NBA Power Rankings: Damian Lillard’s Blazers Are The Biggest Surprise Of The Season

*All Power Rankings compiled from games played between Feb. 18 and Feb. 24.

1. Portland Trail Blazers (3-0)

Damian Lillard deserved every national press clipping of which he was finally the subject following the Trail Blazers’ victory over the Golden State Warriors on Friday. Portland’s franchise player didn’t just score 51 points, but scorched the defending champions in typically unique and dramatic fashion, too.

Last weekend, Lillard was something even greater than Steph Curry – no matter what Steve Kerr said. But the basketball world’s fawning response to his play only makes its lack of one to a similarly eye-popping performance two days later more frustrating.

With his sleepy team down 13 early in the second half against the Utah Jazz on Sunday, Lillard pull-up from 28 feet for his first three of the game.

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Burgeoning frontcourt playmaker Mason Plumlee found him in the same place just seconds later.

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Lillard dribbled his way into a sliver of space to launch from that hot spot on the Blazers’ next possession.

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And then Rudy Gobert gifted him an incredible fourth consecutive triple, the final shot of a mind-blowing individual run that cut Portland’s deficit by 10 points in 90 seconds.

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The Blazers beat their fellow Western Conference playoff hopefuls by the score of 115-111 for their 14th win in 17 games. Lillard didn’t quite dominate the Jazz the way he did the Warriors; the All-Star snub had a mere 30 points and five assists.

But no matter. CJ McCollum picked up his backcourt mate’s relative “slack” with 31 points of his own, and Portland’s quietly awesome bench scored 37 points – 17 of which came from the ascending Maurice Harkless – to support its electric pair of guards.

Lillard, though, is the engine that’s pushing the Blazers to the most surprising season in basketball – a reality that should be acknowledged whether it’s proven against the defending champions or another anonymous team out west.

2. Miami Heat (3-0)

Conventional wisdom was that Chris Bosh’s second bout with blood clots would force Erik Spoelstra’s hand. After Hassan Whiteside began coming of the bench just before the All-Star break, he’d undoubtedly return to the starting lineup as a result of Bosh’s sudden absence, right?

Wrong. And if Whiteside’s downright dominant recent performance is an indication of how he’ll play for the season’s remainder, Spoelstra’s surprising decision to stay the course could pay huge dividends, too.

The Heat’s hulking big man averaged 11.0 points, 8.8 rebounds, and a staggering 4.3 blocks in just 21.3 minutes during his first four games coming off the bench. Those numbers would make him a favorite for Sixth Man of the Year if he’d been a reserve all season long, but still pale in comparison to his most recent ones.

Playing bigger minutes and a new role without Bosh in the lineup, Whiteside enjoyed perhaps the best basketball of his career in post All-Star wins over the Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers. He totaled 44 points, 41 rebounds, and eight blocks on 19-of-32 shooting against those Eastern Conference foes, playing with the vigor and overall energy that leverage his sublime blend of length and athleticism even further.

When Whiteside plays like this, the Heat are a different team. The question for Miami is if he’ll continue doing so when Bosh makes his expected return to the floor later this year. Whether he’s able to do so could decide a playoff spot in the East, and perhaps the potential of a first-round upset, too.

3. Charlotte Hornets (2-0)

Al Jefferson’s return to the lineup comes at a crucial time for the Hornets.

The big man appeared in each of Charlotte’s past two games after missing 34 of its previous 36 contests. He scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 24 minutes off the bench against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, affording his team a much-needed jolt of offensive oomph amid the ongoing struggles of Jeremy’s, Lamb and Lin.

Steve Clifford has yet to announce whether his lumbering big man will continue coming off the pine for the season’s duration, but that seems the most likely scenario. The knee issues that sidelined Jefferson for almost three full months are longstanding. It makes sense to potentially mitigate them by limiting his minutes, basically, and the Hornets’ roster construction suggests that’s the most likely possibility, too. Kemba Walker and Nicolas Batum have the first-team offense humming; adding Jefferson to that unit would represent a major shift in its defensive ideology, too.

Nevertheless, Big Al’s presence looms large as the playoff stretch is nearing its dawn. The Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards, ninth and tenth in the Eastern Conference standings, respectively, made major trade-deadline moves with an eye on the future and one on the present. But the seventh-place Hornets made one, too, basically swapping the ineffective PJ Hairston for proven veteran wing, Courtney Lee.

It’s all coming into place for Charlotte, basically. And with Jefferson back, one can’t help but wonder what this team might look like if Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had been able to stay in the lineup. Shame. As is, though, the Hornets seem likely to earn a playoff berth, and perhaps turn a few heads when the stakes finally rise.

4. Washington Wizards (3-1)

John Wall is right. When it comes to basketball’s top floor generals, he absolutely deserves to be in the discussion.

