Earlier this season the Phoenix Suns held the top spot of our Western Conference Power Rankings. It was called out then because it’s significant when a new team takes their place on the mountain top. This week, that honor goes to the scorching hot Utah Jazz. Yes, they finished off the week with a loss to the Denver Nuggets but not before 11 straight wins. The Donovan Mitchell led Jazz are playing well and bumped the LA teams down a notch. Will they be able to hold the spot long? The Suns weren’t but this Utah Jazz team might just be able to hold the top spot for a while.
Biggest movers
The aforementioned Denver Nuggets are a top mover this week after going 3-1 including a victory over the Utah Jazz. Led by Nikola Jokic the Nuggets are finally coming around to who we expe3cted them to be after a very rough 1-4 start to the season. While the Nuggets season start was rough, it pales in comparison to the Memphis Grizzlies. They were 2-6 before rattling off 6 straight wins. To be fair, they were without star Ja Morant for some of those game, but with Morant back the Grizzlies were 1-0 this week. Why only one game? Well, because of the 5 games in a row that were postponed. That brings the Grizzlies total of postponed games to 6. No James Harden, no problem for the Houston Rockets. You could argue they are better without the All-Star.
 | Denver Nuggets | +3 |
 | Memphis Grizzlies | +3 |
 | Houston Rockets | +3 |
Biggest Droppers
The Portland Trailerblazers were a Charles Barkley pick to win the Western Conference at the start of the season. As expected, the Blazers stumbled out of the gate. They have the same record as the #4 Phoenix Suns at 10-8 but these Blazers just don’t have enough quality wins. This week they lost to the Oklahoma Coty Thunder at home which cost them in this weeks rankings. While I am not sure Sir Charles is right about this team, I doubt we will see them in this category very often, if at all again, the remainder of the season.
 | Portland Trailblazers | -5 |
