NBA Power Rankings: No Team Has Ever Made Domination More Fun Than The Warriors

*Rankings compiled from games played between February 24 and March 1.

1. Golden State Warriors (4-0)

The Warriors are chasing history. With 23 games remaining in the regular season, the defending champions need only 16 victories to become the second team in league history to win at least 70 games – and 20 victories to eclipse the hallowed 72-10 mark set by Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in 1995-96.

Steve Kerr’s team hasn’t been shy to admit that it will go for the record if in position to break it over the final two weeks of regular season play. These guys want immortality. Whether the Warriors best Jordan and company, though, it’s fair to submit their real season won’t begin until the playoffs finally do on April 16 – if Draymond Green’s recent quip about the feeling of winning a title is to be taken seriously, at least.

Just what else is there to say about Golden State? Barring an injury to Curry, Green, or Klay Thompson, the Warriors will be prohibitive favorites to repeat as champions when the postseason finally tips off come spring.

Enjoy the ride, basketball fans. No team has ever made dominance as fun as Golden State.

2. San Antonio Spurs (3-0)

Quick note: LaMarcus Aldridge is averaging 20.4 points per game on 53.5 percent shooting since San Antonio’s embarrassing loss to the Warriors in Oakland on Jan. 27. Remember what Gregg Popovich said earlier this season about his team getting better offensively once March came around?

The man is a sage. It should be no surprise, then, that basketball’s top coach recently gave some advice that extends far beyond the hardwood. We’re writing this on Super Tuesday, by the way; it’s never been more difficult not to get political. But Popovich’s typically sharp, caring words at Monday’s fifth annual Champions Against Hunger dinner in San Antonio needn’t be aligned with ideals espoused by candidates from either major party.

“Everybody knows there’s disparity, but it’s almost an embarrassing situation,” the former airman said of the Alamo City’s spatial inequality with respect to wealth. “If you’re doing well, you should be embarrassed if you’re doing nothing to try to ease that gap. Whether it’s spending time with organizations, giving money, or both, it’s a responsibility that cannot be denied. If you deny it, shame on you.”

Preach.

3. Boston Celtics (3-0)

Brad Stevens wants the C’s to out-hustle their opponents night-in, night-out. Seems like they got the message: pic.twitter.com/RcFb5LvmjB

— Boston Celtics (@celtics) March 1, 2016

Brad Stevens might be basketball’s brightest young in-game tactician. What makes Boston’s head man such an influential leader, though, is much more than overall strategic acumen.

As the Celtics make abundantly clear in the video above and on a nightly basis, they’re the league’s scrappiest, most relentless team. Still wondering how a squad featuring no traditional franchise player and lacking top-notch defensive personnel is en route to a 50-win season and boasts a top-four defense?

Boston simply plays the right way on both ends of the floor for a full 48 minutes, and Stevens deserves all credit in the world for establishing the culture to prompt that supreme advantage.

4. Detroit Pistons (3-0)

The midseason marriage between Tobias Harris and the Pistons seems like true love. Detroit has won four consecutive games after losing its first two games since acquiring the former Orlando Magic forward, a pair of contests in which he totaled 37 points on 15-of-29 shooting.

Harris, obviously, had nothing to do with his new team’s losses. And conversely, his impact in the Pistons’ quartet of subsequent victories was immense.

Numbers tell much of the story. Detroit’s new starting lineup of Reggie Jackson, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Marcus Morris, and Andre Drummond boasts a whopping +14.6 net rating – on the strength of a 115.1 offensive rating – in 106 minutes since the trade deadline. He’s spearheaded non-Drummond units for 42 minutes of shocking success. Detroit is outscoring opponents by 12.6 points per 100 possessions with Harris on the floor, and getting outscored by 14.4 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the bench.

Not bad, right? Film, though, somehow explains the scope of his impact almost as much as those absolutely glowing metrics.

Harris provides Stan Van Gundy’s team with another player who can create offense in the ball-screen situations.

