NBA Power Rankings, Week 16

The Phoenix Suns won their 10th straight game on Sunday, cementing Monty Williams’ spot as head coach of the NBA All-Star Game’s Team LeBron as he leads the top squad in the Western Conference. The 40-9 Suns sit atop the NBA, ahead of the West rival Golden State Warriors, who own the league’s second-best record at 37-13.

The Warriors boast two All-Stars who will make the trip to Cleveland, as Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins were named starters on Thursday.

The head coach of Team Durant is still up in the air, as the Eastern Conference race remains tight. The Miami Heat are No. 1 in the standings, half a game ahead of the Chicago Bulls. The Philadelphia 76ers are 1.5 games back of the top spot, while the Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks are each two games back, just half a game in front of the Brooklyn Nets.

While the Warriors and Suns have a hold on the West, the East race will continue to play out ahead of the Feb. 10 trade deadline.

Note: Throughout the regular season, our panel (Tim Bontemps, Jamal Collier, Nick Friedell, Andrew Lopez, Tim MacMahon, Dave McMenamin and Ohm Youngmisuk) is ranking all 30 teams from top to bottom, taking stock of which teams are playing the best basketball now and which teams are looking most like title contenders.

1. Phoenix Suns
2021-22 record: 40-9
Previous ranking: 1

With their win at Utah on Wednesday, the Suns completed their second 8-0 run in road games in a calendar month this season. (They also went 8-0 on the road in November.) According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Phoenix became the first team in NBA history to go 8-0 or better on the road in multiple calendar months in a single season. Also, at 16-0 in November and 13-1 in January, Phoenix becomes the only team this season with a winning percentage of over .900 in two different months. In fact, no other team has done that once. — Lopez