NBA Power Rankings Week 21: Milwaukee Bucks won’t match Warriors
By Phil Watson
Orlando Magic. 15. team. 38. . 28-35. Previous:
Last week: Lost to Portland 130-107, lost at Miami 116-113, won at Minnesota 132-118
This week: Sunday at Houston, Tuesday at Memphis, Thursday vs. Chicago
The good news for the Orlando Magic is they swept their season series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, winning at home on Feb. 28 and in Minneapolis on Friday night. Less good was losing all three games in between those two victories.
Orlando is 1-1 on a four-game road trip that continues Sunday at Houston and ends Tuesday at Memphis and they are 4½ games clear of Washington in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, while the Magic are just a half-game behind the Nets, who fired coach Kenny Atkinson on Saturday.
Nikola Vucevic continued to fire the Orlando offense last week, averaging 26.7 points, 13.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 35.9 minutes per game over the three games, shooting 54.1 percent from the floor and hitting 5-of-12 from 3-point range. He had 22 points with 16 rebounds and seven dimes over 40 minutes in Wednesday’s loss at Miami.
69. . 27-36. Previous: . New Orleans Pelicans. 14. team
Last week: Lost to Lakers 122-114, lost to Minnesota 139-134, lost at Dallas 127-123 (OT), beat Miami 110-104
This week: Sunday at Minnesota, Wednesday at Sacramento, Friday at Utah, Saturday at Clippers
If the New Orleans Pelicans wind up falling short of the eighth spot in the Western Conference, they may very well point to last week as part of where it went sideways. Losing at home to the Lakers is no crime; Los Angeles’ 25-6 road record is the best in the NBA.
Losing at home to the woeful Timberwolves who are without their best player in Karl-Anthony Towns, however, is inexcusable at this time of year. New Orleans fell 4½ games behind the Grizzlies for that eighth-place spot when Memphis beat the Hawks Saturday night and that is an awful lot of ground to make up in 19 games, particularly with two other teams in between.
But even at 1-3, it was a terrific week for Lonzo Ball, as the third-year point guard put up 21.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 2.3 steals and 1.0 blocks in 36.5 minutes per game. Ball shot 53.4 percent overall and was a white-hot 51.4 percent on 8.8 3-point attempts a night. He scored 26 points with eight dimes, five boards and three swipes in the loss to the Timberwolves.