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It’s been a little more than a month since the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets pulled off a blockbuster trade centered around Ben Simmons and James Harden. In that time, we’ve seen Harden suit up for Philly, while Simmons has been sidelined in Brooklyn as he deals with a lingering back issue.

Despite the fact that the Simmons saga went on for months and has been resolved for some time, Joel Embiid still is confused as to how we got to a point that Simmons determined his best path forward was never suiting up for the Sixers again. Embiid appeared on Draymond Green’s podcast and got asked about Simmons’ departure, and shot back after Green said that he “expressed your dismay with the situation, expressed ‘get him out of here,’ then.”

“I never said that, to get him out of there,” Embiid said at the 1:25 mark of the above video. “I just didn’t understand what was going on, honestly. I didn’t understand, like, what happened and what led to that whole situation. To this day, I don’t understand. Even when you look at — and I don’t have any problems with him, and like I said, obviously we didn’t win a championship together, but in the regular season, we were dominant. Every single season, 50-win seasons. I always believed that we had a chance to win together. I always believed it. Even to this day, I believe that we had a chance to win, and what we were able to accomplish, obviously winning matters the most but I feel like we had a chance, and that’s why I don’t understand what was going on, honestly, what caused him to want to leave. I understand his explanation, but a lot of things don’t make sense.”

Embiid had quite the reaction in the immediate aftermath of the trade, making clear that he was ready for the whole thing to come to an end. Throughout this season in the lead-up to the trade, Embiid expressed his desire for Simmons to come back, even if he, on a few occasions, spoke candidly about the situation.

In Deep Water, coming to Hulu this week, Ben Affleck’s wife won’t stop cuckolding him. Right in front of him, too, and seemingly with a new guy every week. Where does she find them? How does she find the time? She’s like the Tyler Durden of cuckoldry, setting up franchises while the rest of us are sleeping.

Ana De Armas plays Melinda, the wife, and sexy though she may be, you have to wonder what’s keeping her rich guy husband, Vic (Affleck), from leaving her. Sure, they have a daughter together, divorces are expensive, and custody battles can get ugly, but nothing is worth repeated humiliation like this, right?

Deep Water is a throwback in the best way. The tendency in 2022 would be to try to explain Melinda (assuming someone was bold enough to write her in the first place), to make the act of diagnosing why she is the way she is the whodunnit propelling the narrative — the old “trauma plot,” as it has come to be known in this age of ubiquitous armchair psychiatry. Deep Water, adapted from author Patricia Highsmith (The Talented Mr. Ripley and a million others) and directed by Adrian Lyne (Fatal Attraction, Indecent Proposal) — with a script adapted by Zach Helm and Sam Levinson — comes from the oldest of old hands at the “psychological erotic thriller” genre, and it shows.

To explain Melinda would be to soften her, to apologize for her. Far more interesting to focus on the dynamic between Melinda and Vic than on what made them this way. Sure, we get the occasional anecdotes about them, like that Melinda was kicked out of many different schools growing up, and that Vic invented a computer chip for use in drone warfare, but the central focus of Deep Water is on the tension between them. Which is to say, on what they actually do to get over on one another. If indeed that’s what they’re doing. What are they doing? What is their deal?

Neither of them are “likable,” in the traditional sense, more deliciously despicable. It’s always refreshing when filmmakers relegate the old “someone to root for” storytelling canard to the shitcan where it properly belongs. One of the most salient features of Deep Water is that it’s weird. It chucks dull, “relatable” situations out the window doing 90 on the way to provocative weirdness. Every new wrinkle creates a new angle for your brain to try to square with what we already know. Vic rides mountain bikes. Is that relevant? What about the fact that Vic raises snails? Does being a snailraiser predispose one to cuckolding, or is it some clue as to his motives? Maybe it’s a method of disposal?

In this age of frantically overplotted stories (partly due to the commercial reality of having to cram in as many heroes and villains as possible while fitting a movie into a broader outline; but I suspect also as a kind of screenwriter’s insecurity, undertaken with the belief that a confused viewer can’t be a bored one), Deep Water is judicious with what information it shares. And always in a way that feels purposeful. The key to a compelling story isn’t that it sounds like something you’ve heard before or that it’s true to your own experiences (zzzzz), it’s creating that bond between audience and storyteller, the faith that when the storyteller reveals a bit of information it’s going to be for a reason.

