It's an NBA Power Rankings Christmas!
Featuring the gift of some 4,000 words' worth of trademark musings from The Committee (of One)
We did this on Thanksgiving and liked how it worked out. So we're running the same play on Christmas.
A fresh helping of Power Rankings from The Committee (of One) to spice up a five-game holiday?
Who would say no?
Thursday thus again made more sense than Tuesday for this pulse take for where the league as a whole stands with teams all over the map generally in the 30-game range. The mission as always on our monthly(-ish) rankings cadence — as opposed to the weekly rankings I cooked up for 15 years in my ESPN days — remains unchanged: Establish a 1-to-30 order (at least somewhat) independent of the standings that measures big-picture potential and expectations alongside short-term results. Injuries and other off-court developments, positive and negative, are factored in as well … with some sprinkles of Committee whim mixed in.
You are asked, as always, to register your questions, quibbles or any other pertinent thoughts in the comments section below so we can respond and expound upon our thinking. And remember: Rankings posts are incredibly long. Just click on the main headline to get the web or app version instantly if it proves too unwieldy to consume as an email.
1️⃣ Oklahoma City Thunder
A 1-3 stretch can't knock the Thunder out of the top spot entering their Christmas Day showdown with San Antonio. Not even with their holiday visitors having inflicted two of those losses … or with a record when trotting out their preferred starting five (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein) bizarrely mired at 0-3. Those are the spoils when you match the best start in NBA history at 24-1. Oklahoma City's recent blip, however, does A) seem to give some credence to the critics who have been pointing to its weak strength of schedule in those first 25 games and B) do make you wonder on a broader scale. Every other major North American sports team this century that was ultravictorious in the regular season — like the 2001 Seattle Mariners (116-46) and the 2007 New England Patriots (16-0) and the 2023 Boston Bruins (65 wins and 135 points) and, of course, Golden State in 2015-16 when it went 73-9 — ultimately fell short of a championship. Hmmmm ...
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 1
2️⃣ San Antonio Spurs
As recently as Dec. 13, The Committee did not plan to place the Spurs so high in the Christmas Day rankings. Yet the same principles that kept OKC at No. 1 in this rankings batch apply to San Antonio's monster jump as the teams prepare to meet for the third time in nine days in the standout matchup of the five-game Christmas 2025 slate. If you beat the Thunder twice in the space of 10 days — after first going 9-3 during Victor Wembanyama's recent 12-game injury absence due to a worrisome calf strain — you deserve to soar to No. 2.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 11
3️⃣ New York Knicks
Their best win of the season doesn't count in the standings, true, but it still rankled The Committee to see the Knicks refuse to hang a banner of some sort in tribute to their NBA Cup triumph like the Lakers and Bucks did before them. (Yet another slap in the league office's face from James Dolan.) The Committee, mind you, is well aware that the Knicks don't care what we or anyone else thinks. All that matters to Dolan Inc. is taking advantage of the opportunity in front of them in what looks like the most wide-open Leastern Conference in memory ... with an immediate opportunity to reaffirm their billing as the East's favorites in the Christmas lunchtime game against visiting Cleveland. Don't forget that Knicks/Cavs happens to be the only Leastern game on Thursday's menu.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 9
4️⃣ Detroit Pistons
Only one Eastern Conference team can claim to be top-10 material both in offensive (eighth) and defensive (second) rating. It's the same team that can shout to the world that it does more damage on the offensive boards than any team in the league not located in Houston. Cade Cunningham and Co. are just two games behind 26-4 Oklahoma City for the league's best record and find themselves on a (whoa) 66-16 pace. Something tells The Committee that these Pistons will take it personal, too, that they haven't been invited to play in a Christmas Day game since (checks notes) 2005.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 3
5️⃣ Denver Nuggets
Is this the season that Nikola Jokić finally gets to bring a teammate to the All-Star Game? The Committee tends to think so after watching Jokić and Jamal Murray ring up 14 assists each in a truly wonderful regular season game Tuesday night in Dallas. The Nuggets are an extremely impressive 21-6 if you throw out their two Ls to the Mavericks — including a sparkly 12-3 road record — but their injury situation just went from daunting to full-blown alarming thanks to the Christmas Eve news that Cam Johnson (knee bruise) has joined Aaron Gordon (hamstring) and Christian Braun (ankle) on Denver's list of long-term absentees. We frankly flirted with dropping them out of the top five because of the health woes.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 5
6️⃣ Minnesota Timberwolves
This season is starting to feel a lot like last season, when no one outside of the Twin Cities was really talking about the Timberwolves until they thumped the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs in a quick five games. Spurs, Nuggets, Rockets, Lakers ... all of them seem to be mentioned as the prime threats to the defending champions from OKC in the West before anyone brings up the team that has reached the conference finals for two springs running. For all of the talk about 'Sota's need for a point guard upgrade, keep in mind that only five teams on the NBA map this Christmas can say they rank in the top 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency: Oklahoma City (5/1), San Antonio (5/6), Detroit (8/2), Houston (3/10) and Anthony Edwards' Wolves (10th and fifth).
