NBA Power Rankings: Milwaukee Bucks reclaim top spot after Week 5

Last week: Beat Oklahoma City 112-107, won at Oklahoma City 130-127, won at Memphis 109-108

This week: Monday at San Antonio. Wednesday at New Orleans, Friday vs. Washington

It was three games against struggling teams last week for the Los Angeles Lakers, but that did not equal an easy time of it. The Lakers were pushed twice by the Thunder in a home-and-home before narrowly beating the stubborn Vancouver … Memphis Grizzlies on Saturday.

The Lakers now have the third-highest net rating in the NBA per Cleaning the Glass, which factors out time played in blowouts after the outcome has been decided. And as mentioned earlier, they have just three wins over teams that are currently better than .500.

The combined winning percentage of the teams they beat in their 14 victories is .419, lowest among the top five in this week’s rankings (the Clippers are at .477, followed by Milwaukee at .445, Dallas at.431 and Boston at .427). This is the first week that number has factored into the rankings (a month’s worth of data to try and eliminate some of the small-sample noise).

Anthony Davis, meanwhile, continues to play like he was worth everything the Lakers surrendered, going for 33 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in the win at Oklahoma City on Friday. For the week, he was at 29.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 2.7 steals and 2.3 blocks in 35.7 minutes a game, shooting 50.9 percent overall and a robust 10-for-18 from deep.

Last week: Beat San Antonio 117-110, beat Golden State 142-94, beat Cleveland 143-101, won at Houston 137-123

This week: Tuesday vs. Clippers, Friday at Phoenix

While it would have been understandable to dismiss the Dallas Mavericks blowing out the Warriors and Cavaliers at home, the Mavericks upped the ante on Sunday, going to Houston and handily beating the Rockets — leading by as much as 22 and never trailing.

That pushes Dallas’ winning streak to five consecutive games and Sunday’s win pushed the Mavericks past the Rockets into the lead in the Southwest Division (a feat that, along with finding a quarter on the street will leave you with 25 cents and little else).

This is happening despite the continued scuffling of Kristaps Porzingis, who is shooting just 41.6 percent overall in his first action since a torn ACL in February 2018. Porzingis is rebounding at a career-high 9.1 per game and is protecting the rim at 2.2 blocks a night, so it’s a matter of him finding the shooting touch.

Luka Doncic, meanwhile, is on fire. His 35-point, 11-assist, 10-rebound triple-double against Golden State came in only 25½ minutes and for the week, Doncic averaged — averaged!— 37.0 points, 11.8 assists, 8.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals in 30.9 minutes per game while shooting 55.4 percent overall and draining 44.4 percent on 11.3 3-point tries a game.