The Week in Hoops: April 4, 2011

An abbreviated T.W.I.H. this week as I'm traveling this week. A new number one in the Colton Index this week.

The Colton Index:

Teams of the Week:

	1. Washington Wizards(stays at 29th)
	2. Portland Trailblazer (from 11th to 10th)
	3. Philadelphia 76ers (or as my 3-year old NBA-logo memorizing son calls them, "the Seventy-Six Sixers") (from 15th to 14th)

Teams of the Weak:

	1. Orlando Magic(from 8th to 9th)
	2. San Antonio Spurs (from 1st to 2nd)
	3. Dallas Mavericks (from 3rd to 4th)

Updated with Games as of Sunday April 3rd

Rk	Move	Team	W-L	Last 15	Avg Diff	SOS Rk	Colton
1	+2		55-21	13-2	6.76	21	57.69
2	-1		58-19	7-8	5.61	16	57.43
3	-1		56-20	13-2	7.22	30	57.12
4	+1		54-23	11-4	7.26	29	55.68
5	-1		53-24	8-7	3.64	9	53.93
6	-		53-23	7-8	5.82	28	52.72
7	+2		47-29	12-3	4.75	18	52.01
8	-1		50-26	11-4	3.51	20	51.79
9	-1		48-29	8-7	5.3	27	49.88
10	+1		45-32	10-5	1.81	4	48.60
11	-1		44-33	10-5	2.42	3	48.44
12	-		44-33	9-6	1.55	2	46.65
13	-		41-36	10-5	2.04	5	46.16
14	+1		40-37	8-7	2	26	43.39
15	-1		44-33	7-8	0.04	25	43.34
16	-		37-39	5-10	-0.71	8	40.37
17	-		38-38	6-9	0.59	24	39.53
18	-		36-41	4-11	-1.91	15	36.92
19	+1		35-43	8-7	-1.35	23	36.59
20	-1		33-44	6-9	-2.86	7	35.69
21	-		31-45	8-7	-1	22	35.14
22	+1		30-47	8-7	-2.97	14	33.67
23	-1		32-44	6-9	-3.97	19	33.41
24	-		26-50	4-11	-4.16	12	29.35
25	-		22-54	7-8	-5.12	10	28.43
26	-		23-53	5-10	-6.18	13	26.06
27	+1		21-55	4-11	-6.2	17	25.03
28	-1		17-60	2-13	-6.25	1	23.49
29	-		20-56	4-11	-7.89	11	22.75
30	-		15-61	3-12	-9.93	6	18.76

Note: Updating from last week...if the NBA combined the conferences and simply took the best 16 teams for the playoffs, the first-round match-ups would look like this if the season ended today (to account for differences in strength of schedule, I use the Colton Index full-season run of just wins and losses to rank order the teams):
1. San Antonio (58-19) vs. 16. Phoenix (37-39)
2. LA Lakers (55-21) vs. 15. Philadelphia (40-37)
3. Chicago (56-20) vs. 14. Houston (41-36)
4. Dallas (53-24) vs. 13. Atlanta (44-33)
5. Miami (54-23) vs. 12. New Orleans (44-33)
6. Boston (53-23) vs. 11. Memphis (44-33)
7. Oklahoma City (50-26) vs. 10. Portland (45-32)
8. Denver (47-29) vs. 9. Orlando (48-29)

Effectively, the bottom two teams in the East would be replaced by Phoenix and Houston.

Plan Accordingly:

Must watch games this week (all times ET):

Mon 4/4: No Games today - Go Butler! I hope Butler wins so Jim Nantz can say "This time, the Butler did it!" or something like that.
Tues 4/5: Miami at Cleveland (7:00 PM) - LeBron's return to Cleveland highlights a weak slate of games, although does anybody really care anymore?
Weds 4/6: San Antonio at Atlanta (7:00 PM); Philadelphia at Boston (7:30 PM) - 3/6 series preview?; Oklahoma City at Denver (9:00 PM) - 4/5 series preview?
Thurs 4/7: Boston at Chicago (8:00 PM, TNT)
Fri 4/8: Denver at Oklahoma City (8:00 PM) - again!; LA Lakers at Portland (10:00 PM)
Sat 4/9: LA Clippers at Houston (8:30 PM)
Sun 4/10: Chicago at Orlando (1:00 PM, ABC); Boston at Miami(3:30 PM, ABC); New Orleans at Memphis (6:00 PM); Oklahoma City at LA Lakers (9:30 PM)

Dunks of the Week:

Here are the top 5 Dunks for the week ending 4/2, as voted on by the Wegobomber Dunk Committee.

5. Lebron James drives to the bucket and throws it down against the Rockets.


4. Tony Allen stuffs it one-handed against the Golden State Warriors.


3. Willie Green may be one of the worst regular rotation players in the league, but we gotta give him props for this putback.


2. Lebron James gets away with a shove and then catches Trevor Booker in an unenviable position.


1. Looking back, Shannon Brown was an oversight from our Top 10 dunkers list. He's added quite a few quality dunks to his resume lately. This switcheroo looks like something that got him a 40 in the dunk contest last year.


Bonus: This Al-Farouq Aminu dunk didn't make the top 5, but it's worth watching. He travels (in more ways than one) about 70 feet down the court, taking 12 or 13 steps while only taking 4 dribbles. Impressive!


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