NBA Power Rankings Week 7: The revenge of the Los Angeles Lakers

Last Week: Beat New York Knicks 129-115, Lost Brooklyn Nets 124-120, Beat Cleveland Cavaliers 121-99, Lost to Boston Celtics 119-115

This Week: 2/7 vs. Sacramento Kings, 2/10 at Minnesota Timberwolves, 2/12 at Chicago Bulls

In a week against two potential play-in teams and two top tier contenders, the LA Clippers split the slate. They were able to take care of the lesser teams in impressive fashion, dropping 129 and 121 points against the sixth and ninth ranked defensive team, respectively. They also lost offensive contests against the Brooklyn Nets and Boston Celtics

The issues exposed against the better teams are enough to give pause for the potential title hopes of the Clippers. As the game slows down into half court sets and every basket is of the utmost importance, the lack of a true playmaker tends to haunt the Clippers.

Paul George (26.3 points, 5.7 assists, 5.3 rebounds and 1.0 steals in three games this week) and Kawhi Leonard (28.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals in four games) are tremendous individual talents on both sides of the ball but are not creators of offense for their teammates.

Too often the offense will clog in the half-court and Patrick Beverley is not the point guard to change that. Neither is Reggie Jackson. The Clippers are great and this is nitpicking. But after watching this be the exact way they unraveled against the Denver Nuggets last season in the Western Conference Sems, it should not go unnoticed.