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 15
7️⃣ Houston Rockets
It made little sense when we last assembled Power Rankings on Thanksgiving that the point guard-less Rockets had the league's No. 1 offense and what we've seen from Houston lately has likewise been difficult to comprehend. They've suddenly lost four of the past five games ... three of those in overtime and then a heavy loss to the struggling Clippers. The only win in that stretch, meanwhile, came at Denver, which isn't the friendliest place to play even when the Nuggets somehow sport a better record away from home than they do at Ball Arena. Dropping from No. 2 in these rankings last month to sixth in the West entering tonight's Kevin Durant vs. LeBron James duel is a dip we didn't see coming.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 2
8️⃣ Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers have generated quite a bit of worry throughout Lakerland for a team that takes a 19-9 mark into its Christmas Day home date with Houston ... with a variety of numbers seemingly justifying the fretting. The purple and gold sports a nightly average point margin of a mere +0.3, which is easily the league's lowest for any of the 14 teams that hold winning records on this holiday. They're also ranked just 24th in defensive efficiency and presumably can't keep winning every game decided by three points or fewer like they have so far (5-0). Houston's visit, meanwhile, will be the record 20th Christmas Day game of LeBron's career, which is sure to prompt considerable conversation on every studio show you watch this week about the possibility that it might be King James' last Christmas as an active NBA player.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 4
9️⃣ Boston Celtics
The Celtics' reward for one of the league's most surprising starts is a Christmas with no game obligations for the first time in a decade. You can look it up: Boston's last Dec. 25 off day came in 2015. Also true: The Jayson Tatum-less Celtics are on a 13-4 surge and have excitedly watched two-way force Jaylen Brown average 32.4 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.1 rebounds per game this month. "I don't care who you say right now," Brown volunteered on a recent Twitch stream. "Ain't nobody doing it better than me right now."
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 13
🔟 Orlando Magic
Eleventh in offensive rating sounds somewhat modest ... until someone like ace researcher Keerthika Uthayakumar reminds you that the Magic haven't finished higher than 22nd in that category since the (gulp) 2011-12 season. The offensive uptick sounds even better when you realize that Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner have been able to play together in only 54 of a possible 110 games last season and this season for the Magic, who are also coping without Jalen Suggs at present in yet another campaign marked by health, uh, challenges.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 10
1️⃣1️⃣ Cleveland Cavaliers
Have we been too hard on the Cavaliers with all the talk about how disappointing they've been? The Committee pushes back on that notion. We naturally didn't expect the Cavs to repeat last season's 15-0 start — certainly not when Christmas at Madison Square Garden was just the fifth game all season that Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen and Darius Garland have all been active — but a 15-14 start was highly disappointing from the team that came into the season as the East's runway co-favorites alongside New York. As Mitchell himself said this week in his latest Andscape diary entry with my pal Marc J. Spears: "We're not a playoff team right now. We're not playing like it."
