NBA power rankings for start of March

By Rick Morris

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

FIRST TIER

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

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

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

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

SECOND TIER

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

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

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

THIRD TIER

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOURTH TIER

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

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

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

FIFTH TIER

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

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

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

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

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

SIXTH TIER

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

SEVENTH TIER

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

EIGHTH TIER

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

BIGGEST RISERS: Cleveland (4 spots), Charlotte and Washington (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Atlanta and New York (4 spots), New Orleans (3 spots)

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

1 SOUTHWEST 51

2 NORTHWEST 67

3 PACIFIC 75

4 SOUTHEAST 80

5 CENTRAL 83

6 ATLANTIC 108

RANKINGS BY CONFERENCE

1 WEST 193

2 EAST 271