NBA Power Rankings - Dallas dances out West, Celtics separate from pack - ESPN

With less than two months left in the 2023-24 NBA regular season and coming out of All-Star Weekend, teams are zeroing in on their playoff aspirations. And the stakes are rising each night.

The postseason race in the Eastern Conference is heating up, with the Cleveland Cavaliers cruising to second in the standings — but still multiple games behind a dominant Boston Celtics team.

In the Western Conference, there is no such leader, as the Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder jostle for No. 1, with the Denver Nuggets and LA Clippers within striking distance.

Did the break give teams enough time and rest to make a final push? Will some succumb to the second-half slump? When will the annual race to the bottom begin? All things to keep an eye on as we take a look at this week's NBA Power Rankings.

Note: Throughout the regular season, our panel (Kendra Andrews, Tim Bontemps, Jamal Collier, 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 and which teams are looking most like title contenders.

Previous rankings: Post-Finals | Nov. 1 | Nov. 8 | Nov. 15 | Nov. 22 | Nov. 29 | Dec. 6 | Dec. 13 | Dec. 20 | Dec. 27 | Jan. 3 | Jan. 10 | Jan. 17 | Jan. 24 | Jan. 31 | Feb. 7 | Feb. 14

Jump to a team:

ATL | BOS | BKN | CHA | CHI | CLE
DAL | DEN | DET | GS | HOU | IND
LAC | LAL | MEM | MIA | MIL | MIN
NO | NY | OKC | ORL | PHI | PHX
POR | SAC | SA | TOR | UTA | WAS

1. Boston Celtics
2023-24 record: 46-12

Previous ranking: 1

Next games: vs. DAL (Mar. 1), vs. GS (Mar. 3), @ CLE (Mar. 5)

Boston entered Tuesday's game against Philadelphia with a net rating of 10.5 points per 100 possessions, and the Celtics are on