Vic boldly soldiers on, getting cuckolded again and again in ever more public situations in front of his extended friend group of New Orleans bon vivants, all the while fighting a one-man battle for his pride and peace of mind. Who’s going to break first? Where does Melinda keep finding new men? It’s a glorious plot contrivance that Vic is a retired rich guy and Melinda is his trophy wife — they literally have nothing better to do than play cat-and-mouse games with each other all day.

Deep Water is not a comedy by any means, but the dialogue is notably sharp, with multiple laugh-out-loud moments, and a solid supporting cast that includes Lil Rel Howery, Kristen Connolly, and Hall of Fame prick specialist Tracy Letts. Letts, whom you may remember from roles on Homeland or as Henry Ford II in Ford Vs. Ferrari, or from one of his one non-prick roles per decade, like as Saoirse Ronan’s dad in Lady Bird, is in fine form once again as Don Wilson, a pompous writer whose latest screenplay is a story about a writer like himself who has to solve a murder in his town. The character is not only hilariously dislikable, but key to understanding Deep Water; as, essentially, a parody of the kind of books in which a writer’s semi-autobiographical alter ego becomes the most important character in a story and ends up saving the day.

Without spoiling anything, Don’s big scene is reminiscent of Colin Farrell’s character’s in True Detective season two, expiring while waiting to send a text to his pudgy ginger son. Kudos to Zach Helm or Sam Levinson, surely this nugget wasn’t in Patricia Highsmith’s original 1957 novel.

After a movie full of twists and turns, thrills and chills, Deep Water ends on perhaps not its biggest narrative swing. It’s not quite the home run the rest of the movie promises, but it feels right enough, pleasingly symmetrical at least. All in all, it’s a story that gets its hooks in early and keeps stringing us along, without being exhaustively complicated.

A simple story that tracks, with aberrant characters and the boldness to be weird; when was the last time we got one of those? Deep Water is not only a refreshing throwback to the days of mid-budget thrillers aimed at adults, but perfect for at-home binging.

‘Deep Water’ begins streaming via Hulu on Friday. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can access his archive of reviews here.

Look, I like Adrian Lyne movies. In 1983 he somehow made a feature-length music video, called it Flashdance, and it made $200 million. And you know what? It’s a really fun movie to watch that ushered in a cavalcade of movies low on plot and high on style. Fatal Attraction is high concept sleaze that earned itself six Oscar nominations. (I have no doubt it would have gotten another in the Best Actor category if Michael Douglas wasn’t also in a movie that year called Wall Street.) In 2002 Lyne made Unfaithful. It made a whole lot of money and its star, Diane Lane, got an Oscar nomination. And then, until now, that was it for Adrian Lyne.

It’s probably for the best because it’s hard to imagine Lyne’s movies existing over the last 15 years or so anyway. As mainstream movies have become more and more antiseptic, there’s really no place for Adrian Lyne movies at theaters anymore – as we see now with his first film in 20 years, Deep Water, based on the Patricia Highsmith novel, released exclusively on Hulu. There’s no chance anything like Fatal Attraction could come out today with big movie stars and make over $300 million (in 1987 dollars, no less) and also get a plethora of Academy Award nominations. It just doesn’t work like that anymore. Now that doesn’t mean Lyne isn’t going to try with a movie like Deep Water.

(Not even counting that Deep Water isn’t eligible anyway because it’s not in theaters, this is not a movie that would get any kind of award other than maybe the “Mike Ryan applauds at home by himself multiple times award at something he found hilarious,” which Deep Water is very much in the running for.)

First of all, the plot of this movie makes little sense. Second of all, while watching, I quickly realized I didn’t care. Ben Affleck plays Vic, a man living in New Orleans who has made a fortune selling computer chips to the US government that they use for drones. Does he feel guilty? No, because he just makes the chip and what someone does with the drone isn’t in his hands. Which is kind of like setting a burger wrapper on your side mirror in a moving car then claiming you didn’t plan to litter when it flies off. Vic is a weird man. He has so much money that he seems bored and spends his time throwing parties, biking around town, and breeding snails. Yes, for some reason Vic has a snail collection. I assumed there would be a payoff. As far as I could tell there wasn’t. Also, it looks like it’s very difficult to keep a snail farm inside a home. (Fun fact, my editor, who is editing this piece, lives a block from the house where this was filmed. He said there was a truck filled with snails parked outside.)