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He’s dynamic enough to score in semi-transition.

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Harris draws opposing wings as a 6-foot-9, 235-pound small forward, and is plenty strong and skilled to feast on smaller defenders in the post.

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And he’s letting fly from deep with utmost confidence, connecting on 42.9 percent from beyond the arc in his brief time wearing Motor City blue and red.

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More than anything else, Harris provides the Pistons with dynamism and flexibility they lacked before Van Gundy made the surprising trade of the deadline. He likely won’t shoot like this for the season’s duration, and the sample size in general warrants a grain of salt.

But Harris is giving Detroit everything they hoped he would and more. If he’s able to continue doing so as late winter becomes early spring, the Pistons could go from playoff hopeful to legitimate playoff competitor sooner than most anyone saw coming.

5. Memphis Grizzlies (3-1)

For all intents and purposes, the Grizzlies’ season was supposed to be over when Marc Gasol was lost for its remainder with a broken right foot. That Memphis shipped out Courtney Lee and Jeff Green at the trade deadline in a pair of big-picture deals only lent further credence to that assumption.

What hasn’t, though, is the record of Dave Joerger’s team ever since Gasol was sidelined. The Grizzlies are 5-2 since Feb. 10, subsisting on a style that’s decidedly against gritting and grinding. Memphis’ offensive rating in Gasol’s absence is 112.0, a gaudy mark accounted for by an increased share of 3-point attempts and a bigger role for the dynamic JaMychal Green.

The drawback to that altered ethos? You guessed it: defense. The Grizzlies’ defensive rating without Gasol is 106.6, and they haven’t exactly played a murderer’s row of offenses, either. Memphis’ five victories in Big Spain’s absence have come against the Brooklyn Nets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Lakers (twice), and Denver Nuggets.

True to well-established form, though, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, and the rest might still be too good to reap the rewards of being bad. At 35-24, the Grizzlies are six and-a-half games up on the Houston Rockets for eighth place in the Western Conference with 23 games to play. Memphis has too much margin for error between the playoffs and the lottery, basically, to fall into the latter.

It’s a shame, too. This season just isn’t going anywhere, and the Grizzlies have Conley’s free agency to deal with in July. Memphis probably wasn’t going to do anything this postseason that it hadn’t in ones past, but the overall point remains: Injuries suck.

Get well, Marc.

6. Washington Wizards (3-1)

It might be time for Washington to punt on the idea of bringing Bradley Beal off the bench.

Yes, the 22-year-old is an integral cog of this team’s future. Yes, he’s dealt with a handful of injuries throughout his career, and yes, he even suggested the need for a minutes restriction before returning to the floor in late January from a troublesome stress reaction in his right leg.

But come on. Much of the Wizards’ promise going forward hinges on hope gleaned from the prospect of adding D.C. native Kevin Durant in free agency this summer. Is there any way the 2014 MVP would really consider joining a team this July that just played for lottery balls a couple months earlier?

Washington, at 29-30, needs every win it can possibly muster to make the playoffs for a third consecutive season. Beal is playing at an elite level right now, and Randy Wittman’s best lineups – ones featuring Wall, Beal, Jared Dudley, Marcin Gortat, and either Otto Porter or Garrett Temple – still don’t see the floor enough.

To maximize their chances at winning biggest later, the Wizards need to win right now – and playing an extra cautious hand with Beal isn’t helping matters.

7. Portland Trail Blazers (3-1)

Just as shocking as Portland’s success this season is that it’s come without a major step forward from Meyers Leonard. Coming into 2015-16, many Trail Blazers fans considered the sweet-shooting seven-footer a fixture of their team’s future alongside Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum. That’s what a finish like last year’s does for the expectations of a player previously considered a bust.

But Leonard has merely been along for the ride as opposed to helping drive it during Portland’s eye-popping campaign. He’s shooting worse from beyond the arc, grabbing rebounds at a lower rate, and finishing far more poorly this season compared to last, and his minutes have dipped accordingly from month to month as a result.