“I still think I get overlooked sometimes,” the three-time All-Star recently told Michael Lee of The Vertical. “Some people say I’m not a top-five point guard. In my opinion, I think I’m top three. I only see two people ahead of me: Steph (Curry) and Russ (Westbrook) right now.”

Wall isn’t on Curry’s level. Nobody is right now. But the season-long struggles of the Wizards have obscured what could be considered a career-best campaign for the 26-year-old, who’s come on like gangbusters since a slow start explained by adjusting to his team’s new uptempo scheme.

At 26-29, Washington is three games back of the Chicago Bulls for eighth in the Eastern Conference. Despite a topsy-turvy first half and less than ideal current standing in the playoff race, though, there’s reason to believe the Wizards are trending in the right direction.

Bradley Beal has been excellent since returning from injury in mid-January and acclimating to coming off the bench. Nené and Marcin Gortat suddenly look like a playable frontcourt tandem for the first time all season. And Washington made a win-now move at the trade deadline by dealing a protected first-round pick for Markieff Morris, a player dynamic enough to do things like this.

We see you, @Keefmorris! #WizPelicans pic.twitter.com/84yy60HraO

— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) February 24, 2016

With the potential team-wide improvement gleaned from those developments comes the likelihood of further success for Wall, too. To wit, the Wizards’ franchise player posted his second triple-double of the season in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night despite hitting just one of his first 10 tries from the field.

Wall, obviously, has enough talent to impact the game in myriad ways few others can. If Washington makes good on its strong recent play with a late-season playoff push, he’ll be the driving force behind it – and maybe even finally get the national acclaim he not only wants, but so obviously deserves.

5. Golden State Warriors (2-1)

Only the 50-5 defending champions could have a potential hole at backup center, immediately fill it with a quality veteran, and leave some wondering if that weakness could be their downfall. Just what other room is there for concern with the Warriors?

In its shocking 137-105 loss to the Trail Blazers on Friday, Golden State allowed Terry Stotts’ club to shoot 23 of 32 on attempts from close to the basket. Related: Andrew Bogut was limited to 14 minutes with pain in his right achilles, and Festus Ezeli was sidelined as a result of surgery on his knee.

The Warriors’ defensive breakdowns against the Blazers were sweeping. Steve Kerr’s team simply didn’t come to play, and Portland made it pay. The former won’t prove the case in the playoffs, obviously, but it’s safe to say the latter will. And should that occur, what happens if the injury bug bites again and Golden State can’t protect the rim?

Bogut is notoriously fragile. Ezeli will be on the shelf for another month at least. Marreese Speights is a guard in a big man’s body. It speaks to the peerless defensive versatility of Green that the Warriors beat the Los Angeles Clippers without Bogut and Ezeli one night after falling in Portland. But that’s too much to ask of Green on a nightly basis, whose increased offensive burden has helped make Golden State even more devastating on that end than it was in 2014-15.

This is all a hypothetical, of course. Odds are that Bogut and Ezeli will be on the floor in April, May, and June. If both or even one of them aren’t, though, Golden State’s biggest weakness will be obvious – and it remains to be seen if Anderson Varejao alone can strengthen it.

6. San Antonio Spurs (2-1)

Any other team’s bench would suffer mightily without the services of a player like Manu Ginobili. But the Spurs, as they’ve proven over and over and over throughout a two-decade reign near the top of the league, just aren’t like other teams.

We’ve covered the overwhelmingly positive effect of San Antonio’s reserve triumvirate of Ginobili, Patty Mills, and Boris Diaw before. Despite that preeminence, it’s still easy to assume the absence of one player would severely mitigate the influence of others. Mills and Diaw are uniquely talented on both ends of the floor and certainly well-versed in their team’s two-way systems, but they aren’t anything close to stars, either.

Despite Ginobili’s absence since early February as the result of a testicular injury, though, basketball’s favorite reserve odd couple has simply kept on chugging. Mills and Diaw’s net rating before Manu’s sidelining: +14.0. Their net rating in the seven games following that freak incident: +6.3.

Even more impressive is that San Antonio’s slippage from utterly dominant to easily winning with Mills and Diaw on the floor has come on the defensive end. Offensively, Gregg Popovich’s club hasn’t missed a beat when reserve-heavy units take the court without Ginobili.

It seems unlikely the Spurs will catch the Warriors in the standings before the regular season ends. Due to a cavalcade of rare factors headlined by the unmitigated performance of Mills and Diaw, though, it’s even more difficult to imagine the Spurs falling below second in the West, too.

7. Cleveland Cavaliers (2-1)

The trade-deadline acquisition of Channing Frye was met with too much fanfare. There’s a reason the 32-year-old big man was phased out of the rotation with the Orlando Magic, and why dealing for him cost Cleveland nothing more than a heavily protected future first-round pick.

