Marc Stein, ESPN Senior Writer 9y

Stein's Power Rankings: Week 7

The 1966-67 Philadelphia Warriors. The 1969-70 New York Knicks. The 1993-94 Houston Rockets.

And …

Michael Jordan’s 1995-96 Chicago Bulls that also featured a guard off the bench named Steve Kerr.

Those are the four previous teams in NBA history that turned a 21-2 start into an eventual championship.

Can the Golden State Warriors join them? Or will the Kerr-coached Dubs join the group of four previous 21-2 teams that did not go on to win it all?

Not an easy question to answer in December with the Warriors potentially headed for a first-round encounter with the Oklahoma City Thunder if the standings on this Rankings Monday were to hold for the rest of the season.

The only sure thing in this Western Conference, at this juncture, is that the Warriors are an automatic choice to fill the top spot in ESPN.com’s weekly NBA Power Rankings. That’s where you’ll find them for the fifth time in six Mondays after the Warriors stretched their record from 17-2 to 21-2 since we last convened the committee (of one).

In other notable rankings developments: Memphis has returned to No. 2 just in time to host the Warriors on Tuesday night. Houston is back up to No. 3 on the strength of its 8-3 success while Dwight Howard was nursing a bad knee. No. 7 Chicago, No. 8 Toronto and No. 10 Washington are Eastern Conference teams moving in the right direction. Oklahoma City (up from No. 15 to No. 13) is inching back toward the top 10 where it belongs. Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers have climbed to a season-high No. 21 … and Philadelphia has sunk back to the bottom after Detroit responded to its one-week banishment to No. 30 by welcoming back the injured Jodie Meeks and then sweeping a road back-to-back in Phoenix and Sacramento.

Friendly reminder: Join us again here next Monday, when the committee reconvenes to rank the teams 1 to 30 and dissect the order here on Stein Line Live.

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