NBA Power Rankings Week 2: The rise of the Atlanta Hawks

Last Week: Beat the Washington Wizards 120-113, Beat Oklahoma City Thunder 118-107, Lost to Philadelphia 76ers 116-92, Lost to Oklahoma City Thunder 108-99

This Week: 1/4/2021 vs. Cleveland Cavaliers, 1/5/2021 vs. Cleveland Cavaliers, 1/8/2021 at Houston Rockets, 1/9/2021 at Dallas Mavericks

The Orlando Magic were due for a lull and hit it with a two-game skid to end the week. The first loss could be forgiven because they were going up against a superior Philadelphia 76ers group and missing Terrence Ross. Evan Fournier’s injury early on only poured salt in the wound.

Despite the two losses, Orlando is clearly better than the pundits projected. Steve Clifford is employing a more fast-paced offense and his guards, in particular, are benefitting from it. If you can ignore the lack of a jump shot, Markelle Fultz has been a revelation and it looks like the Magic made the right bet giving him a contract extension.

Rookie Cole Anthony finished the week on a sour note but has been super solid off the bench so far. The amount that the team relies on the bench production of Terrence Ross is mildly alarming, to say the least, but he may have been the best reserve in the league thus far. He is a gunner and at times carried them on his back to wins, hitting bomb after bomb to extend leads.

Losing Fournier and rookie Chuma Okeke over the course of a couple of days is a rough beat for the team. Hopefully the former is able to get his back spasms in order quickly for the team to get back on track.