NBA power rankings for start of April

By Rick Morris

NOTES: Rankings from start of season are in parentheses.

TOP TIER

1 Golden State (1-1-2-2-1-1-2)

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

3 Cleveland (2-3-1-1-3-4-3)

4 Houston (9-4-4-4-4-3-4)

5 Boston (8-10-9-7-5-5-5)

SECOND TIER

6 Toronto (5-5-5-6-8-11-10)

7 Utah (11-7-7-8-7-7-7)

8 LA Clippers (4-6-6-5-6-10-8)

9 Oklahoma City (10-9-8-11-12-12-9)

10 Washington (23-17-12-13-9-6-6)

11 Memphis (7-8-11-10-11-8-11)

THIRD TIER

12 Milwaukee (15-12-14-12-17-19-16)

13 Portland (17-19-23-19-19-17-17)

14 Indiana (14-14-20-15-13-13-12)

15 Atlanta (13-18-13-9-10-9-13)

16 Denver (20-21-18-23-15-14-14)

17 Miami (27-24-26-29-22-15-15)

18 New Orleans (22-25-22-18-25-26-23)

19 Charlotte (12-11-10-14-16-23-22)

20 Chicago (6-15-16-16-14-16-19)

21 Detroit (18-16-21-22-20-18-18)

22 Dallas (29-29-28-28-23-20-20)

23 Minnesota (25-26-24-24-21-21-21)

24 New York (19-13-15-17-18-22-24)

25 Sacramento (24-22-17-20-27-24-25)

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

27 Orlando (21-20-19-21-26-27-27)

FOURTH TIER

28 Phoenix (26-27-27-27-28-29-28)

29 Los Angeles Lakers (16-23-25-26-29-28-29)

FIFTH TIER

30 Brooklyn (28-28-30-30-30-30-30)

BIGGEST RISERS: New Orleans (5 spots), Milwaukee, Portland and Toronto (4 spots), Charlotte (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Washington (4 spots), Detroit (3 spots)

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

1 WEST 216

2 EAST 249