TOP TO BOTTOM / NBA

Team (record): Comment (last week’s position)

1. Lakers (67-15): Pretty amazing season. Now they get to see if they can do it all over again. (1)

2. Portland (59-23): After Lakers broke their, uh, hearts, the Trail Blazers finished season 14-11. (2)

3. Utah (55-27): Finished 6-5. Last spring Jazz finished 5-5 and almost went home in first round. (4)

4. Indiana (56-26): Best of least, er, East waits to see if veterans have last run in them. (5)

5. San Antonio (53-29): Except for their age and Duncan’s knee and free agency, everything’s OK. (3)

6. Miami (52-30): Actually, the interesting stuff will start happening when Heat is eliminated. (6)

7. New York (50-32): How long after first playoff loss until Van Gundy’s reported in trouble? (7)

8. Minnesota (50-32): How great is Kevin Garnett? Just led this Boy Scout troop to 50 wins. (9)

9. Charlotte (49-33): Jones’ 20.1 scoring average beat his career high by three points. (11)

10. Philadelphia (49-33): How long after 76ers are eliminated will it take Iverson to demand a trade? (8)

11. Toronto (45-37): I don’t think so: Carter goes to Gotham to see if he really is The One. (14)

12. Seattle (45-37): SuperSonics may be NBA’s answer to a bar fight, but they’re still playing. (13)

13. Phoenix (53-29): Suns couldn’t even beat Rockets at home to secure home-court advantage. (10)

14. Sacramento (44-38): Nice way to finish up: Kings lost seven of eight to win a date with Shaq. (12)

15. Detroit (42-40): Pistons not out of woods yet: fast playoff exit, and Hill may still say goodbye. (15)

16. Dallas (40-42): Nelson finishes 15-5. Cuban won’t still kick him upstairs, will he? (17)

17. Milwaukee (42-40): Karl’s just jealous of Magic. He wants to get rid of all his guys too. (18)

18. Orlando (41-41): Team that started with combined scoring average of 55 almost made playoffs. (16)

19. Houston (34-48): Tomjanovich, most underrated man in game, finds some kids to rebuild around. (19)

20. Boston (35-47): Time for Pitino to gear up for swan song, but he’ll be $5 million over cap too. (23)

21. Denver (35-47): Still talented, dizzy and in need of a much better coach than Dan Issel. (20)

22. Washington (29-53): Now Jordan gets to see how little he can do because he’s $15 million over cap. (21)

23. New Jersey (31-51): Wonder how $71 million in Minnesota would look to Marbury right now? (22)

24. Cleveland (32-50): Well, maybe Ilgauskas will be OK and Kemp will fit in his old uniform. (24)

25. Atlanta (28-54): Moral of that story is, if you want to rebuild, don’t bring in Isaiah Rider. (25)

26. Vancouver (22-60): If they thought it was Grisly before, wait until they see Versace’s act. (26)

27. Golden State (19-63): Warriors won 50 games the season before Cohan bought them. His average for his six is 26. (27)

28. Chicago (17-65): In last 10 years, only O’Neal, Robinson, Mourning and Elton Brand averaged 20-10. (28)

29. Clippers (15-67): For a while there, it was starting to look as though it would never end. (29)