NBA Power Rankings: Who can beat the Nuggets right now?on January 11, 2023 at 12:50 pm

Since the turn of the new year the Denver Nuggets have beaten the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers and LA Clippers, and have taken over the top spot in the Western Conference alongside the Memphis Grizzlies. Two-time defending MVP Nikola Jokic is putting together his third legitimate campaign for the award and is getting big-time contributions from teammates Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon.

But don’t expect Denver to shake Memphis easily. The Grizzlies have won seven in a row. While those wins have come against lesser competition than the Nuggets’ recent stretch, Memphis will have plenty of opportunities to prove it can be the top team in the West with two more contests against the Nuggets to come in the next few months.

Memphis has already proven it can fend off the third-place New Orleans Pelicans, having won the past two games between them. Still, the Pelicans have a claim in what is shaping up to be a three-team race in the West, as New Orleans is still just two and a half games behind Memphis and Denver.

Meanwhile, the Celtics managed to outlast the Nets’ recent hot streak to keep hold of the top spot in the Eastern Conference. Boston could also be getting a huge break in its quest to keep that spot with Kevin Durant set to miss a month of action just in time for two high-stakes meetings between the Nets and Celtics in the coming weeks.

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

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