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

Last week: Won at Detroit 120-114, beat San Antonio 129-114, lost to Washington 137-116, lost to Houston 125-105

This week: Monday at Utah, Wednesday vs. Utah, Saturday vs. Phoenix

The Minnesota Timberwolves were flying high to start the week, but then dropped a pair of lopsided games at home while Andrew Wiggins was away from the team. Wiggins is off to a hot start, but was away from the team Friday and Saturday to be with his family following the death of his grandmother.

The Washington loss was a complete reversal of their Nov. 2 trip to D.C., where they ran the Wizards off their own court 131-109. Instead, they get a season split against one of the weaker teams in the weaker Eastern Conference — something that could be important in what looks to be a razor-thin race for the playoffs in the West.

Karl-Anthony Towns did what he could last week, averaging 29.0 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.3 blocks and 1.0 steals in 31.5 minutes per game, shooting 60.0 percent overall and canning a cool 50 percent (14-for-28) from long range. He’s at a career-best 43.0 percent for the season thus far.

Towns is averaging 8.5 triple tries a night, which would shatter Brook Lopez‘s record set last season by most 3-point attempts in a season by a center. Towns is on pace for 680 attempts (over 80 games, since he already sat out two), while Lopez took 512 shots from Splash Mountain for the Bucks in 2018-19.

Last week: Beat Oklahoma City 111-85, lost at Houston 111-102, lost to Milwaukee 102-83

This week: Monday at Brooklyn, Saturday vs. Orlando

The good news for the Indiana Pacers is they are getting a bit healthier up front, with Myles Turner returning from an eight-game absence in the loss Saturday night to the Bucks.

However, Malcolm Brogdon, the team’s leader in scoring and assists, sat out against his former team with a back problem, while wing Jeremy Lamb was unavailable due to an ankle injury and backup point guard T.J. McConnell is out with a groin injury. Combine that with Victor Oladipo still recovering from his torn quadriceps tendon and the Pacers are getting thin in the backcourt.

That could help explain Indiana’s streaky nature thus far. The Pacers lost three straight, won seven of eight and have now dropped two in a row.

Domantas Sabonis reflected the week the Pacers experienced, going for 18 points and 16 rebounds in their win over the Thunder and putting up 18 and 13 in the loss at Houston. But against the Bucks, Sabonis was only 1-for-10 inside the arc, finishing with 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting overall.