NBA power rankings 2026: Thunder and Spurs remain on top; Hawks and Hornets keep charging

Two weeks remain in the NBA season, roughly, and the inevitable impatience for these postseason questions we want answered come alongside that. The most notable developments, at this point, are injuries to superstars that may have deep effects for both the postseason and the post-season awards. But we’ll get to that. Here are the penultimate ALLCITY Network power rankings this season.

TIER ONE: Genuine, unquestioned contenders

1. Oklahoma City Thunder (56-15)

What they’ve been up to: The Thunder have the league’s best record (14-1) since the All-Star break, one that has come in spite of a 16th-ranked offense in that span. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been about his normal self, still adding to his exclusive consecutive 20-plus-points streak, and Jared McCain has added shooting spice to the team’s designated handoff actions, but Aaron Wiggins and Lu Dort, in particular, have seen their efficiency tumble. The continued Jalen Williams absence has troubled Oklahoma City’s half-court efficiency — he’s planned to return Monday — and Oklahoma City hasn’t created quite as many live ball turnovers compared to last season’s defense buzzsaw.

These are first class problems, one that doesn’t change the fact this remains the league’s best team.

2. San Antonio Spurs (53-18)

What they’ve been up to: San Antonio has gone 21-2 since Feb. 1 with more than half of those wins coming against teams better than .500. They’ve been the league’s second-best team by both net rating and point differential against top-10 opponents; Victor Wembanyama’s continued ascension has soared to stratospheric levels. Even San Antonio’s best case scenarios this season didn’t involve such staggeringly clear positioning among the league’s contenders. For every not-quite-playoff-tested player and component of this team, there’s little doubt they’re prepared to win a series and quite possibly more once the postseason arrives.

3. Boston Celtics (47-24)

What they’ve been up to: Boston has the Eastern Conference’s toughest remaining schedule, which could risk their chance to hold onto the No. 2 seed; New York is only one loss behind them. Jayson Tatum’s return has been understandably slow: He shot 3-of-15 last week against the Memphis Grizzlies and has converted just 39 percent of his shots (and 29 percent of his 3s) in the eight games played thus far.

Tatum has time to find his seaworthiness, of course. Boston threatens as the East’s highest-ceilinged team so long as Tatum becomes something close to the All-NBA player we’re accustom to. It’s just notable, to this extent, the starting five since Tatum has returned has struggled to find its offensive groove as of yet.

4. New York Knicks (47-25)

What they’ve been up to: New York face some teams it needed to beat, and did, erasing doubts that still linger from that befuddling 2-9 stretch halfway through the year. Mitchell Robinson is the league’s best offensive rebounder: He devours essentially one out of every four shots missed during his time on the court. They have every marker of a contender: top-five offensive and defensive units, star-level players, variety in how they play. This week features an upcoming test against Oklahoma City in the panhandle state, which should be another chance to garner trust their numbers suggest they deserve.

5. Detroit Pistons (51-19)

What they’ve been up to: Cade Cunningham’s out for at least two weeks, quite possibly longer, with a brutal and brutally timed collapse lung. Detroit has gone 7-2 this season with Cunningham, which offers some hope they’ll remain atop the Eastern Conference despite Cunningham being the league’s most singular engine to any team this season. (Perhaps that’s slightly debatable, but it’s close enough to the truth.) The 65-game rule must be abolished; it’ll be entire unfair to the history books that look back at this season if Cunningham’s story isn’t acknowledged with an official award.

TIER TWO: Now’s the time to prove it

6. Los Angeles Lakers (46-25)

What they’ve been up to: Los Angeles has 12 wins in 13 games, and these wins finally come with no oh-but-the-point-differential asterisks, ones that concerned and plagued the Lakers’ success this season. Sure, Los Angeles is still running seven wins hotter than expected, but we always knew what talent existed on this roster, even without perfectly fitting pieces around Luka Dončić. The single most important stat to this winning romp: The Lakers’ three-star lineups have a plus-18.3 net rating in this stretch. That those three — Dončić, Austin Reaves, LeBron James — finally click together is the single thing that most soothes concerns we had about the fit’s clunkiness. Also, it’s unbelievable how good Dončić remains, a shoe-in All-NBA first-teamer.