When Vic isn’t biking, having parties, and hanging out with his snails, he also has an interest in murdering his wife’s boyfriends. Or at least threatening them with murder in the old, “Hey, I murdered that last guy she hung out with who disappeared, and if you want to keep hanging out with Melinda (Ana de Armas), hey, great, but I’m just sayin’,” kind of way. You see, Vic and Melinda have some sort of an open relationship policy that’s never really explained other than Melinda flaunting these men over at their house in an effort to make Vic incredibly angry. Is he actually murdering them? it’s unclear at the beginning but, come one, what do you think? There’s only so long a movie like this can keep us interested with Vic’s quirky snail collection.

Then Tracy Letts shows up (who has also been so great in Winning Time) and knows exactly what kind of movie he’s in and it’s all the better for it. Letts plays Lionel, a middling screenwriter who “writes screenplays about himself.” Lionel is also consumed by local conspiracies and while everyone else in town thinks Vic’s jokes about murdering Melinda’s boyfriends are hilarious, Lionel isn’t so sure Vic is just kidding around, especially after more and more of these young men start to vanish, or mysteriously drown in pools, or die from blunt force trauma to the head. It’s crazy all this is happening around poor Vic! But Lionel decided to take matters into his own hands and becomes a thorn in Vic’s side. To the point Lionel keeps showing up in places there’s no way he would ever possibly “just be.” I very much enjoyed Lionel.

If Deep Water were at all based in reality there would no doubt be an arrest fairly quickly. Yeah, gee, why do all these guys Melinda dates turn up missing? The police do show up at one point and Melinda literally tells them, “My husband is a murderer,” but the police seem to just find all this interesting more than anything and they let everyone go about their business and we never see them again. Honestly, the reason I enjoyed this movie is because it will lead to so many conversations trying to figure out each character’s motivation because none of them make sense. At times it seems like Melinda is truly terrified that her husband might be a murderer. At other times she seems flattered. Literally, no one in this movie acts like a normal human being and I could talk about it for hours and hours and hours.

Going back to Adrian Lyne. Yeah, I mentioned that his brand of movie wouldn’t have much of a place in the mainstream market over the last 15 years. But at the same time, it’s been so long since we have gotten a mainstream sleazy movie (released by Disney no less) starring two movie stars (at least, as much as anyone can still be a movie star today) that it feels like a whole new concept. To the point that Deep Water makes no sense, it’s impossible to make heads or tails out of character motivations, and there’s no real resolution or payoff to anything, yet I enjoyed this trashy dumb thing more than I ever thought I would. Perhaps it’s knowing there’s not going to be a new rush of films like this. It feels like a one-off from a director who made a certain kind of movie who also hasn’t directed in 20 years. So I’ve decided to embrace Deep Water and enjoy this last gasp from another time while it’s here. I hope Adrian Lyne makes 20 more movies.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Up until now, Kanye West’s feud with Pete Davidson has appeared to be motivated purely by West’s childish inability to let his ex-wife Kim Kardashian move on with her life now that the couple is legally separated. However, it now seems that Kanye has a legitimate concern that Pete will get Kim [checks notes] “hooked on drugs.”

Oh, no, never mind. He’s still just acting like a jilted middle schooler mad his crush went to the formal with the class clown. The above excuse is really one that he gave in his latest spate of Instagram tantrums, which saw him assert that Pete is “in rehab every 2 months” while cosigning a stan’s comment that the comedian is “sneak dissing” Kim somehow.

Kanye also appears to be super concerned by a headline asserting that Pete “enraged” an audience with a joke about having sex with a baby, saying, “Yet another reason why SKETE gotta stay away from my children.” Kanye failed to note that he had defended himself from backlash over his own crude, Pete-bashing “Eazy” video by saying “Art is not a proxy for any ill or harm.” He did not, however, fail to remove credit for the headline, which was initially posted on notorious right-wing propaganda site Breitbart, which is hardly a trustworthy source of legitimate news (of course, Kanye reads Breitbart). Kanye probably doesn’t care though, because however yellow the journalism, if it supports his narrative, he’s all for it.

Richard Nixon. G. Gordon Liddy. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. These are the names most commonly associated with Watergate. But Gaslit, a new series on Starz based on the Slow Burn podcast, focuses on a lesser-known but important figure.

