Kobe Bryant didn't get traded. The league's new Big Three shined in its debut. And one city welcomed NBA basketball back to town (New Orleans) while another moved a step closer to losing its team (Seattle).
The first week of the 2007-08 regular season is in the books, and those were just a few of the stories making headlines.
Meanwhile, Houston sent an early message that it intends to crack the West elite this season. The Rockets, under new coach Rick Adelman, started 3-0 for the first time since the 1996-97 season. It will be interesting to see if Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming can keep it going this week against the Mavs (Mon.) and Spurs (Tues.), but for now they have earned the top spot in our first regular-season edition of the Power Rankings.
(Send comments to siwriters@simail.com.)
| NBA Power Rankings |
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McGrady already owns the season's top scoring game (47 points vs. the Jazz), but that's not why the Rockets rate the early edge in these Rankings. They are here because as they wait for Adelman's high-octane offense to take hold, they have shown they can still play defense like they did under Jeff Van Gundy. In other words, opponents don't know what to prepare for right now. |
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Checklist for the defending champs heading into the first week of the season: Pick up rings (check); avoid Heat-like meltdown in opener (check); get Tim Duncan to agree to contract extension (check); watch Manu Ginobili feast on opponent's second unit (check). Yep, the Spurs are off to a pretty good start. |
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It's a new look in Big D with Eddie Jones in the starting lineup and Jason Terry coming off the bench. Meanwhile, the Mavs have shown no evidence of any serious playoff hangover, as they're already off to a better start than last year's 0-4. Not bad considering coach Avery Johnson still hasn't had his intended starting five yet. |
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Here's a new wrinkle for the team that never seems to have a starter miss a game: Rip Hamilton missed the first two of the season to witness the birth of his son. Of course, Chauncey Billups, Tayshaun Prince and Rasheed Wallace picked up the slack and they won anyway. |
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Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen didn't take long to start paying dividends. Garnett racked up 22 points and 20 boards in their opening win over the Wizards, while Allen bagged the game-winning three-pointer in OT to beat the Raptors. |
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You knew this was going to happen: Kobe doesn't get traded, and he and his teammates respond by playing with renewed energy. A 21-point blowout over the Suns. A 10-point win over the Jazz. Shades of last year, when the Lakers were a big surprise early before the injuries caught up to them. |
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Looks as if they're serious about defending their Atlantic crown. They even set a franchise record for biggest margin of victory on the road with that 106-69 rout of the Nets in New Jersey. More important, Chris Bosh has shown no ill effects so far from that sore knee that dogged him during the preseason. |
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They celebrated their return to the Big Easy by making it look that way in victories over the Kings and Blazers, respectively, before their New Orleans fans. But what really has to have coach Byron Scott smiling is their pesky defense and the way they hung on to win Sunday night in Denver. |
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It's one thing to get torched by T-Mac for 47; it's another to let Andrew Bynum dominate like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. At least they've established that last year's Western Conference semifinals victory was no fluke: They're already 2-0 against the Warriors this season. |
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Yes, they're missing injured point guards Chucky Atkins (groin) and Anthony Carter (hand) and still trying to work Kenyon Martin back into the lineup, but if they want to live up to Carmelo Anthony's goal of 60 wins, they can't afford to lose too many games like Sunday's home contest to the Hornets. |
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