7. Denver Nuggets (44-28)

What they’ve been up to: Denver has the league’s best offense and, at worst, the league’s second-best player. The Nikola Jokić Rules have evolved into something akin to a nightly judo wrestling show between mismatched weight classes against most opponents, which has frustrated him and been one reason for his less impactful second half of the season. And, by less impactful, I really just mean he no longer indisputably holds ‘best player alive’ status, a relatively meaningless narrative-driven label we probably delight in discussing too much.

Every single team is going with the same defense against Jokic. No one is trying to guard him anymore. Just put a guard on him and act like your dog does when you’re trying to do the dishes.

— Adam Mares (@Adam_Mares) March 22, 2026

Peyton Watson’s return creates more opportunity for Denver to explore smaller lineups without Jonas Valančiūnas when Jokić sits, leading to the two DNP-CDs that Valančiūnas earned in the past couple games. This isn’t entirely shocking. Valančiūnas was always understood to be a postseason question mark; he certainly wasn’t likely to feature much, if at all, in the long-hoped-for rematch against the Thunder. Now finally whole and healthy, it’s wise David Adelman has chosen to tally up some data points on his options before the postseason’s arrival.

8. Cleveland Cavaliers (44-27)

What they’ve been up to: Cleveland hasn’t turned into anything uniquely different since the trade deadline that it wasn’t before: This remains the same basketball squad with echoes of last season’s dominant romp of the Eastern Conference, just one which still seems that special sauce isn’t quite in their control. Sometimes, it’s there, and you wonder why Cleveland shouldn’t be the conference’s best team as it pours in 3-pointers and two-way play. Other times, the recipe’s just missing something: no tang, not enough zest, and no certainty it can be corrected with what’s left in the fridge.

Max Strus made his debut last week from a long spell on the milk carton; he exploded for 24 in his return and has combined for 11 points in the three games played since then. He and Dean Wade still offer the Cavaliers’ best chance to be their fifth-starter skeleton key, however.

9. Houston Rockets (43-27)

What they’ve been up to: Reed Sheppard has been bumped back into the starting lineup, and he has stood out often for his offensive simplicity: He runs pick-and-rolls with on-ball rapidity, makes first- and second-level reads decisively, takes every 3 he can when there’s space, and attacks closeouts when that space closes too quickly.

That said, Houston’s starting lineup with Sheppard in Tari Eason’s place still doesn’t have good statistical bones, a lingering question for a team that never attempted to seriously replace Fred VanVleet’s importance. There are times when the clutch offense devolves into Kevin Durant- or Amen Thompson-led messiness that sometimes can’t even get downhill of the 3-point line. That said, this remains one of the league’s six teams with a top-10 offense and defense.

10. Minnesota Timberwolves (44-28)

What they’ve been up to: Minnesota simply must bide its time during the season’s final few weeks and await Anthony Edwards return from a problematic knee, one which has elevated Ayo Dosunmu into the starting five with middling offensive results (which, I should make clear, is to be expected). Julius Randle flipped his usual routine: He started this year great but has tailed off in the season’s second half despite most often doing that the other way around.

Still, the Timberwolves still beat the Celtics without Edwards around, a performance that probably said more about Boston’s slight foibles of late than anything meaningful for Minnesota. It’s still a take-wins-where-you-can situation for the Wolves, however, which means there’s nothing worth overthinking about that result.

