1. Miami Heat (64-16, previous No. 1) - Well, Dwyane Wade is back, and the Heat look ready for the postseason. They might even consider resting LeBron James and Wade for the entire series with Milwaukee in preparation for an actual challenge.

2. Oklahoma City Thunder (59-21, previous No. 2) – Kevin Durant was fined $25,000 for a “menacing gesture” last week, but what he and the Thunder do in the Western Conference should be even more menacing.

3. San Antonio Spurs (58-22, previous No. 4) - The Spurs weathered the storm that was the 2012-13 NBA regular season. But do they have enough left in the tank to go deep into the postseason? It’ll be tough.

4. Memphis Grizzlies (54-26 previous No. 3) - What to make of Memphis’ 91-87 loss to the Clippers over the weekend? One, it could be an opening round playoff preview. Two, it should be a very entertaining one.

5. Los Angeles Clippers (54-26, previous No. 5) - A win over the Griz before the postseason does wonders for L.A.’s confidence. It also helps that it could give them homecourt advantage over them.

6. New York Knicks (53-27, previous No. 6) - The Knicks beat up on the Celtics pretty good in the regular season, but make no mistake: they aren’t thrilled about their opening round matchup.

7. Denver Nuggets (55-25, previous No. 7) - On the day point guard Ty Lawson returned, Kenneth Faried sprained his left ankle. Hopefully it’s not serious, because they’ll need all hands (and ankles) on deck without Danilo Gallinari.

8. Indiana Pacers (49-31, previous No. 8) - Roy Hibbert is playing at a higher level over the second half of the season. The Pacers should be fine against a banged up Bulls team or a Hawks team that lacks an identity.

10. Brooklyn Nets (47-33, previous No. 10) - The team that nobody is talking about could give the Heat more trouble than we all think in the second round. Deron Williams is playing as good as anybody.

9. Houston Rockets (45-35, previous No. 9) - The Rockets are the only Western Conference playoff team with a losing record against Western Conference teams. Beating up on the Eastern Conference won’t help them now.

11. Golden State Warriors (45-35, previous No. 11) - The Warriors seem to be that team that every other team in the Western Conference wants to play. Can they use that as fuel? Or will they just prove all those teams right?

12. Chicago Bulls (43-37, previous No. 12) - It feels more and more like the season of “what could have been” for Chicago. Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson are banged up now. Derrick Rose doesn’t appear to be suiting up this season, either.

13. Boston Celtics (41-39, previous No. 13) - The Celtics may not have depth on their side. Or age. But one thing they’ve never lacked is confidence, and often times that’s all a team needs.

14. Atlanta Hawks (44-36, previous No. 14) - He seems to go under the radar just about every year, but Al Horford is the type of player every team wants. Can play both power forward and center effectively on both ends.

15. Los Angeles Lakers (44-37, previous No. 15) - It’s an absolute shame that Kobe Bryant is lost for the season after doing everything in his power to get his team into the playoffs. Can Dwight carry them now?

16. Utah Jazz (42-38, previous No. 16) - The Jazz didn’t trade Al Jefferson or Paul Millsap at the deadline, could lose both now, and it’s looking like they’ll miss the postseason. What a season …

17. Milwaukee Bucks (37-43, previous No. 17) - No truth to the rumor that the Bucks are raising a banner with the words “Just Happy to be Here” written on it before the Heat series.

18. Dallas Mavericks (40-40, previous No. 18) - The Dallas Mavericks all finally shaved their beards on Sunday . . . because they reached .500 on the season. Congrats?

19. Philadelphia 76ers (33-47, previous 20) - Reports are that Doug Collins will resign as head coach after the season. Not a big surprise. It was pretty clear that, like everybody else, he had had enough with that team.

20. Toronto Raptors (32-48, previous – ) - All the Raptors are doing now is costing themselves ping pong balls. Should have followed the Trail Blazers lead to end the season (an 11-game losing streak).

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Records through March 3

1. Miami Heat (43-14, previous No. 2) – A 14-game winning streak. Is that good? Nope. It’s freaking awesome – and so are the Heat right now. They haven’t lost in over a month!

2. Oklahoma City Thunder (43-16, previous No. 3) – A tough loss in Denver was followed up by a big win against the Clippers to lock the Thunder in at the No. 2 spot this week. Miami No. 1, OKC No. 2 – not much has changed since last year.

3. San Antonio Spurs (47-14, previous No. 1) - Tony Parker (ankle) will be down for about a month. He’s been the reason the Spurs have overcome injuries. Can they pay him back the favor?

4. Los Angeles Clippers (43-19, previous No. 4) – Still one of the deepest teams in the NBA, which will be huge for them in the postseason – especially if they eventually meet that always-banged-up Spurs team.

5. Memphis Grizzlies (39-19 previous No. 5) – The second hottest team in the league behind the Heat has gone 9-1 in their last 10 games losing to just – you guessed it – the Heat. An OKC-Memphis second round sounds exciting. Then again, so does a Memphis-Denver first round.

6. Indiana Pacers (38-22, previous No. 6) – The last game the Heat lost was against the Pacers, and the two will play again – this time in Miami – on Sunday. We’ll learn a lot about the Pacers here.

7. DenverNuggets (38-22, previous No. 7) - Say what you want about the Nuggets’ lack of star power, by Ty Lawson is averaging 23.1 points and 7.6 assists over his last 10 games – including a game-winner to beat the Thunder last Friday.

8. New York Knicks (35-21, previous No. 11) – The Knicks posted 37 points in the second quarter against the Heat on Sunday, but just 34 points combined in the third and fourth. They move up the ranks this week by default.

9. Atlanta Hawks (33-25, previous No. 12) - Going into Monday night, the Hawks were ranked No. 4 in the Eastern Conference, but they were just two games from falling to No. 7. Do they have what it takes to hold on?

