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

Last week: Lost at Houston 132-108, lost at New Orleans 115-104, lost at Milwaukee 137-129, lost at Cleveland 110-104

This week: Monday at Chicago, Wednesday vs. Oklahoma City, Friday vs. Chicago

With Damian Lillard missing two games with back spasms, the Portland Trail Blazers lost four straight games last week to fall to 1-4 on their current six-game road trip.

The Blazers did make some headlines last week by signing Carmelo Anthony, but they also went deeper into the frontcourt injury problems, first waiving Pau Gasol — who is still trying to come back from a foot injury — and losing Hassan Whiteside for two games with a hip injury. That left journeyman Anthony Tolliver — a stretch 4 — to start the last two games at center.

CJ McCollum did what he could to take up the scoring slack with Lillard sidelined, including ripping Milwaukee for a season-high 37 points to go with 10 assists, six rebounds and three blocks in Portland’s loss on Thursday night.

For the week, McCollum put up 26.0 points, 5.8 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 1.5 blocks and 1.3 steals in 37.2 minutes per game, shooting 47.2 percent overall and hitting 41.0 percent on 9.8 3-point attempts per game.

Last week: Beat Cleveland 123-105, lost at Philadelphia 109-104, lost to San Antonio 111-104, lost to Brooklyn 103-101

This week: Wednesday at Toronto, Friday vs. Philadelphia

A blowout win over the Cavaliers started the week on the right foot for the New York Knicks, but they closed the week with three tough losses, including two at home to the Spurs and Nets.

Even in with just two games, the Knicks have a gauntlet this week, with a road game at Toronto followed by a home game against Philadelphia. New York is still without point guard Elfrid Payton until at least Friday as he recovers from a strained right hamstring, but Frank Ntilikina appears to have earned the starting nod for now.

Marcus Morris continued to be the offensive spark plug for New York, scoring 23 points in the win over Cleveland and averaging 22.8 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 33.8 minutes per game for the week.

He shot 44.6 percent overall and a smoking-hot 66.7 percent on 6.0 3-point attempts per game. Morris’ 19.3 points per game average is more than five points higher than his career-best of 14.1, set with the Pistons in 2015-16, and his 6.4 rebounds per game is also a career-high.