Milwaukee Bucks remain atop NBA Power Rankings by taking care of business

Last week: Lost at Minnesota 122-115 (OT), lost at Dallas 123-111, lost to Toronto 121-102

This week: Monday at Orlando, Tuesday vs. Oklahoma City, Friday vs. Miami

The Brooklyn Nets opened the week by committing the one sin teams seldom get away with — letting a bad, short-handed team hang around at home. That cost them an overtime loss at Minnesota and by the time the week was done, Brooklyn’s losing streak had extended to five and the Nets were two games under the .500 mark for the first time since they were 6-8 on Nov. 20.

The silver lining in Saturday’s dark cloud — blowing a 16-point lead at home in an eventual 19-point loss to the Raptors — was the return of Caris LeVert, who had missed 24 games with a thumb injury. LeVert scored 13 points in 16 minutes coming off the bench. Turnovers continued to be a problem for Brooklyn — they averaged 17.7 per game last week and had 24 Saturday.

Spencer Dinwiddie continued to put up numbers, but was not extremely efficient in the process last week, averaging 26.0 points, 6.7 assists and 3.3 rebounds in 31.3 minutes per game, shooting 43.9 percent overall and hitting 6-of-18 from deep. Dinwiddie had 36 points with eight assists and five rebounds — going 12-for-31 — in the loss at Minnesota on Monday.

Last week: Lost to Atlanta 101-93, won at Washington 122-101, beat Miami 105-85, lost to Utah 109-96

This week: Monday vs. Brooklyn, Wednesday vs. Washington, Friday at Phoenix

During a week in which the Orlando Magic lost Jonathan Isaac for at least two months with a severely sprained knee, they pulled off some surprising results — as in losing at home to the Hawks, who have the worst record in the league, and beating the Heat, the team with the fourth-best record in the NBA,  at home by 20.

It all made perfect sense, except it didn’t. Isaac was hurt early in the Magic’s blowout win at Washington on Wednesday and Orlando will get two more games at home against struggling teams — the Nets and Wizards — before embarking on a six-game road trip that includes five games out west and ends in … Charlotte.

Because that’s the perfect place after five games in Pacific Time, right? Nikola Vucevic continues to round back into form, averaging 22.3 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 32.9 minutes per game over the Magic’s four outings last week, shooting 48.0 percent overall and 41.7 percent on 6.0 3-point attempts per game.