NBA season unfolding like a Hollywood blockbuster

Sunday night is Oscar night, which begs the question: if this year's NBA season were summed up by the movies, which team would win Best Picture? Taking liberties with the nominations, it would be a contest between King Kong (the beastly Pistons), Walk the Line (the businesslike Spurs), Munich (Dirk Nowitzki's Mavs) and Good Night, and Good Luck (what most pundits said about the Suns when Amaré Stoudemire went down).

As for Worst Picture, that would be Crash (the Knicks).

For those who prefer hoops to Hollywood, however, don't fret about your Sunday TV fare. Instead of checking out who's on the red carpet, tune in to the Suns-Mavs (ABC) in the afternoon or the Bulls-Cavs (ESPN) in the evening. As for this week's Power Rankings, we have a new No. 1 team. The envelope, please ...

This week's high riser: PACERS (No. 7 from 12)
This week's big drop: CAVS (No. 10 from 6)

NBA Power Rankings Rank LW Team 1 2 Detroit Pistons (47-10) Thanks to the Spurs' victory over the Mavs on Thursday, Big Ben and the Boys can resume their place back atop these rankings. Plus, Tony Delk has joined them to add some potential scoring punch off the bench. 2 3 San Antonio Spurs (45-12) They cooled off the Mavs on Thursday to make it five straight and 18 of 21 overall. More important, they picked up a huge game in the race for the Southwest Division title and the No. 1 seed in the West. 3 1 Dallas Mavericks (45-12) Thursday's loss to the Spurs snapped their six-game win streak and brought them back to earth a bit. But they still had won 19 of 21 themselves, with the only losses coming at Denver and San Antonio. 4 4 Phoenix Suns (39-17) Red-hot Shawn Marion had led them to eight straight wins through Thursday as they continue to silence the Doubting Thomases, Speaking of Thomases, they are expected to add Tim for the injured Kurt (foot). 5 5 Miami Heat (37-20) Maybe Shaq is now ready to get serious. They won at Boston on Wednesday to run their win streak to a season-high seven as they continue to take advantage of a soft stretch of schedule. 6 7 Los Angeles Clippers (33-23) They held the Hornets to an NBA record-low 16 points in the second half of Wednesday's 89-67 victory, their third straight. Meanwhile, Corey Maggette (foot) is back at practice. 7 12 Indiana Pacers (29-25) Few may be taking them seriously, but they had won eight of their last 11 games -- without Jermaine O'Neal. If nothing else, those back-to-back wins at New Jersey and Washington last week should open eyes. 8 9 Memphis Grizzlies (32-26) Pau Gasol's big shot helped them slay the Knicks on Wednesday for their second straight win. But now they head out on a four-game Western road trip -- and they had lost 11 of their last 14 away from home. 9 8 New Jersey Nets (31-26) Like the Grizzlies, they too have had their struggles on the road of late. Wednesday's loss at Minnesota was their 12th in 15 away from home, and dropped their season record to 13-18 on the road. 10 6 Cleveland Cavaliers (33-26) Flip Murray saved their bacon in Thursday's win at Chicago that snapped a five-game losing streak. Still, it's going to take a few more victories to quell that talk of a third straight late-season Cleveland collapse.