Big move up NBA Power Rankings in Week 4 for Houston Rockets

Just 2 weeks ago, the Houston Rockets were a defensive disaster. But after 7 straight wins, they’re now in the top 10 of the NBA Power Rankings after Week 4.

We’re now four weeks into the grind that is the NBA’s nearly six-month long regular season and a pair of Texas teams are headed in dramatically opposite directions in the NBA Power Rankings as we enter Week 5 Monday night.

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The Houston Rockets have figured out how to defend and have — pardon the pun — rocketed up the rankings from No. 20 two weeks ago to No. 16 last week and cracked the top 10 this week as they’ve run their winning straight to seven consecutive games after a 3-3 start.

On the other end of the scale, the San Antonio Spurs have lost six of their last seven games to fall from the top 10 to the lower middle of the pack after four weeks.

Houston has the third-best defensive rating in the NBA over the last two weeks, a sterling 99.9 points per 100 possessions, to join only the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets with sub-100 ratings over that time period.

Conversely, the Spurs have the second-worst defensive rating in the NBA over the last two weeks, a dreadful 116.9 mark that is ahead of only the Atlanta Hawks — who were scorched for 272 points in two blowout losses in Los Angeles over the weekend.

After two weeks, Houston was allowing opponents to hit a 59.5 effective field goal percentage.

(Narrator: That is very, very bad — and dead last in the NBA.)

In the two weeks since, the Rockets are allowing an eFG% of 46.5 percent.

(Narrator: That is very, very good — the best in the NBA.)

They are doing it despite not having wings Gerald Green (likely gone for the season after a left foot injury), Danuel House (has missed three games with a sore back) and Eric Gordon (gone six weeks after knee surgery).

San Antonio surrendered a middle-of-the-pack 50.8 percent eFG% through the opening two weeks. In losing six of seven over the last two weeks, that number was 54.8 percent. That has left the Spurs with the second-worst record in the NBA over the last 14 days.

At the top of the rankings, we have a new No. 1 for the fourth straight week. The Milwaukee Bucks topped the rankings in the preseason, the Minnesota Timberwolves were No. 1 after one week, the Miami Heat had a turn at the top after Week 2 and the shockingly solid Phoenix Suns climbed to the top of the mountain last week.

Who’s No. 1 now? Stay tuned.

Last week: Lost to Utah 122-108, lost at Lakers 120-94, lost to Boston 105-100, lost at New Orleans 108-100

This week: Tuesday at Memphis, Wednesday at Dallas, Friday at Utah

The Golden State Warriors went 0-4 last week, running their losing streak to seven and sinking further into the NBA’s basement.

Along the way, the Warriors managed to lose another All-Star player. This time, it was D’Angelo Russell who sprained his right thumb in Friday’s loss to the Celtics and will be out at least two weeks. Golden State is already without Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry and have seven of the 17 players on the roster (including two-way players) on the current injury report.

Eric Paschall bounced back in Sunday’s loss at New Orleans with another strong effort. The second-round pick scored 30 points with seven rebounds on 10-of-17 shooting against the Pelicans. For the season, the rookie is averaging 16.7 points and 4.8 rebounds in 31.1 minutes per game, shooting 51.9 percent overall and 27.3 percent on 2.5 3-point attempts a game.

Golden State was so depleted Sunday that coach Steve Kerr unveiled a no-point-guard starting unit with Paschall, Draymond Green, Willie Cauley-Stein, Glenn Robinson III and Alec Burks, with Green handling the bulk of the ball-handling. The unit played 14 minutes and recorded a net rating of minus-31.0, which is sub-optimal.