Gaslit follows Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts), the wife of Nixon’s attorney general, John N. Mitchell, who was held hostage and drugged by one of Nixon’s goons for being the “first person to publicly sound the alarm on Nixon’s involvement in Watergate.” Mitchell was dubbed a “loudmouth” and “completely insane” then, but that was sexism rearing its ugly head; she’s rightfully considered a “truth teller” now.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

Gaslit is a modern take on Watergate that focuses on the untold stories and forgotten characters of the scandal – from Nixon’s bumbling and opportunistic subordinates to the deranged zealots aiding and abetting their crimes to the tragic whistleblowers who would eventually bring the whole rotten enterprise crashing down. The story will center on Martha Mitchell, played by Julia Roberts. A big personality with an even bigger mouth. Martha is a celebrity Arkansan socialite and wife to Nixon’s loyal Attorney General, John Mitchell, played by Sean Penn. Despite her party affiliation, she’s the first person to publicly sound the alarm on Nixon’s involvement in Watergate, causing both the Presidency and her personal life to unravel.

Gaslit, which also stars Sean Penn, Dan Stevens, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Allison Tolman, Chris Messina, and Patton Oswalt, premieres on Starz on April 24.

Despite the ongoing situation involving Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and Pete Davidson unfolding into tabloid fodder, The Daily Show host Trevor Noah used a significant portion of Tuesday night’s episode to explain why the situation is actually a serious topic rife with dangerous implications. Citing a deeply personal example from his own life, Noah warned that people need to pay attention to what’s happening before things could turn abusive and violent, as they can do for women who try to leave some relationships.

“What we’re seeing is one of the most powerful, one of the richest women in the world, unable to get her ex to stop texting her, to stop chasing after her, to stop harassing her,” Noah said before recalling how his own mother was told she was “overreacting” when she told people in South Africa that her partner was abusive. The situation ended with Noah’s mother getting shot in the head.

While Noah made it clear that he’s not specifically saying that this situation will grow violent, he’s also not not saying that. Via The Daily Beast:

“As a society, we have to ask ourselves questions. Do we wish to stand by and watch a car crash when we thought we saw it coming? Or do we at least want to say, ‘Slow down, let’s all put our hazards on, because there’s a storm coming and shit might go down.’”

As Noah concluded his impassioned plea, he ended with a somber thought on the pervasiveness of domestic violence. “If Kim Kardashian cannot escape this, then what chance do normal women have?”

Followers of QAnon and totally bonkers conspiracy theories go together like peanut butter and jelly, or Putin and Trump. But Jimmy Kimmel is kind of aghast that even a group of cultists who thought JFK Jr. was all set to reemerge at a Rolling Stones concert believe that Donald Trump has the smarts to have more complicated thoughts that “Diet Coke now!”

On Tuesday night, Kimmel dug into the latest QAnon theory, which is that when President Soup-for-Brains over-pronounces “China,” as he always has, he’s actually speaking in code about Ukraine. As Kimmel pointed out, the only thing more unbelievable than this very dumb idea is that Trump would have the brains to even pull it off:

“You know how Trump has a funny way of saying the word ‘China’? Well [QAnon’s] theory is that he’s intentionally mispronouncing ‘China’ to send a secret signal to the world that COVID-19 was manufactured in Ukraine. Which is U-crazy. Apparently there’s a village in Ukraine and part of the name of the village has the word that sounds like ‘China,’ and Trump is speaking in code.

You think Donald Trump is smart enough to speak in code? This is a man who used his toilet as a paper shredder, ok. Not exactly The Riddler we’re dealing with here.”

You can watch the full clip above, beginning around the 7:00 mark.

In the latest NFT news from Snoop Dogg, the rapping multihyphenate will appear on a series of NFT comic book covers. The Death Row records owner will grace five different covers of “Supercuzz,” a comic book series by crypto marketplace MakersPlace.

“Supercuzz” will see Snoop play the titular character—a superhero saving the day in the fictional “Angel City.”

“Snoop Dogg and BossLogic are two iconic forces in their respective crafts and are both pioneers in the NFT space,” said MakersPlace CEO Craig Palmer in a statement. “We’re honored to host the release of ‘Supercuzz’ collection on MakersPlace and give art enthusiasts accessibility in purchasing NFT’s from their favorite creators.”

Over the past year, Snoop has become a force in the realm of NFTs. Last year, he revealed himself to be the owner of @CozomoMedici, a popular NFT Twitter account. In February, he purchased Death Row Records, the former of the “Gin And Juice” rapper, Dr. Dre, and Tupac, and announced plans to turn it into an “NFT Label.”