TIER THREE: Only eight teams win a round

11. Charlotte Hornets (37-34)

What they’ve been up to: Charlotte, finally, has decisively moved over the .500 mark and there’s every indication the team remains within this long-sought realm. The Hornets’ offense feels like one of those viral Rube Goldberg machines; you can expect movement, you won’t know how or where it’ll come from, and the basketball hums along until someone ends up with another shot. Brandon Miller was a league-best plus-72 in his three games last week, and Kon Knueppel continues what has been one of the greatest shooting seasons we’ve seen. That’s not qualified for his rookie label; it shouldn’t be. He’s been that good.

12. Phoenix Suns (40-32)

What they’ve been up to: Phoenix lost five straight games for the first time this season; the Jalen Green experience looks infinitely better once he’s properly deputized as Devin Booker’s running mate, not the show’s star, although questions remain how much he can rebuild his shooting efficiency — and how much that can be trusted in March, a time he’s particularly known to overachieve.

Because Mark Williams and Dillon Brooks should return by the postseason, Phoenix still has its opportunity to cap this wonderfully surprising season with postseason success … which would probably look like a feisty first-round showing against Oklahoma City or San Antonio, not an actual series win, given the team remains four games behind Minnesota for the No. 6 seed.

13. Atlanta Hawks (39-32)

What they’ve been up to: We’ve been in ca-caw! territory for some time now; Atlanta won 11 straight and now 12 of its past 13, a realignment matched more to some optimistic preseason ideas how this season could go if everything worked out. Nickeil Alexander-Walker hasn’t gotten enough credit for his season, and I say that thinking he has gotten a lot of credit! He had a career-high 41 points last week in a win over the Orlando Magic.

It was more predictable Dillon Brooks would turn into a 20-point scorer this season, I think, that it would’ve been to expect that from him. Also, while these winning ways were helped by CJ McCollum’s move into the starting five, Zaccharie Risacher has shown notable signs of life in his slightly reduced bench role, shooting 45.5 percent on 3s and 53.5 percent on 2s in these past 13 games.

14. Toronto Raptors (39-31)

What they’ve been up to: Toronto has a relative soft schedule and remain pretty much what the team has been all season: an above-average team that has no ceiling to speak of when matched up against the league’s elite. What determines if they’ll win or not comes down, mostly, to the need for an average defensive performances enabling the offense to hum.

15. Orlando Magic (38-32)

What they’ve been up to: Orlando rose to fifth in the East with seven straight wins and have now tumbled to the No. 8 seed after now dropping four games in a row. Without Franz Wagner (who has missed 17 straight games) and Anthony Black (seven straight absences), the team’s offense firepower is heavily reduced and its 3-point shooters, always concerning, struggle to find open looks.

TIER FOUR: Awaiting the Play-In Tournament

16. Miami Heat (38-33)

What they’ve been up to: Miami had seemed to carve out some strange purgatory between the very clear contenders and the Play-In Tournament milieu … but have lost four straight, fallen to the ninth seed in the East, and have recently played horrific defense. Eight of Miami’s final 11 games are against teams with winning records, making it no guarantee this team has the logistical pathway to climb back up the standings especially with Charlotte lurking just one game behind them.

17. L.A. Clippers (35-36)

What they’ve been up to: Kawhi Leonard has been the league’s fifth-best player, something I feel has been rather indisputable; he also can miss just one more game to remain All-NBA eligible, which my fake ballot would happily award him first-team honors. Darius Garland has been the Garland we knew he could be; he hit eight 3s this weekend! This isn’t the Play-In team anyone wants to face, but it’s unlikely any Play-In team can be more than a speed bump to the league’s best two teams.

18. Philadelphia 76ers (39-32)

What they’ve been up to: I don’t understand Philadelphia this season; I don’t think anyone does. Paul George’s 25-game suspension has but one game remaining; Tyrese Maxey and Joel Embiid are still out; the 76ers still notched four wins in the past five but did so against the league’s dregs, which doesn’t say much but still matters to accomplish. We’ll see if this team can be whole, which serves as the needed precursor to see whether this team, once whole, is anything good.

