Power Rankings: Lakers finally rise above the rest, claim No. 1 spot

30. Minnesota Timberwolves (Last week’s ranking: 28):Love’s finally reached 50 straight games with a double-double. For the first time since the days of Dennis Rodman, rebounding is finally cool. Yesterday, on Sports Center, they showed highlights of the Love Machine grabbing rebounds; it was unquestionably the first time that I have ever seen rebounds be the dominant highlights of a game recap. Sadly, Kevin Love is stuck in the dismalness of Minnesota, where NBA players go to die. I’m sure Minnesota sends weekly tapes of Kevin Love to Ricky Rubio, but I don’t even think Kobe Bryant or LeBron James could get that kid in a Wolves uni.

29. Cleveland Cavaliers (29): They lose by an average of 10 points per game and although they somehow seem to have the Knicks’ number, they are still a dreadful team to watch play. Their starting lineup (Ramon Sessions, Anthony Parker, Alonzo Gee, Samardo Samuels and JJ Hickson) wouldn’t even make a quality bench for a championship-winning team.

28. Sacramento Kings (30): I’m really running out of things to say about the Kings. They are immature and inexperienced, plain and simple. Cousins is starting to get his act together, but the Kings have Houston, Orlando, San Antonio (road) and New Orleans (road) next – which probably means an 0-4 outing and another spot next week in the barrel’s bottom.

27. Washington Wizards (27): The Wizards have won only twice in their last 11 games. Their opponents in those two contests: Minnesota and Cleveland. They just need to hurry up and hit the offseason so they can get John Wall some capable running mates. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rashard Lewis’ knee is “giving up” rather than “giving out.”

26. Toronto Raptors (26): Before I made these rankings I really thought that Toronto was at least going to be out of the bottom five. Andrea Bargnani, DeMar DeRozan and José Calderon have all been putting up big numbers lately, and I thought that Toronto had at least been winning some games. Unfortunately for them, good individual stats don’t always translate into wins for the team, especially when the word “defense” sounds foreign to them. Maybe they define defense differently in Canada and the players are just confused.

Next: 25-21

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