Weeks after the announcement, fans noticed that some of the label’s iconic albums, including Snoop’s Doggystyle, and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic went missing from streaming services.

In addition to his recent NFT projects, Snoop also joined FaZe Clan as a member of the esports brand’s board of directors and talent. With this new partnership, he plans to launch a community outreach program.

Lil Durk’s 7220 rollout continued last night with a chilled performance of album standouts “Ahhh Ha” and “Petty Too” with Future on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Durk utilized a stripped-down stage setup and plenty of smoke effects to accentuate the verbal gymnastics the two rappers share on their joint song, while Future surprised fans popping out to perform his verse on “Petty Too” to the crowd’s delight.

Durk’s new album, which also features his surprising collaboration with Morgan Wallen, “Broadway Girls,” and the singles “Golden Child” and “Barbarian,” is projected for a No. 1 debut on the Billboard 200 — the first of Durk’s decade-long career. Of his questionable “Broadway Girls” collaborator, Durk was gracious despite the country star’s racial slur controversy, saying, “Nah, he ain’t no racist. That’s my boy… we had [a talk] behind closed doors, and I’ll vouch for him and he good.”

Meanwhile, Durk’s tenure on Alamo has been so successful — his numbers have trended skyward with each new release, to the point he’s considered a genuine superstar within rap — that he was recently able to boast that the label “gave” him $40 million to re-sign.

Watch Lil Durk perform “Ahhh Ha” and “Petty Too” with Future on The Tonight Show above.

7220 is out now on Alamo / Only The Family. Get it here.

The Golden State Warriors are firmly in the mix for the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, and the team’s 47-22 overall record would rank No. 1 if transposed to the Eastern Conference. To put it plainly, it has been a fantastic overall season for the Warriors, especially when viewed through the lens of preseason expectations. However, the Warriors opened the 2021-22 campaign with 18 wins in the first 20 games, and Golden State has leveled off, at least to some degree, since that early barrage. Part of that can be attributed to player availability, but a funny thing happened on Monday evening in that Golden State was back to (relatively) full strength.

Draymond Green returned from an absence of more than two months, and he looked lot like Draymond Green in a win over the Washington Wizards. Of course, Stephen Curry was on the on-court story, scoring 47 points on his birthday, and that came on the heels of a 38-point outburst from Klay Thompson in Golden State’s previous win over Milwaukee. All told, the Warriors are on a four-game winning streak as they prepare for a nationally televised showdown against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.

The overarching question is just how good the Warriors are this season, and a simple measure might be the team’s 29-6 record in games in which Green plays. That is a terrifyingly high projection for any squad, but Golden State boasts a +10.6 net rating when Green is on the court, and that balloons to +14.9 in minutes with both Green and Curry together. Thompson isn’t quite back to his old self, but he is clearly a positive influence, and Golden State appears to be back in a groove after a letdown in Greens’s absence.

Everything is measured against the Phoenix Suns, with the Suns cruising to the top overall seed in the NBA, but the Warriors have been neck-and-neck with Phoenix anytime Curry and Green are available. Nothing is assured on the injury front, but Green’s return was a peek into what could be for the Warriors, and with a highly intriguing test arriving on Wednesday, it could be another datapoint in favor of Golden State as co-favorites.

Where do the Warriors stack up in our DIME power rankings this week? Let’s take a glance.

1. Phoenix Suns (55-14, Last week — 1st)

Ho-hum for the Suns. Chris Paul is still out, but Phoenix absolutely throttled the Lakers this weekend and then beat the Pelicans by 16 on the road on Tuesday. If you are making tiers, it is the Suns and everyone else until otherwise noted.

2. Golden State Warriors (47-22, Last week — 10th)

If you examine the performance at full strength, this is where the Warriors should be. If you want to talk about the last month or two, it seems high. We’ll learn more on Wednesday.

3. Miami Heat (46-24, Last week — 2nd)

Miami slides a bit, but it’s mostly that Golden State made a leap. The Heat did get blasted by the Suns to begin the week, but that loss came without Jimmy Butler, providing cover of some sort. Miami still sits atop the East by 2.5 games, though getting the top seed may not be so appealing if the Nets end up in the No. 8 spot.

