{"id":21022,"date":"2022-01-22T04:37:52","date_gmt":"2022-01-22T04:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=21022"},"modified":"2022-01-22T04:37:54","modified_gmt":"2022-01-22T04:37:54","slug":"nba-power-rankings-update-january-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nba\/nba-power-rankings-update-january-21\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Power Rankings Update \u2013 January 21"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Eastern Conference is wide open heading into this weekend. There are just 2.5 games separating the top six teams in the East before Friday night\u2019s games tipped off, and the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat are currently tied for the top spot in the conference. Only 6.5 games separate the 10<sup>th<\/sup> seed from the No. 1 seed too, so it is conceivable for one of the top teams to miss the playoffs entirely if they hit a bad stretch or suffer a couple major injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Brooklyn Nets<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This Week\u2019s Odds: +290<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Last Week\u2019s Odds: +280<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kevin Durant will miss at least a month after spraining the MCL in his left knee last weekend. Durant was one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/futures-and-props\/nba-futures\/championship\">frontrunners to be named NBA MVP<\/a>, so his absence until at least February is going to be hard for Brooklyn to overcome. Kyrie Irving has only played five games as he continues to refuse to be vaccinated, so the burden is squarely on James Harden\u2019s shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NFL Divisional Round Expert Picks | MAJOR UFC Odds Update | BetOnline All Access\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Q6WeALk7830?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Golden State Warriors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This Week\u2019s Odds: +375<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Last Week\u2019s Odds: +350<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s been a rough past couple weeks for the Golden State Warriors. They were hoping to take off with the return of Klay Thompson, but they have lost six of their last ten games. Golden State is now 3.5 games behind Phoenix in the Pacific Division, and Thompson has struggled to get his feet under him. Andrew Wiggins is playing well in a complementary role though, averaging 18.3 PPG while making 48.7% of his field goals and 41.6% of his threes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Milwaukee Bucks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This Week\u2019s Odds: +700<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Last Week\u2019s Odds: +750<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Giannis Antetokuonmpo can never be counted out. The two-time NBA MVP is having a stellar season, averaging 28.6 PPG, 11.3 RPG, and 6.1 APG for the Milwaukee Bucks. The defending champions are currently fourth in the Eastern Conference standings, but they have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/futures-and-props\/nba-futures\/championship\">the third lowest odds<\/a> to win the NBA Championship for a reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4. Phoenix Suns<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This Week\u2019s Odds: +700<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Last Week\u2019s Odds: +850<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Phoenix Suns are fully in the driver\u2019s seat in the Western Conference. Phoenix has won five in a row to move to 35-9, and the Suns are close to being favorites to locking up homecourt advantage throughout the NBA Playoffs. They don\u2019t have a single top ten player, but they have a collection of talented players that gel well together with Chris Paul running things on the perimeter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>5. Utah Jazz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This Week\u2019s Odds: +1000 (No Change)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have seen the Utah Jazz really struggle in recent weeks. They have lost six of their last seven games, and they have fallen to bad teams like Houston, Detroit, and Indiana during this stretch. The lack of quality guard play aside from Donovan Mitchell has really hurt the Jazz, as Jordan Clarkson, Mike Conley Jr., and Joe Ingles are all having a tough time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>6. Los Angeles Lakers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This Week\u2019s Odds: +1400 (No Change)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>LeBron James is dead last on the Los Angeles Lakers in plus\/minus. James is trying to carry a team that was poorly constructed this offseason, and that has led to him playing center in smallball lineups and getting taken advantage of in the paint. It\u2019s been a very disappointing year for the Los Angeles Lakers, and Russell Westbrook was recently benched for his poor play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>7. Miami Heat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>This Week\u2019s Odds: +1400 (No Change)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/sportsbook\/futures-and-props\/nba-futures\/championship\">most enticing odds on the board<\/a> might be the Miami Heat. Erik Spoelstra has proven he is one of the best coaches in the league, and the Heat can still make a few moves at the trade deadline. Jimmy Butler is back in the lineup, and there is a lot of depth on this roster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Follow our&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/betonline_ag\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Twitter account<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;for the latest sports news and wagering odds, and come to our&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/betonline_ag\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Instagram<\/em><\/a><em>&nbsp;for more useful betting info too.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Eastern Conference is wide open heading into this weekend. There are just 2.5 games separating the top six teams&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":17675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21022"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21031,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21022\/revisions\/21031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}