2023-24 NBA Power Rankings: Upsets galore take out top teams, leaving Clippers as new No. 1

National Basketball Association

Updated Jan. 29, 2024 6:03 p.m. ET

Like monsters rising from the primordial ooze, a host of teams that have spent most of the season struggling to climb out of the bottom half of the FOX Sports power rankings rose up last week to knock off — and down — teams that have been fixtures at the top. Paving the way, for a second consecutive week, for a team to climb into the top spot for the first time this season.

The throne is yours, Clippers.

Five of last week’s top six teams had at least one humbling loss. The Philadelphia 76ers squandered their first taste of being No. 1 by losing to the Indiana Pacers in a game they never led and trailed by as many as 27, then falling to the Denver Nuggets in prime time with Joel Embiid running his streak of mile-high DNPs to five years and counting. Those same Nuggets, ranked second at the time, were also served on national TV two days earlier, losing by 38 to the New York Knicks. Last week’s fourth-ranked team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, were jumped by the 30th-ranked Detroit Pistons. The 27th-ranked San Antonio Spurs upset the sixth-ranked Minnesota Timberwolves, who began the week by also losing to the Charlotte Hornets — at home. The seventh-ranked Milwaukee Bucks held steady by recovering from a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers with a 27-point drubbing of the New Orleans Pelicans.

The only top team to come out of the week unblemished were the Clippers, who extended their winning streak to five with a solid throttling of the previously third-ranked Boston Celtics on their home floor. That win, combined with the other carnage, pushed L.A.’s other team from fifth into first.

The Clippers will have to fight to extend their reign on the road, beginning in Cleveland against the equally hot Cavs, who have won 9 out of their last 10. The trip gets easier after that, taking them through Washington, Detroit, Miami — to face a Heat team that has lost six in a row — and Atlanta. Or appears to get easier. As last week proved, there are monsters lurking in the muck.

NBA Power Rankings

Ric Bucher is an NBA writer for FOX Sports. He previously wrote for Bleacher Report, ESPN The Magazine and The Washington Post and has written two books, “Rebound,” on NBA forward Brian Grant’s battle with young onset Parkinson’s, and “Yao: A Life In Two Worlds.” He also has a daily podcast, “On The Ball with Ric Bucher.” Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.

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