(Last week’s record in parenthesis; last week’s ranking in brackets)

1) Houston (4-0) [1]: Clint Capela posts okay Offensive Rating of 143 (!) in Rockets’ rout of San Antonio last Friday.

2) Golden State (2-0) [3]: Given the Warriors’ dominance the past few years, their current Net Rating of 12.7 — which would be higher than any other single-season Net in franchise history — is all the more impressive.

3) Cleveland (4-0) [4]: Three straight triple-doubles for LeBron, and the Cavs have a tidy little 17 wins in 18 games streak going.

4) Boston (2-2) [2]: Shane Larkin the latest to give Cs a boost off the bench.

5) Toronto (3-1) [6]: Just one loss in 12 games at home after Sunday’s win over Sacramento.

6) San Antonio (1-2) [5]: He’s 40 years old.

7) Milwaukee (0-3) [7]: Hard to beat anyone giving up 115 a game. Why is this defense so poor?

8) Minnesota (1-2) [8]: How does a team beat Philly and lose to Phoenix in the same week?

9) Denver (2-1) [9]: Torrey Craig is the winner of the trivia question, “Starter in an NBA game or Olympic silver medalist at the 1994 Winter Games?”

10) Detroit (3-1) [13]: Reggie Bullock takes over for Stanley Johnson at small forward.

11) Washington (2-2) [10]: After loss to Cleveland Sunday, Wizards have already lost six times at home this season after going 31-10 at what is now Capital One Arena last season.

12) Indiana (1-2) [11]: Indianapolis knows how to host big events, so getting the 2021 All-Star Game shouldn’t be above the city’s capabilities.

13) Portland (3-1) [15]: Evan Turner’s insertion into the starting lineup may not be the sole catalyst, but it coincides with the Blazers’ significant improvement on D in back-to-back-to-back road wins.

14) New York (3-0) [NR]: Oh, sure, we all had the Knicks smoking OKC in Carmelo’s return without the Unicorn and with Michael Beasley and Jarrett Jack in the starting lineup.

15) New Orleans (1-2) [14]: 28th in the league in turnovers; that has to change.

Dropped out: Philadelphia [12]

* * *

Longtime NBA reporter, columnist and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer David Aldridge is an analyst for TNT. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here andfollow him on Twitter.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.