Power Rankings, Week 23: Joel Embiid powers Sixers to No. 1 spot
Joel Embiid has the Philadelphia 76ers right in tune as the final 3 weeks of the season begin.
There are just three weeks left in the 2022-23 regular season, with 160 games to be played over 20 days (no games on April 3).
A few teams would probably be happy to start the playoffs right now. The Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers and Sacramento Kings are probably content with both their seeding and how well they’ve been playing. The Brooklyn Nets and Dallas Mavericks might be happy to end the season with guaranteed playoff spots.
But for other teams, there’s still a lot of work to be done. Even if most teams in seventh-10th place in each conference are OK with qualifying for the playoffs through the Play-In Tournament, they’d all prefer to be in seventh or eighth place instead of ninth or 10th.
There’s also a Kia MVP race to sort out, with a nice round-robin of head-to-head matchups starting with Milwaukee-Denver on Saturday. So let’s see what we’ve got over these next three weeks and continue to enjoy the journey.
Note: For the bottom three teams in each conference (though they all haven’t been officially eliminated), it’s time to start recapping the season. This week’s notes for those teams will be focused on their offense, and we’ll dig into their defense next week.
Plus-Minus Players of the Week
- Right Way: Joel Embiid (PHI) was a plus-56 in three games last week.
- Wrong Way: Killian Hayes (DET) was a minus-52 in four games last week.
Teams of the Week
- Make It Last Forever: Philadelphia (3-0) — The Sixers have a 10, 9, 8-game winning streak, having won the eight games by an average of 14.8 points.
- Something Just Ain’t Right: Portland (0-3) — Nobody can match the Blazers’ post-All-Star swoon of a year ago, but nobody’s done a better imitation than the Blazers themselves.
East vs. West
- The East is 215-194 (.526) against the West in interconference games after going 14-13 last week.
Schedule strength through Week 22
- Toughest: 1. Detroit, 2. Charlotte, 3. Brooklyn
- Easiest: 1. Denver, 2. Philadelphia, 3. Sacramento
- Schedule strength is based on cumulative opponent record, and adjusted for home vs. away and days of rest before a game.
Movement in the Rankings
- High jumps of the week: Chicago (+5), Oklahoma City (+5), Toronto (+4)
- Free falls of the week: Atlanta (-4), Minnesota (-4)
Week 23 Team to Watch
- Miami — The Heat are in seventh place, four games in the loss column behind the fifth-place Knicks and two behind the sixth-place Nets. And they have time to catch one or both for one of the final two guaranteed playoff spots in the East, because they have three games against them in the next 10 days. They’ll host the Knicks on Wednesday and the Nets on Saturday, with a visit to Madison Square Garden also schedule for next week.
Previous Power Rankings
- Last week: Bucks hold No. 1 spot as Sixers & Kings rise
- Film Study: How Anthony Davis is playing big to keep the Lakers afloat
- This time last year: Playoff races heating up with 3 weeks left — LeBron James passed Karl Malone to become second all-time in scoring and Nikola Jokic dropped a pair of transition dimes in Philly. Draymond Green returned from a two-month absence and Brook Lopez returned from five-month absence. Kyrie Irving scored 60 points in Orlando and Saddiq Bey dropped 51 in the same building two nights later. Keldon Johnson beat the Warriors with a put-back, and Spencer Dinwiddie hit a buzzer-beating 3 (to beat the Nets) in Brooklyn.
- The archive: NBA.com Power Rankings
OffRtg: Points scored per 100 possessions (League Rank)
DefRtg: Points allowed per 100 possessions (League Rank)
NetRtg: Point differential per 100 possessions (League Rank)
Pace: Possessions per 48 minutes (League Rank)
The league has averaged 113.9 points scored per 100 possessions and 99.8 possessions (per team) per 48 minutes this season.
NBA.com’s Power Rankings, released every Monday during the season, are just one man’s opinion. If you have an issue with the rankings, or have a question or comment for John Schuhmann, send him an e-mail or contact him via Twitter.
