Community Picks: Philadelphia 76ers 0% vs Detroit Pistons 0%

If Reggie Jackson can maintain his level of play from Monday's victory, the Detroit Pistons may finally reach the postseason for the first time this decade. Jackson tries to follow up a game that had his coach singing his praises as the Pistons host the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night. ''He had a hell of a game and forget the offense,'' Van Gundy said. Continue to Article

January 26, 2016 11:27:pm EST

Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said Monday was the best defensive performance by Reggie Jackson since the point guard was traded to the organization last season. It was Jackson's offense, however, that staved off a furious Utah Jazz rally. Jackson scored 29 points and the Pistons never trailed in a 95-92 win over the Jazz. Continue to Article

January 26, 2016 12:42:am EST

Let's face it — the best and most powerful teams in the NBA don't really change from week to week. A handful of results in the middle of winter can only mean so much to a franchise's championship hopes. What does shift regularly, though, is how much interest a squad can hold over the course of a season. Every Monday, BDL's Most Interesting Power Rankings track the teams most worthy of your attention. THE TOP 15 1. Cleveland Cavaliers (30-12; last week : 2): On one hand, it seems insane to fire head coach David Blatt after a season and a half of leading the East's top team, and before an all-but-ordained return to the Finals to find out how a (hopefully) healthy Cavs roster would fare against a Western wonder. On the other, it seems reasonable to fire Blatt after losses to the San Antonio Spurs and  Golden State Warriors  offered, if not cause for panic , then evidence of what many had suspected: that this iteration of the Cavs, though capable of pummeling the East, can't trade haymakers with left-coast heavyweights. Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy — one of several respected sideline stalkers to decry Cleveland's decision — described Blatt's ouster as one that "elevated all of the coach firings into the theater of the absurd," citing all the wins under Blatt's belt as proof that the world's gone mad. "It's hard to figure out what it's all about anymore, now," he said. "I don't know if anybody even knows what the expectations of coaches are anymore." And yet, that's not really true. We all know the expectations for this coach, this star, this team; LeBron James lays it out in that Chuck D-lipsyncing Samsung ad . If the Cavaliers' players and general manager David Griffin stopped believing that Blatt could "get one for The Land" — the only metric that matters here — then they had to make the move , right? The rest of this season was already all about maximizing the talents of a nine-figure roster and solving the on-court problems that have Cleveland looking eminently vulnerable. If the powers that be weren't convinced Blatt could do those things, why not let someone else experiment in that second-half laboratory? Maybe Blatt  never really had a chance once LeBron decided to come home. Maybe he never could connect with his stars; if nothing else, we know Tyronn Lue already has James' ear. (Or vice versa.) Lue also has his work cut out for him. After promising to do things better than Blatt and to hold his stars accountable, Lue watched his Cavs score 83 points in another nationally televised home loss . He then proclaimed his players out of shape and incapable of maintaining his preferred pace. Lue has a tremendous opportunity here. If he can command the respect that the Cavs seemed reluctant to give Blatt, Cleveland could find a new gear and transform into a legitimate title threat. But if this rookie head coach can't succeed where the last "rookie" failed, we could be seeing the first signs of an early sunset on what many expected to be Cavaliers' brightest days. 2. Golden State Warriors (40-4; LW: 3): Blatt's unceremonious exit stole the headlines from Friday's other big coaching story: the return of Steve Kerr . In his first game back, Kerr earned his 40th win of the season — sorry, Luke Walton — thanks largely to Stephen Curry, who celebrated with a  39-point triple-double . Pretty decent "welcome back" gift, Steph. It's hard to imagine Kerr's arrival heralding a level of performance much higher than the one the Dubs have managed in his absence. It's not easy to improve on the league's No. 1 offense and No. 2 defense, and outscoring your opposition by nearly 14 points per 100 possessions. Still, Kerr's reintegration and the Warriors' reacclimation to his nightly presence bear watching, especially considering his second game back comes against ... 3. San Antonio Spurs (38-6; LW: 1): ... a team that hasn't lost since Christmas , that continues to boast one of the stingiest defenses since the introduction of the 3-point shot , and that has outscored its opposition by 19.1 points per 100 possessions during its 13-game winning streak. Kawhi Leonard's ascent has continued unchecked, earning a well-deserved spot in the starting lineup for the 2016 Western Conference All-Star team . Danny Green still isn't where Gregg Popovich hopes he'll be come playoff time, but he's shooting nearly 40 percent from 3 during the streak , and San Antonio's league-best second-unit — led by Manu Ginobili, Boris Diaw and Patty Mills — continues to style on fools like: We had to wait 44 games, but on Monday, our wait ends: we'll finally get to see the Spurs and Warriors square off. With Golden State just one win off the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' pace for the best record in NBA history and San Antonio only two games behind while blowing away the NBA record for margin of victory , "game of the season" seems like an understatement. Except ... INJURY REPORT - Tim Duncan (soreness, right knee) is out for tomorrow's Spurs-Warriors game. — San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) January 24, 2016 Crud. 4. Sacramento Kings (20-23; LW: 4): With apologies to Mae West , when the Kings are bad, they're good, but when they're  good , they're even better. The NBA's most delightfully bonkers bunch has won five straight and eight of 11 since a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers had George Karl questioning their guts . DeMarcus Cousins is averaging 32.5 points, 13.7 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.7 steals in 36.2 minutes per game this month. He just hung a career-high 48 on the Indiana Pacers in a game you'd imagine made Larry Bird briefly question that "stop playing big" thing: With Cousins mauling defenders and Rajon Rondo setting the table, Sacramento has turned in the league's seventh-most-potent offense in January while hanging around the middle of the pack in points allowed per possession. That defensive improvement has been aided by Willie Cauley-Stein's return from injury. The rookie big man is averaging two combined blocks and steals in just 19.5 minutes per game since coming back , and he can make a major difference on both ends: Sacramento has allowed just 99.2 points per 100 possessions with WCS on the floor since his return. The Kings have been 9.1 points-per-100 better when he's playing than when he's sitting, and are 12-7 when he starts. The versatile 7-footer stabilizes a shaky defense and adds even more volatile variance to an unpredictable team that now sits a game up on the Utah Jazz in the race for the West's eighth playoff spot. 5. Toronto Raptors (29-15; LW: 10):  The Raps have won eight straight and 12 of 15, roasting their opposition to the tune of 109.1 points per 100 possessions, the NBA's No. 5 offensive efficiency mark in that span, behind only the Spurs, Warriors, Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angeles Clippers, whom Toronto smacked around on Sunday. Kyle Lowry (20.2 points, 7.4 assists, 5.3 rebounds, 2.1 steals per game over the last month ) will start in the Eastern backcourt at next month's All-Star Game. DeMar DeRozan won't, but after this scorching stretch he's putting up (24.4 points, 4.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists over the last 15 games ) it would be a shock if he didn't join his comedy partner . Quality wins over the Clippers, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat won't erase rough losses to the Cavs and Chicago Bulls; as  Raptors Republic wrote Sunday , Toronto will "have to start winning tough games in telling fashion" to convert doubters. Right now, though, Lowry and DeRozan form as potent a one-two punch as exists in the East, backed by a deep bench that gives the Raptors hope of challenging for the No. 1 spot. 6. Oklahoma City Thunder (33-13; LW: 9): The Thunder would have ridden a 10-game winning streak into Sunday if Damian Lillard hadn't briefly gone nuclear two weeks ago. Their top two players make up 40 percent of the Western All-Stars' starting five and (roughly) one-third of the top six candidates for this year's MVP trophy. No lineup to play more than 200 minutes together has been more dominant than Oklahoma City's starters; Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams and Andre Roberson have outscored opponents by 21.5 points per 100 possessions over more than 500 minutes. The Thunder are really good and really fun — I really think that, Kevin ! Honest! — and suffer only when compared to the two historically dominant teams in front of them, and even then, only slightly. OKC will soon have its chance to turn that suffering around; six of the Thunder's seven meetings with Golden State and San Antonio are yet to come, beginning with a Feb. 6 visit to Oracle. 7. New Orleans Pelicans (16-27; LW: not ranked): As I wrote after Eric Gordon fractured his  right ring finger , if the Pelicans hope to climb out of the massive hole they dug themselves earlier this season, this seven-game homestand — which starts a stretch of 15 home games in 22 contests, with 12 coming against teams with sub-.500 road records — has to be the time. So far, so good. The Pelicans have won three straight in convincing fashion, holding the Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks to 99 points each in double-digit victories. New Orleans has now won five of six, dropping only a two-point road decision to the Memphis Grizzlies last Monday. Alvin Gentry's club has the West's sixth-best point differential in January, behind only San Antonio, Golden State, the Clips, OKC and the Kings; the porous Pelicans defense has tightened, allowing 102.3 points per 100 possessions over the last 11 games, eighth-best in the NBA since Jan. 1. Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday are trending upward while Ryan Anderson bombs away, giving Anthony Davis the support he lacked earlier this season, and the Pelicans are now just four games out of the eighth seed. The $64,000 question: if the Pelicans keep making up ground on Sacramento, will general manager Dell Demps stay the course and ride it out? Or is this recent uptick too late to prevent Pelicans brass from shaking things up before the trade deadline? 8. Los Angeles Clippers (28-16; LW: 8): After winning nine straight without Blake Griffin, the Clips came back to Earth a bit this week. They fell to the Kings without DeAndre Jordan, narrowly avoided unwelcome late-game déjà vu against the Houston Rockets, gave Blatt a going-away present in Cleveland, nuked the New York Knicks and got tenderized in Toronto . Continue to Article

January 25, 2016 11:00:am EST