NBA power rankings for mid-March

By Rick Morris

Previous rankings are in parentheses, from start of December to present.

FIRST TIER

1 San Antonio (3-4-4-2-4-4-4)

2 Indiana (1-1-2-1-2-2-1)

3 Oklahoma City (5-2-1-3-1-1-3)

4 Miami (2-5-3-4-5-3-2)

5 LA Clippers (7-7-6-7-6-6-6)

6 Houston (6-6-7-8-7-5-5)

SECOND TIER

7 Portland (4-3-5-5-3-7-7)

8 Golden State (9-10-9-6-9-11-9)

THIRD TIER

9 Memphis (15-17-17-16-10-10-12)

10 Dallas (10-11-10-9-11-8-8)

11 Toronto (21-23-15-11-13-12-13)

12 Chicago (18-20-22-14-14-13-11)

13 Phoenix (13-9-8-10-8-9-10)

14 Brooklyn (25-24-24-22-18-14-15)

15 Washington (17-21-14-15-17-17-14)

16 Minnesota (14-14-13-17-16-16-16)

17 Charlotte (19-19-18-23-19-20-17)

FOURTH TIER

18 Denver (8-8-16-12-15-18-18)

19 Atlanta (12-13-11-13-12-15-19)

FIFTH TIER

20 New York (28-27-27-19-21-22-26)

21 New Orleans (16-12-12-18-20-19-22)

22 Cleveland (26-22-28-26-24-24-20)

23 Detroit (20-18-19-20-22-21-21)

24 Sacramento (27-26-25-21-26-26-24)

25 Boston (23-15-20-28-28-25-25)

26 Utah (30-30-29-24-23-23-23)

27 LA Lakers (11-16-21-27-25-27-27)

SIXTH TIER

28 Orlando (22-25-23-29-29-28-28)

SEVENTH TIER

29 Milwaukee (29-29-30-30-30-30-30)

30 Philadelphia (24-28-26-25-27-29-29)

BIGGEST RISERS: New York (6 spots), Memphis and San Antonio (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Phoenix and Utah (3 spots)

RANKINGS BY DIVISION – 1 POINT PER RANKING SPOT FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL TEAM, LOWEST SCORE IS BEST

1 SOUTHWEST 47

2 NORTHWEST 70

3 PACIFIC 77

4 SOUTHEAST 83

5 CENTRAL 88

6 ATLANTIC 100

RANKINGS BY CONFERENCE

1 WEST 194

2 EAST 271