Frye is a poor defender. He can’t move in space, isn’t stout enough to defend post-up behemoths in isolations, and isn’t close to the rim protector he was with the Phoenix Suns. Those assuming Frye’s addition means a lesser role for the struggling Timfoey Mozgov come playoff time will be sorely disappointed, basically. He’s a one-trick pony at this stage of his career.

But make no mistake: That one skill could loom large for the Cavaliers in certain situations come spring. Watch how easily Matthew Dellavedova turns the corner after Frye sets him a screen.

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And look how frantically Andre Drummond – an absolute freak, by the way – closes out on a pair of catch-and-shoot opportunities by the tenth-year man.

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Frye may very well make a positive impact in extended minutes for Cleveland over the duration of the regular season. In the playoffs, though, his time on the court will undoubtedly be more sporadic. During late-quarter situations or simply when the Cavaliers need a jolt of offense, the threat of a center-sized player who is a legitimate three-point shooter will loom large.

Just imagine Jonas Valanciunas, for instance, trying to corral LeBron James or Kyrie Irving off the dribble after they take a high pick from Frye. That proposition will be nearly as winning for Cleveland when Pau Gasol is the helper, too. The wine and gold have spaced the floor around their playmakers with James Jones in the past; now they have a player who can go body to body with bigs and not get completely embarrassed – at least for a couple minutes.

Every possession matters in the postseason. And on a few every night, Frye’s presence will prove very beneficial for the Cavaliers. Anyone expecting more than that from him when Cleveland’s real season starts, however, will be sorely disappointed.

8. Los Angeles Clippers (2-1)

The Phoenix Suns aren’t exactly worldbeaters. Nevertheless, Jeff Green offered a glimpse of the dynamism he can bring to the Clippers during his second game with Los Angeles.

The 6-foot-9 forward scored 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting and grabbed five rebounds in his new team’s easy win over Phoenix on Monday night. What’s intrigued so many teams about Green is his seeming ability to toggle between both forward positions with little negative effect on either end of the floor. He has almost unmatched length on the wing; he’s sturdier than his wiry frame suggests, and he can make plays off the dribble and stretch defenses to the arc.

More than anything else, the lack of a consistent jumper has kept Green from reaching his potential. He’s shooting a poor 31.4 percent from three-point range and even worse, 29.5 percent on spot-up opportunities this season. Those numbers, combined with a lack of natural playmaking instincts, make Green a net negative offensively at small forward and mitigate the advantages his athleticism presents when sliding down to small-ball 4.

That’s okay for the Clippers. Doc Rivers hopefully didn’t think he was getting the good version of Green on a nightly basis when he surrendered a protected future first-rounder at the deadline. Despite his prodigious physical gifts and tendency for eye-popping possessions, the 29-year-old just isn’t the player so many still wrongfully believe he has the chance to be.

Los Angeles knows that, and accordingly put Green in positions to thrive against the Suns. He’s too quick for opposing power forwards off the bounce.

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And is a skilled enough handler to produce in semi-transition ball-screen action after bringing the ball up the floor.

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For years, the Clippers have lacked a dynamic ancillary scoring option when Chris Paul or Blake Griffin is on the bench. Jamal Crawford counts, on one end of the floor, but he’s a one-man show who can’t really be called dynamic. Green won’t necessarily fill that void; expecting him to is a bit too optimistic.

What the eighth-year man can do, however, is add some much-needed verve and unpredictability to Los Angeles’ offense when one of its superstars is on the bench. And perhaps most importantly, Green could make ultra-small lineups much more viable should the Clippers meet the Warriors in the playoffs.

That doesn’t seem like much, but it still might be enough for a player like him and a team like this.

9. Milwaukee Bucks (2-1)

The Bucks rank 22nd in pace, comfortably behind the aging and awkward likes of the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls. Jason Kidd — strangely, considering his playing days and aggressive defensive schemes — prefers his team to execute in the half-court as opposed to free-styling in the open floor.

We can’t quite understand why. Not only is Milwaukee’s littered with young, energetic players, but those guys are creative and explosive enough to make plays like this one on the fly.

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Giannis Antetokounmpo’s nickname is literally “freak.” Jabari Parker is one of the most explosive power forwards in the league. Khris Middleton is vastly improved playmaker and deadly 3-point shooter. Michael Carter-Williams can’t shoot, and is a blur with the ball in his hands and space to create. And the burly, plodding Greg Monroe swirled in trade winds before last Thursday’s deadline finally passed.

You get the point. Please, coach Kidd. Run, run, run!

10. New Orleans Hornets (2-1)

Poor Anthony Davis.

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*Statistical support provided by nbawowy.