NBA power rankings for start of March

By Rick Morris

NOTES: Rankings from start of season are in parentheses.

TOP TIER

1 Houston (3-3-3-3-2-1)

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

3 Toronto (9-7-6-5-3-4)

4 Cleveland (5-2-4-6-11-3)

5 Boston (2-4-2-2-4-5)

SECOND TIER

6 Portland (13-8-13-13-10-11)

7 Oklahoma City (18-19-10-11-9-13)

8 New Orleans (12-15-15-14-15-17)

9 Denver (10-9-12-12-12-10)

10 Indiana (22-16-18-18-13-8)

11 Philadelphia (15-10-17-17-17-14)

12 LA Clippers (24-23-19-16-16-15)

13 Utah (19-13-20-23-19-16)

14 Washington (8-12-9-9-7-6)

15 Milwaukee (16-11-14-15-8-7)

16 Minnesota (7-14-7-7-6-12)

17 San Antonio (6-5-5-4-5-9)

THIRD TIER

18 LA Lakers (21-21-29-27-21-20)

19 Charlotte (23-22-24-24-20-21)

20 Miami (20-18-11-8-14-19)

21 Detroit (4-6-8-10-18-18)

22 Orlando (11-20-28-29-28-22)

23 Atlanta (30-28-30-30-29-23)

24 Sacramento (28-26-26-28-30-24)

25 Chicago (27-30-21-21-24-26)

26 New York (17-17-16-22-22-25)

27 Dallas (29-29-23-20-27-29)

28 Brooklyn (26-25-25-25-26-27)

29 Phoenix (25-24-22-19-25-30)

30 Memphis (14-27-27-26-23-28)

BIGGEST RISERS: New Orleans (9 spots), Oklahoma City (6 spots), Portland (5 spots), LA Clippers, Philadelphia and Utah (3 spots)

BIGGEST FALLERS: Milwaukee, San Antonio and Washington (8 spots), Minnesota (4 spots), Detroit (3 spots)

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

1 WEST 229

2 EAST 245