NBA rankings roundup: Loss to woeful 76ers doesn’t go unnoticed
Any week that includes a baffling homecourt loss to a team that comes in with a 2-31 record will get the attention of the nation’s NBA power-rankers. And that 110-105 clunker against the Philadelphia 76ers was an attention-of-the-wrong-kind grabber.
Though the Kings dipped in three of the polls (including a five-spot slide according to SI.com), they curiously held serve in ESPN’s rankings.
Soaring (sort of) to 13th in Yahoo’s Most Interesting Rankings is the sort of the attention the Kings could likely do without.
The Bee’s Jason Jones ranked the Kings 22nd, holding steady from last week.
The polls:
NBA.com: 24th down from 22nd. From the site: “The Kings have allowed a league-low 23 drives per game, but let the Sixers drive 39 times on Wednesday, because they were too spread out and too slow defensively.”
Kings lose to the now 3-31 Sixers... Excuse me while I go into a dark room and cry
— Riley Shill (@rileyshill88) December 31, 2015NBC Sports: 22nd down from 20th. From the site: “Willie Cauley-Stein is back, which isn’t necessarily great for the Kings trying to rack up wins – he’s a flawed rookie – but it is good for trying to develop him.”
ESPN: 24th, holding steady from last week. From the site: “ … we won't rest now until (Omri) Casspi is booked as a 3-point contest participant in Toronto.”
Omer Caspi and Steph Curry's mini-3pt battle was sick...but of course Curry getting the last laugh was just....WHEW https://t.co/nC7B3ddzDR
— Keith N. (@JusAire) December 30, 2015CBS Sports: 19th, up from 20th. From the site: “They play the Thunder, Mavs, Warriors and Clippers in the next two weeks. So what's going to be the next super drama they put themselves through?”
SI.com: 25th down from 20th. From the site: “ … after giving up 122, 110 and 119 to the Warriors, Suns (!) and Sixers (!!), they (Kings) now have (the NBA’s) worst defense, giving up 107.7. The marathon continues.”
Yahoo: 13th up (or down) from unranked. The site’s rankings are called Most Interesting’ so control your excitement over this seemingly lofty appraisal. The struggling Lakers were ranked 14th. From the site: “They get in a shootout with the best team in the league, mostly succeed thanks to Omri Casspi, and then disintegrate after their cornerstone maxed-out franchise star gets himself tossed. They lose convincingly to the worst team in the league, prompting their famously prickly coach to call them gutless defenders.”
Compiled by Jeff Caraska
This story was originally published January 4, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "NBA rankings roundup: Loss to woeful 76ers doesn’t go unnoticed."