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 7
1️⃣2️⃣ Toronto Raptors
The Scottie Barnes-led Raptors are just 4-8 since the heady days of (American) Thanksgiving when they were in the midst of a 14-5 start that forced The Committee to vault them all the way up to No. 6 on our ladder. Yet Toronto ranks as one of just three Eastern Conference teams (along with Detroit and Atlanta) that can claim a double-digit win total on the road (10-6) roughly one-third of the way through the regular season schedule … including two recent wins that the Raps scratched out in Miami over the past 10 days while they grit through injuries that have sidelined RJ Barrett and Jakob Poeltl. The Committee's foremost (selfish) concern, of course, is getting our long-awaited next trip to Toronto scheduled to see both Canada's lone NBA team and the Buffalo Sabres just over the border.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 6
1️⃣3️⃣ Philadelphia 76ers
A home win over Brooklyn in Philadelphia's final game before the holiday break would have put this team on a wholly unexpected 50-win pace. That the Sixers lost that game to return to Earth somewhat after a 6-2 start to December is probably a truer reflection of what this team is even with Tyrese Maxey going to a new level and VJ Edgecombe continuing to earn the occasional mention alongside the likes of Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Derik Queen and Dylan Harper in a strong rookie class. What is Philly's true ceiling with one-third of the regular season gone and both Joel Embiid and Paul George limited to 12 games each so far? What can be said with confidence is that Maxey's leap has undeniably raised it.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 18
1️⃣4️⃣ Phoenix Suns
While Dillon Brooks has been in the news lately for the wrong reasons — from tussling with LeBron James to an unpunished swipe at Stephen Curry — there's no denying his positive impact on his new team. Did you have Phoenix starting the season 16-13 under first-year coach Jordan Ott? Did you have Brooks averaging a career-best 21.8 points per game as a Sun and winning regular raves for his effect on team culture and its disposition? Not sure anyone did.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 14
1️⃣5️⃣ Golden State Warriors
A win Monday over Orlando got the Warriors back to 15-15 and spared them the ignominy of joining their Christmas Day visitors from Dallas in sub-.500 territory. History says that the Steve Kerr/Draymond Green spat from the same win will blow over, but there's no underplaying the severity of Golden State's hard-to-believe station in the NBA's offensive rating race — 20th! —with a roster that still revolves around Curry. A No. 3 ranking in defensive rating hasn’t been able to offset the pains at the other end. "We are no longer the '17 Warriors," Kerr said on Christmas Eve, "dominating the league. We are a fading dynasty. We know that. Everybody knows that." Man …
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 17
1️⃣6️⃣ Chicago Bulls
Chicago puts the C in Early Season Roller Coaster. The Bulls started 6-1. They promptly faded to 9-14. Then they beat Cleveland in both ends of a home-and-home to thrust the Cavaliers into a full-blown crisis before beating Atlanta in a 152-150 track meet that was decided in regulation. On top of all that, Chicago has the league's highest win total in the NBA's diciest games at 7-2 in those decided by three points or fewer. What's next in the Windy City? Excellent question with the Feb. 5 trade deadline looming.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 16
1️⃣7️⃣ Atlanta Hawks
Jalen Johnson remains a statistical marvel wowing the whole league at 23.8 points, 10.5 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game. His Hawks, though, remain a head-scratching enigma who are 0-4 since Trae Young returned from a 22-game knee injury absence ... but who were slipping even before Young was reactivated. They're 2-8 in December and find themselves in the league's bottom five in defense this month. And they can't point the finger exclusively at Young's frailties on D when the All-Star point guard has only played in three of those games.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 12
