NBA power rankings: where do the Nuggets stand in the latest rankings?
By Ben Handler
It’s another Monday, which means another edition of the NBA.com power rankings. NBA reporter John Schuhmann ranks each team from 1-30 every week with this being the 24th edition of the 2023-24 NBA season.
Nuggets remain kings
Despite a couple of rough showings this week, the Denver Nuggets have maintained the top spot in the rankings yet again. The Nuggets dethroned the Boston Celtics after beating them head-to-head in early March and they’ve held the lead in the power rankings ever since.
There was some doubt as to whether they’d hold on after dropping back-to-back games at home in somewhat ugly fashion. But they cleaned things up with an impressive win on Sunday over the Cavaliers to reestablish their control.
The competition
It also helped that their closest pursuants, the Celtics also dropped two straight games this week at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks. So while it wasn’t the most inspiring week of performances by the top teams, nobody did enough to leapfrog the Nuggets.
Right now the biggest concerns for the Nuggets are just getting their guys healthy and rested. We saw what this is capable of last year in the playoffs, and we’ve seen nothing to suggest they can’t do it again.
But Jamal Murray has missed the last five games with injuries to his ankle and knee, Nikola Jokic has been dinged up with various ailments, and Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon have both been on the injury report as well.
So while I’m sure it’s great to be number one in these power rankings, the real goal is making sure that everyone is ready for playoff action later this month.
The rest of the power rankings
The aforementioned Celtics stayed at number two in the power rankings this week while the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves each bumped up a spot to third and fourth respectively. The Milwaukee Bucks dropped from third place to fifth, rounding out the top five.
The biggest risers of the week were the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs who moved up three spots each, from 19th to 16th and 26th to 23rd. And the biggest droppers were the Orlando Magic and Portland Trail Blazers who fell three spots each, from 14th to 17th and 27th to 30th.