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This weekend brought plenty of snow into the Delaware Valley, and more seems to be on the way. And as the white stuff fell, so did the Sixers in the national media's weekly power rankings. Prior to Monday's game, Philadelphia has gone 1-3 in their past four games, their only win coming in a double OT thriller versus Orlando.
They've spent the past two games minus the services of Michael Carter-Williams as he fought off a knee infection, but Philadelphia was shown no mercy.
CBSSports.com's Matt Moore respectfully placed Philadelphia at 24, down two spots from 22 last week. Here's what he had to say:
"Dropping" is the right term here, because the farther they fall, the faster their velocity toward the bottom.
Matt Moore, physics teacher in training. I'd like to think of it as a graceful fall that eventually allows them to land a pick somewhere in the top three.
Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports and John Schuhmann of NBA.com felt that 25th was where the Sixers belonged. However, the always admirable Tony Wroten earned some dap from Spears:
Add Tony Wroten to the list of Most Improved Player candidates. He's averaging 13.1 points after averaging 2.6 with Memphis last season.
Do it!
Who was the biggest hater: ESPN.com's Marc Stein and SBN's Jason Patt
Both Stein and Patt placed the Sixers at 27th, with New York and Brooklyn ahead of them. Somewhat unfathomable, but here's what Stein had to say:
As we strain to find ways to separate Michael Carter-Williams and Victor Oladipo -- which might have just gotten tougher after their dueling triple-doubles Tuesday night -- here's a resume wrinkle in MCW's favor: Philly is 6-9 when he plays and 1-5 when he's been out nursing an injury.
If that's the case, then MCW can take off all the time in the world. (Not actually, I miss him terribly.)
Who showed the most love: USA Today
The noticeably anonymous author of USA Today's power rankings placed Philly at 23rd, and seemed to have found a remedy for Carter-Williams' ailing knee:
Michael Carter-Williams has a knee infection, and the only cure is Andrew Wiggins (or Jabari Parker).
No complaints here.
To be frank, I think 27th is pretty fair, as they've looked rather horrid. Thoughts?