1️⃣8️⃣ Miami Heat
Miami still possessed the league's eighth-best defense as of Christmas morning as Erik Spoelstra's squad attempts to stretch its run of top-10 finishes on D to six consecutive seasons. They are also seeking a seventh consecutive playoff berth, but that might be harder to achieve for this iteration of the Heat now that their new offense is no longer winning raves. For everything Norman Powell has added in his bid to breakthrough as an All-Star for the first time, Miami is down to 18th in offensive rating.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 8
1️⃣9️⃣ Dallas Mavericks
Five straight wins at home? Victories in that stretch over the Rockets, Pistons and Nuggets? A 2-0 record against Denver overall? It's been an extremely rough 10 months in The 214 since the Luka Dončić trade, but Flagg and Anthony Davis have had some grand moments as a duo in December ... including a birthday last Sunday that nudged the league's youngest player to Hey Nineteen status. The best thing for the Mavericks, in truth, would be another trip to the lottery in June before the four-year stretch from 2027 to 2030 in which former GM Nico Harrison surrendered control of the team's top draft choice to try to build a core around Dončić. The problem: They just might be too good for their own good with the emerging Flagg and the rebounding Davis to land in the lottery again ... especially if Kyrie Irving is still coming back from late March knee surgery in 2026.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 23
2️⃣0️⃣ Memphis Grizzlies
The Grizzlies went a promising 7-4 in Zach Edey's first 11 games this season, showing how dominant Edey can be as a rebounding and interior presence despite all of the pre-draft concerns about his ability to cover ground at the NBA level. Of course, Memphis being Memphis, injuries continue to be the story here almost every day. Edey has been sidelined anew (ankle) after averaging 13.6 points, 11.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots in just 25.8 minutes in those 11 games, meaning he and Ja Morant have managed to share the floor for just six-ish minutes all season. Also: Brandon Clarke sustained a calf injury in just his second game back from a lengthy injury absence and the Grizz, missing so many regulars on a nightly basis again this season, recently suffered home losses to the Jazz and Wizards this month that prevented Memphis from clawing to .500.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 20
2️⃣1️⃣ Portland Trail Blazers
While true that The Committee has been known to focus on the exploits of Deni Avdija in this section ... it's pretty hard not to when Avdija is averaging 25.5 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game. Entering Tuesday's home loss to Orlando, Portland was averaging 116.8 points per 100 possessions with Avdija on the floor ... and just 98.5 points per 100 possessions with him on the bench. That 18.3 points per 100 possessions difference? Larger than any other player in the whole league generates ... including Milwaukee's 18.0 points-per-100 possessions boost when Giannis Antetokounmpo is on the floor compared to when he's not.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 19
2️⃣2️⃣ New Orleans Pelicans
Zion Williamson reincarnated as a sixth man after a six-game absence? A recent five-game winning streak no one saw coming? Saddiq Bey emerging as a key contributor? Dejounte Murray quietly nearing a comeback from an Achilles tear? Rampant trade interest in both Trey Murphy III and Herb Jones ... with the Pelicans telling any team that calls that the price point to pry either of them away would be seriously substantial? Is there still time, with more than half of the regular season remaining, for the Pels to make a run at a Play-In Tournament spot in a West that's far more forgiving outside of the top six than expected? One more question to sum up all of the above: How can an 8-23 team be so interesting?