4. Memphis Grizzlies (48-22, Last week — 4th)

It is Memphis, not Golden State, that has the West’s second-best record. The Grizzlies have won four in a row, but they were “taking care of business” wins against the Pels, Knicks, Thunder and Pacers. Next up is an interesting road trip to Atlanta to take on the Hawks.

5. Milwaukee Bucks (43-26, Last week — 7th)

Brook Lopez is back, and the Bucks are looking like themselves. Granted, Lopez will need time to get settled, but Milwaukee is 7-1 in the last eight games as he returns. Given the pedigree of this group and the wide-open nature of the East, the Bucks feel quite dangerous.

6. Dallas Mavericks (42-26, Last week — 8th)

Dallas suffered a thoroughly bizarre 30-point home loss to the Knicks this week. That was so weird that it’s almost worth throwing out, and the Mavericks are 13-3 in the last 16 games. That includes a very nice road win in Boston on Sunday that facilitates the small bump in the rankings.

7. Boston Celtics (41-28, Last week — 3rd)

As noted above, the Celtics did lose to the Mavs at home, but there is no great shame in that. Boston’s defense continues to be absurd, and the Celtics are 16-3 in the last 19 games. Boston is getting more buzz as an actual contender to reach the NBA Finals, and that is a scenario that is quite reasonable.

8. Denver Nuggets (41-28, Last week — 6th)

After back-to-back home losses, the Nuggets went into Philadelphia and won the first matchup between Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid in a long time. Beyond the standings, Jamal Murray is reportedly getting close, with an appearance at G League practice and all kinds of positive buzz.

9. Brooklyn Nets (36-33, Last week — 15th)

This might be too low for Brooklyn, but the Nets are creeping back up the list. Kevin Durant’s presence immediately makes the Nets a different team, and Brooklyn has won four in a row. Kyrie Irving absolutely erupted for 60 points on Tuesday and, as it turns out, Brooklyn is pretty good when most of their guys can play.

10. Philadelphia 76ers (41-26, Last week — 5th)

It wasn’t the best week for Philly. The 76ers were absolutely throttled by the Nets before losing a home game to the Nuggets. Granted, they beat the Magic in between, but the loss to Brooklyn (on national television and all) has to give the organization some nightmares. That’s how bad it is.

11. Utah Jazz (42-26, Last week — 9th)

Last week, we discussed the mess in the middle of the West, and the Jazz went 2-2 this week. That isn’t catastrophic by any means, but Utah now sits in a tie with Dallas and just 1.5 games ahead of Denver. Every game counts, and the Jazz were sideswiped by the drought they endured without Rudy Gobert on the court.

12. Minnesota Timberwolves (40-30, Last week — 11th)

The Wolves are 8-1 in the last nine games, which speaks for itself. The only loss came to Orlando, which isn’t ideal, but the vibes are very strong on the heels of a 60-point performance from Karl-Anthony Towns. Can the Wolves catch the Nuggets for the No. 6 spot? We’ll see, but Minnesota already having 40 wins is remarkable in itself.

13. Toronto Raptors (38-30, Last week — 14th)

Toronto is on a marathon six-game road trip, but the results have been great. They did lose to Cleveland, but the Raptors then reeled off victories over the Spurs, Suns, Nuggets, and Lakers in succession. Toronto is within one game of Cleveland for the No. 6 seed, though the Raptors do lose the tiebreaker to the Cavs by nature of losing all three regular season tilts to this point.

14. Chicago Bulls (41-27, Last week — 13th)

For most of the season, Chicago’s kryptonite has been when they face good teams. The Bulls are 2-15 against the NBA’s top tier, but Chicago ended this week by losing… to the Kings. That loss keeps the Bulls from rising in the rankings, even if it could potentially be written off as noise.

15. Cleveland Cavaliers (39-29, Last week — 12th)

If the Cavs are going to hold off the Raptors for the No. 6 seed, they will need to do work in the next couple of weeks. Cleveland has seven of the next eight games at home, and that includes home dates against Detroit, Orlando and the Lakers.

16. Atlanta Hawks (34-34, Last week — 17th)

The Hawks are back to .500 for the first time since December, and that is notable. At the same time, Atlanta had to go to the wire to beat the Zombie Pacers and the Zombie Blazers this weekend. The Hawks have a bigger test on Wednesday in Charlotte, and that should spotlight whether Atlanta’s recent gains are real.