Might the Blazers let Leonard walk in restricted free agency this summer after watching him regress? That’s still a possibility, but the 24-year-old’s play of late suggests he’s worth hanging onto.

Leonard is shooting 57.1 percent from the field and a red-hot 69.2 percent from beyond the arc since the All-Star break, and has notched at least 20 minutes in three consecutive games for the first time since mid-January. Terry Stotts’ confidence is growing in the inconsistent big man, a development that could pay major dividends for Portland as it embarks on a surprising run to the postseason. This team just doesn’t have another player in the frontcourt capable of offering what Leonard does when he’s playing well.

Let’s see if he can keep it up. If so, the Blazers will surely weather a tough slate of upcoming games better than anyone outside Rose City is anticipating.

8. Dallas Mavericks (3-1)

Leave it to Rick Carlisle, constant curmudgeon, to put a damper on the Mavericks’ much-improved play over the past week.

Dallas is averaging 123.7 points over its past three games, shooting 53.1 percent from the field and notching 28.7 assists per night in the process. Chandler Parsons has reacted to increased playing time by splashing away from deep and making plays for himself and his teammates off the dribble; Wes Matthews has finally found his jumper after struggling since the New Year; and David Lee is making an impact off the bench by taking advantage of his new team’s penchant for ball and player movement with expectedly canny finishing on the interior.

There’s one major caveat, though: The Mavericks’ three consecutive victories came over the Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Orlando Magic, largely lottery-bound teams that rank in the league’s bottom-half defensively.

How did Carlisle react to his squad dropping 128 points and doling-out 28 assists against the ‘Wolves, then? Just like you’d expect.

9. Toronto Raptors (2-1)

We strongly advocated for the Raptors to trade for an upgrade at power forward before the trade deadline, but Masai Ujiri stood pat. Why? Because the former Executive of the Year knew something about an easily overlooked incumbent most others didn’t.

Patrick Patterson isn’t a great 3-point shooter, and he’s not an All-NBA caliber defender, either. But the sixth-year power forward has stretched into a legitimate threat from deep and a uniquely valuable defensive piece nonetheless, and immediately showed off that amalgam of skills after Toronto ultimately decided against making any swaps that likely would have included him.

Here’s Patterson popping for a quick-release triple in his team’s loss the Pistons on Sunday night.

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And before he helped his team come back from a double-digit deficit against the Cleveland Cavaliers by containing LeBron James down the stretch, the 26-year-old portended things to come by faring well when matched up with Carmelo Anthony during the Raptors’ win over the New York Knicks.

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Patterson should be starting over Luis Scola. He’s both a more dynamic offensive player and far more impactful defender than the thirty-something Argentinean. But basketball isn’t played on paper or by the eye test, and there’s something to be said for not fixing what isn’t broken.

Toronto is rolling and its bench might be the best in the league. As long as those frequent first-quarter deficits don’t balloon, keeping Patterson in his current role makes sense – for this season, at least. He’s bound to emerge as a full-time starter in 2016-17 after the Raptors let Scola walk in free agency.

10. Los Angeles Clippers (2-1)

Chris Paul in the 30 games since Blake Griffin left the lineup after Christmas: 21.9 points, 4.6 rebounds, 10.0 assists, and 2.2 steals per game with a rock-solid 58.2 true shooting percentage. Has the basketball world ever taken the Point God for granted more than right now?

J.J. Redick is enjoying one of the best shooting seasons ever, DeAndre Jordan is playing at an All-NBA level on both ends of the floor, and the Clippers are 39-20 – one game ahead of the pace they set last season. Doc Rivers deserves credit for steering the ship true during these difficult on- and off-court times, and Redick and Jordan certainly warrant praise for honing their crafts in the offseason to come back better than ever.

But Los Angeles, just like always, is still about Paul first and foremost. Here’s hoping Griffin’s return helps the Clippers to heights that will allow this future Hall-of-Fame point guard to show off on the game’s biggest stage with a deep playoff run come spring.