10. Chicago Bulls (34-26, previous No. 10) – Joakim Noah looks like a man amongst boys out there as of late, but the Bulls are playing below-.500 basketball since late January.

11. Brooklyn Nets (34-26, previous No. 9) – Hopefully Jay-Z is too busy planning his summer stadium tour with Justin Timberlake to notice his team has lost four of its last five games.

13. Boston Celtics (31-27, previous No. 14) – Four games in six days for the C’s, including a back-to-back on the road. They could easily go 4-0, or 0-4. That’s been the theme for the majority of the year.

14. Golden State Warriors (33-27, previous No. 8) – The Warriors have two big problems. They don’t play much defense and they can’t win on the road. That spells early playoff exit.

15. Utah Jazz (32-27, previous No. 15) - The good news: The Jazz are 22-8 at home. The bad news: Five of their next six are on the road, where they’ve gone 10-19.

16. Milwaukee Bucks (29-28, previous No. 16) – As it stands now, the Bucks would play the Heat in the first round of the playoffs. Imagine if they w- nah, never mind.

17. Los Angeles Lakers (30-30, previous No. 17) - It might sound crazy, but with the Warriors, Jazz, and Rockets currently ahead of L.A., the No. 6 seed is still possible.

18. Dallas Mavericks (26-33, previous No. 19) – Mark Cuban claims to have this new CBA thing down. Mavericks fans have no choice but to hope he’s right.

19. Portland Trail Blazers (27-31, previous No. 20) – It’s starting to hit the fans in Portand that the playoffs probably aren’t coming there this season.

20. Toronto Raptors (23-37 previous No. 18) - It was looking good for Toronto for a few days anyways, but losing five of six will snap everybody back to reality.

Follow Metro sports writer Jimmy Toscano @Jimmy_Toscano

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Records through Feb. 24:

1. San Antonio Spurs (45-13, previous No. 1) – The Spurs finished their nine-game road trip with a 7-2 record, and continue to win games despite fighting the injury bug. Health seems to be the only roadblock for this team come postseason.

2. Miami Heat (40-14, previous No. 3) – Eleven wins in a row, seven of which have come by double-digits. Is that good? Not for the rest of the NBA. The Heat are pulling away from the East with relative ease.

3. Oklahoma City Thunder (41-15, previous No. 2) – A 30-point beat-down of the Bulls is comforting. Not comforting? Signing Derek Fisher a few hours later. Do they really need him?

4. Los Angeles Clippers (40-18, previous No. 4) – Would Kevin Garnett put them over the top? We’ll never know. But the Clippers still have as good of a chance as any team to win a title.

5. Memphis Grizzlies (37-18 previous No. 6) – It’s not the strongest seven-game winning streak around (two wins over playoff contenders), but it’s a streak nonetheless. Still, it’s hard to include them with the elite right now.

6. Indiana Pacers (35-21, previous No. 8) – The Pacers are the team keeping somewhat of a “pace” with the Heat over the last 11 games, going 9-2 in that span. And they just got Danny Granger back. Fun times.

7. Denver Nuggets (35-22, previous No. 5) – Can we just bottle up everything about Kenneth Faried and give it to every NBA player? It would make for some pretty intense and amazing games.

8. Golden State Warriors (33-23, previous No. 9) – It looked like the wheels fell off for the Warriors after six straight losses. But a comeback, overtime win over the Spurs on Friday has them living up to their team name.

9. Brooklyn Nets (33-24, previous No. 11) – Went into and out of the break strong – two wins each – but have since lost to the Rockets and Griz. Joe Johnson can only hit so many game-winners, ya know?

10. Chicago Bulls (32-24, previous No. 7) – Sunday’s loss to the Thunder was ugly. Here’s some salt for that wound: According to Elias, it was Chicago’s eighth-straight game in which none of its players scored more than 20 points, the longest such streak in franchise history.

11. New York Knicks (33-20, previous No. 10) – The Knicks have just one win against a playoff team (the Bucks) in February. They are fading, and fading fast. Is anybody that surprised?

12. Atlanta Hawks (31-23, previous No. 13) – It almost seemed like a guarantee that Josh Smith would say buh-bye to ATL at the deadline. Instead, it’s a guarantee that the Smith-led Hawks are first or second round playoff exits.

13. Houston Rockets (31-27, previous No. 14) – With the position Houston has put itself in since last offseason, it’s easy to picture the Rockets as a top dog in the West next season. Not this season though.

14. Boston Celtics (29-27, previous No. 12) – Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett will live to see another full season in Green. That may have not been the case if it was a seller’s market at the deadline.

15. Utah Jazz (31-25, previous No. 16) – The Jazz have both Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap ready to hit free agency. They aren’t good enough with them, can’t re-sign both, but didn’t trade either. Figure that one out.

16. Milwaukee Bucks (26-28, previous No. 15) – A round of applause for the Bucks who tried as hard as possible to land Josh Smith. Now, a moment of silence.

17. Los Angeles Lakers (28-29, previous No. 19) – The Lakers are 11-4 in their last 15 games, which can only mean one thing: they’ve finally tuned out Mike D’Antoni.

18. Toronto Raptors (23-33 previous No. – ) – The Raptors are 6-1 over their last seven games, including wins over the Pacers, Nuggets, and Knicks (twice). Playoffs?!

19. Dallas Mavericks (25-30, previous No. 18) – Mark Cuban loves hypotheticals (“Amnesty Kobe”), so here’s one: “Let’s just say the Mavericks make the playoffs this season…”

20. Portland Trail Blazers (26-30, previous No. 17) – The problem with Portland is that they need lots of production from their starters because their bench is extremely weak. No offense, Sasha Pavlovic.

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