19. Golden State Warriors (33-38)

What they’ve been up to: Golden State has fallen to the No. 10 seed in the West, a slide that’ll stop there. They’ll make the Play-In Tournament, and Stephen Curry should be back for it, but there’s no happy ending regardless how that plays out for a team whose season ended with Jimmy Butler’s … even though it’s good to note Kristaps Porziņģis has played five times in his past six games. Given all that, it’s probably true this team holds a higher ceiling than the one who moved past them in the standings. It’s just unlikely to mean much to anyone.

20. Portland Trail Blazers (35-37)

What they’ve been up to: Last week, Portland won without ever trailing in a game for the first time this entire season. Donovan Clingan seemingly fills the entire paint; Scoot Henderson has had slightly better shooting numbers of late; Deni Advija, however, has fallen off in the season’s second-half when compared to the All-Star level he began this year with.

TIER FIVE: Nothing left but lottery odds

21. New Orleans Pelicans (25-47)

What they’ve been up to: New Orleans is the most dangerous team among the league’s bottom feeders, one which they can afford since, you know, they outright traded next year’s pick. They’ve at least climbed to the ignoble honor of having only the league’s eight-worst record, not the absolute most dreadful one, which puts the math in the team’s favor that the optics won’t look so bad at the draft lottery come May.

22. Chicago Bulls (28-42)

What they’ve been up to: Josh Giddey had a career-high 19 assists last week, and Chicago has had spoiler moments the team can be proud of. This offensive machine built by Billy Donovan still leads the league in metrics like passes and ball movement, but Chicago has firmly dropped out from any Play-In considerations, as fans know, and that’s certainly for the best.

23. Dallas Mavericks (23-48)

What they’ve been up to: Cooper Flagg has returned, probably too belatedly to really make any run at what will now surely be Kon Knueppel’s Rookie of the Year award, although we still must await any end-of-season surprises; it’s still very close and an interesting case study into how role and a team infrastructure play into each rookie’s ability to make impact.

24. Milwaukee Bucks (29-41)

What they’ve been up to: It’s still shocking how good Ryan Rollins has been this season, but even his emergence didn’t prevent what happened this season, one which has been embroiled, yet again, in the will-he-or-won’t-he Giannis Antetokounmpo drama that has moved onto ownership questions and what might be his own manufactured consent to leave this summer.

25. Sacramento Kings (19-53)

What they’ve been up to: This was the league’s seventh-best offense last season; the Kings rest in the league’s bottom-five this year. Sacramento averages 10.2 made 3s this season, which would be the lowest mark for any team in the past five seasons if it holds until the year’s end.

26. Utah Jazz (21-50)

What they’ve been up to: Utah’s defensive questions this season aren’t abysmally concerning to the team’s future: It’s reasonable to expect Jaren Jackson Jr. and Walker Kessler’s returns next year would be the panacea needed to have has been horrific point prevention this year. But it has not been good.

27. Memphis Grizzlies (24-46)

What they’ve been up to: Ty Jerome has been incredible in his limited small sample, posing the question how this season might’ve been different if he hadn’t missed the season’s first half. In truth, it probably wouldn’t have been, but it’s a question to ask all the same.

28. Brooklyn Nets (17-54)

What they’ve been up to: Brooklyn’s offense, always rocky this season, has completely cratered without Michael Porter Jr., which I suppose isn’t the most surprising thing given how little creation there is without him.

29. Washington Wizards (16-55)

What they’ve been up to: Anthony Davis still hasn’t returned and, at this point, probably isn’t expected to. Washington has lost 16 straight and awaits May’s lottery.

30. Indiana Pacers (15-56)

What they’ve been up to: Indiana, like the teams above them, can only wait until this wretched season ends. Pascal Siakam returned, but it wasn’t in time for him to be paired with Ivica Zubac, who appeared in five games before being shut down for the season. Tyrese Haliburton, it’ll be wonderful to have you back next season.