month of March has been kind to the Magic: Orlando is 4-1 and recently defeated Minnesota on the road by 27 points.
In the past five games, Paolo Banchero and Desmond Bane have combined to average 48 ppg as a duo with both players shooting greater than 50% from the field. As a result of their 7-3 record since the All-Star break, the Magic are seventh in the Eastern Conference but only .5 games out of fifth. Their defense ranks second since the break, a crucial factor as they try to hold on to the playoff spot in the East. — Marks
Since last week, Toronto’s odds of landing a top-six seed have fallen from nearly 70% to just 57%, as of Tuesday morning.
That’s not necessarily Toronto’s fault, but rather a reflection of simultaneous winning streaks from Miami and Orlando. The Raptors need to string together some wins of their own to keep pace, however, and they haven’t won more than two games in a row since January — they have a 7-8 record since that last winning streak ended. — Zach Kram
Dallas Mavericks vs. Atlanta Hawks: Game Highlights
Dallas Mavericks vs. Atlanta Hawks: Game Highlights
The Hawks and “defense” have not been linked together in prior seasons. But since the All-Star break, Atlanta is 9-1 and has the best defensive rating in the league. Over that stretch heading into Tuesday, the Hawks rank fourth in points off turnovers and fast break points. In the eight wins opponents have turned the ball over, on average, 16.6 times per game. — Marks