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 26
2️⃣3️⃣ Utah Jazz
The Jazz are in Year 4 of the post-Donovan Mitchell (and post-Rudy Gobert) Era and, truth be told, are sick of losing. They want to compete. They want to be relevant again. They see an opportunity to snag a Play-In spot in the softer-than-expected West and want to make a push for it. The problem: Utah's first-round pick in June is only top-eight protected and the top of the forthcoming draft is too tantalizing. It makes more sense for the Jazz to hang onto that pick and take their chances in the AJ Dybantsa/Darryn Peterson/Cameron Boozer lottery.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 24
2️⃣4️⃣ Brooklyn Nets
The Jordi Effect might really be a thing. The Nets might have started 0-7 and were still 3-16 when the calendar flipped to December ... but now look. They're 6-3 this month and have whittled their nightly point differential down to a passable -4.6 per game while Michael Porter Jr. keeps putting up gaudy numbers. For second season in a row, someone in the organization is going to have to inform coach Jordi Fernández that the Nets are winning more than they really want to when the lottery is their deep-down priority.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 29
2️⃣5️⃣ Milwaukee Bucks
Out since Dec. 3 thanks to a calf strain, Giannis appears to be nearing a return to active duty given the footage repeatedly emanating from his recent pre-game workouts. It's been a long seven games without him already for the Bucks, who are 2-5 in those games and just two games into a demanding stretch that calls for them to play 11 of 14 games on the road. The Bucks are clinging to life in the East's Play-In race without their franchise player … with interested teams obviously waiting to pounce with trade offers if Milwaukee keeps sliding. Offers that the Bucks have resisted to this point.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 21
2️⃣6️⃣ LA Clippers
The Clippers had a top-three defense last season. This season? They awoke on Christmas morning at No. 26 in a 30-team league ... and knowing that they will be without Ivica Zubac for weeks (with an S) due to an ankle sprain. Perhaps Derrick Jones Jr., who is nearing his own return from injury, can make a difference at the end. Perhaps Kawhi Leonard, who has played in each of the Clippers' nine games this month, can keep doing so. Perhaps you agree with James Harden, who was asked this week why he believes that the 8-21 Clips are better than they record and announced: "Because we are." Or perhaps you've done the math and already know that LA, even after Tuesday's thrashing of Houston, has to go 34-19 from here to extend its run of
14 consecutive seasons with a record above .500.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 22
2️⃣7️⃣ Charlotte Hornets
Don't know if the Hornets really plan to stick with LaMelo Ball as their franchise point guard. Don't know if Ball and Brandon Miller can stay healthy enough for Hornets management to get a true read on their compatibility. Don't know if the Hornets will ever get a Christmas Day game that gets them off the one-team list of franchises to never play in one. Don't know much for sure in Charlotte beyond the dependability emanating from Kon Knueppel, who just became the fastest player in league history to sink 100 3-pointers — 12 games faster than Lauri Markkanen needed to set the record — and looks like former Duke teammate Cooper Flagg's foremost challenger in the Rookie of the Year race.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 28
2️⃣8️⃣ Sacramento Kings
Does The Committee really think that Sacramento was a city in actual mourning after watching De'Aaron Fox (now in San Antonio) and Mike Brown (New York) both find NBA Cup glory in Las Vegas? That's probably a stretch, but the season's opening third has been pretty painful for the locals. Without the typically sturdy Domantas Sabonis, Sacramento has descended all the way down into the West's cellar at 7-22. No team in the league, furthermore, is more routinely painted as a Trade Deadline Seller than these Kings, which is another illustration of how far they've fallen since Brown's Coach of the Year season that really wasn't so long ago (2022-23).
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 25
2️⃣9️⃣ Indiana Pacers
Rick Carlisle entered the season needing just seven regular season wins to reach 1,000 for his career. You knew it was going to be a difficult season for the Pacers with zero access to their No. 0, but it wasn't supposed to be this rough ... was it? Thanks to myriad injuries on top of Tyrese Haliburton's unavailability in the wake of an Achilles tear, Carlisle is stuck on 999 with the injury-riddled Pacers at 6-24.
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 27
3️⃣0️⃣ Washington Wizards
When my pal Justin Kubatko recently posted his annual 50 Days In piece to laser in on some early season statistical trends, Washington's plight was looking especially bleak thanks to its average nightly point differential of -15.9 at the time of the piece. In truth that was actually a slight improvement on the -16.2 figure that the Wizards managed at the same point last season, but they've actually sliced this season's number down to -13.5 in the two weeks since Kubatko's findings. Holding the league's record (5-23) is one thing; flirting with a point differential in the -15s is potentially worst-of-all-time stuff alongside the 11-71 Mavericks in 1992-93 (-15.2).
Last ranking (Nov. 27): 30