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25. New York Knicks (26)

Strength (or weakness, in this case) of opponent has to matter in this analysis, but it's still true that the Knicks are quietly operating like a real NBA team since Mike Miller took over for David Fizdale as head coach.

New York is 6-8 in 14 games under its new head coach and has done a much better job taking care of the ball and leveraging its size on the offensive glass. Julius Randle is thriving in the Knicks' improved spacing. His streak of 30-point games ended at three on Wednesday when his 22 points led the team in a 117-93 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Marcus Morris hasn't minded the new setup, either. He scored a career-best 38 points in a game the Knicks nearly stole against the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday, though they ultimately fell by a final of 135-132.

The Knicks aren't good, but they've been consistently competitive lately. Considering where things stood before Fizdale's ouster (4-18 with the NBA's worst net rating), that's an enormous change.

24. Sacramento Kings (22)

If you could isolate a few choice portions of Sacramento's 128-123 home win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Thursday, you'd assume the Kings were a clear playoff team. For stretches of the victory that halted their eight-game skid, they harassed Memphis into turnovers, zipped up the floor and leveraged their speed and shooting to serious effect.

De'Aaron Fox, specifically, comes alive in those accelerated conditions. No one can stay with him in the open floor, and there's something about a faster pace that also seems to ignite his defensive intensity. He logged five steals and two blocks to go along with 27 points and nine assists against the Grizzlies. When he's the aggressor on D, you can easily spot the All-Defensive potential.

Of course, the Kings also got blasted by a 42-26 margin in the first quarter of that game and fell into a 20-point hole, which made their frantic second-quarter burst necessary in the first place. If they could play like they did in those successful stretches all the time, then they certainly wouldn't have needed an inspired effort to beat the lottery-bound Grizz at home.

The flashes of dominant two-way play are exactly what makes this Kings season so frustrating. These guys can compete with anyone when they crank the pace and embrace chaos, fueling breakaways with frenetic defense. They just rarely tap into that version of themselves.

Losers in nine of their last 10, the Kings lose more ground this week.

23. Charlotte Hornets (24)

Devonte' Graham's three-point shot feels legitimate. He's made multiple triples in all but four games this season. Unfortunately, his inability to score from anywhere else is just as real.

Graham is shooting a shockingly poor 36.4 percent on two-pointers, and he's converted fewer than a quarter of his attempted twos from outside the restricted area. That inaccuracy is one reason the Hornets' effective field-goal percentage is under 50 percent over the last two weeks.

Charlotte got off its six-game slide with Thursday's 109-106 win at Cleveland, and Terry Rozier's 29 points produced a 123-120 overtime victory against the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, just its second victory over an opponent with a winning record this year. The first came against the Indiana Pacers way back on Nov. 5.

Though Graham is not scoring efficiently, his gravity still sucks defenders out of the lane. And his 24 combined assists in Charlotte's two wins this week showed he's contributing in other ways.

22. Detroit Pistons (19)

Derrick Rose's 22 points bolstered his case for Sixth Man of the Year and secured a 111-104 win over the Warriors on Saturday, but Detroit lost the other three games of its trip out West this week, falling to 13-24 on the season.

The Golden State game marked rookie Sekou Doumbouya's second start of the season, and his 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting were a career high. As Andre Drummond trade chatter intensifies, the possibility of a broader shift toward younger players also becomes more realistic. Sixteen points may not represent Doumbouya's best scoring output for long.

The Pistons are still within striking distance of an East playoff spot because nobody outside the conference's top six teams seems interested in playing respectable ball for more than a couple of weeks at a time. But it's hard to place confidence in a Detroit team whose defense has quietly ranked in the bottom 10 since Dec. 1.

21. Chicago Bulls (16)

The schedule handed Chicago a brutal slate this past week, resulting in losses to the Milwaukee Bucks, Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics. For another team, a gauntlet like that might have served as a sort of test, a way to establish a position relative to the league's best.

In the Bulls' case, all the 0-3 week did was highlight what we already knew: Chicago, 1-14 against teams above .500, simply isn't cut out to compete with top-level opponents.

It was interesting to see head coach Jim Boylen cut some fat from his rotation, reducing it to an eight-man operation against Boston on Saturday. And Zach LaVine's career-high 14 free-throw attempts represented another positive sign for the Bulls, who've searched all year for ways to score in the half-court.

With a defense buoyed by luck and an offense stuck in mud, the Bulls may be in for a rough January.