17. Charlotte Hornets (34-35, Last week — 18th)

Charlotte just scored 276 points in two games. The opponents were New Orleans and Oklahoma City, but that is wild against anyone with both games ending in regulation. As noted above, the Hornets are also facing a bottom-five defense (Atlanta) on Wednesday.

18. L.A. Clippers (36-35, Last week — 16th)

The Clippers are resilient, competitive, and well-coached. That doesn’t paper over a limited roster, but it’s true. L.A. slips behind Atlanta after a head-to-head loss, but the Clippers might be the epitome of a league-average team this season.

19. New Orleans Pelicans (28-41, Last week — 20th)

It doesn’t feel like anyone wants the No. 10 spot in the West play-in, but the Pelicans still have it. New Orleans is 1-5 in the last six games, and that includes home losses to Orlando and Charlotte. The downturn is explained by the absence of Brandon Ingram and CJ McCollum, but the timing wasn’t great. Fortunately, the closest competitor is Portland, and the Blazers rank (spoiler alert!) much lower on this list.

20. Washington Wizards (29-38, Last week — 19th)

A week ago, the Wizards were within 1.5 games of the No. 10 seed. On cue, Washington went 0-4 on a road trip and the gap is now four full games behind Charlotte and 4.5 games behind Atlanta. That doesn’t totally slam the door, but the Wizards need to make a huge run and it doesn’t feel like they can.

21. San Antonio Spurs (26-43, Last week — 21st)

The headliner of the week in San Antonio was Gregg Popovich setting the all-time wins record. This has been an otherwise forgettable season, but giving Popovich attention for that mark is warranted, and the victory came against a good team in the Jazz.

22. New York Knicks (28-40, Last week — 23rd)

The Knicks just won three of the last five games on a road trip. That’s a nice development for New York, and the two losses came by a total of seven points. That doesn’t help the Knicks’ hideous clutch stats, but being competitive is nice.

23. Los Angeles Lakers (29-39, Last week — 22nd)

On the positive side, LeBron scored 50 points in a win over Washington this week. On the pessimistic side, the Lakers lost the other three games on their schedule, including a loss to the hapless Rockets, an absolute annihilation at the ends of the Suns, and a game that is now known for LeBron throwing a basketball.

24. Sacramento Kings (25-45, Last week — 25th)

De’Aaron Fox has scored at least 20 points in every game since he returned from injury on Feb. 8. His bounce-back doesn’t solve every problem for the Kings but, if you’re looking for optimism in the midst of the wreckage, Fox’s recent performance should provide some.

25. Detroit Pistons (18-51, Last week — 24th)

A week ago, the Pistons had won three in a row and they rose in the rankings as a result. This time, they are on a four-game losing streak. Still, Detroit lost to four playoff teams and all four games were competitive. That is a victory in itself, especially when the Pistons need to keep up in the race for lottery position.

26. Indiana Pacers (23-47, Last week — 28th)

Some of the rosters being utilized by the Pacers are pretty gross, and Indiana is 4-14 in the last 18 games. They do have pieces to build with, headlined by Tyrese Haliburton, but Indiana was absolutely smashed by the Ja Morant-less Grizzlies at home on Tuesday.

27. Portland Trail Blazers (26-41, Last week — 26th)

Since the All-Star break, the Blazers have been the worst team in the NBA by a considerable margin. It is easy to see why if you take a glance at the available roster for Portland (sorry, Josh Hart) but the Blazers are 1-7 with a -23.2 net rating in the last eight games. It’s gross.

28. Orlando Magic (18-52, Last week — 29th)

Orlando ends up rising in the rankings one day after losing by 42 points at home. That is the nature of the bottom of the league, but the Magic picked up wins over New Orleans and Minnesota in the last seven days. Unfortunately, Jon Isaac is going to miss the rest of the season, meaning that he will miss more than two full years before presumably returning in 2022-23.

29. Oklahoma City Thunder (20-48, Last week — 27th)

The NBA’s longest active losing streak belongs to the Thunder at six. Five of those six losses came at home and, while the Thunder have been frisky on defense for the full season, OKC’s defensive rating (128.8) in those games was abhorrent. Oklahoma City does have injuries, but it’s ugly on the floor.

30. Houston Rockets (17-51, Last week — 30th)

The Rockets are very bad, but they did beat the Lakers this week! With that out of the way, Jalen Green had 32 points in that game and he is averaging 21 points per game on 52 percent shooting in March. That, along with ping-pong balls, is what the rest of the season is about in Houston.