The Drubbing

There was quite a bit of movement in the last week of the Basketball Jesus Rankings before the All-Star game. There are some friendly faces at the top as LeBron James had a couple of nice games to maintain the top spot and a comfortable lead over Dwyane Wade in the second spot. D-Wade also has a nice cushion over the number three spot. But that’s where it starts to get interesting.

There’s no new faces on the list this week, but there are a few players that we may not get to see for a while after this week.

The big new of the week was Kobe Bryant. Kobe had the kind of week that legends are made of. He started off in dramatic fashion torching the Knicks for 61 and setting the high-score mark for Madison Square Garden, The World’s Most Famous Arena. Next he dropped 36 on the Raptors in Toronto. In a nail-biter of a victory he put up 26 against the Celtics, again on the road in Boston. And he closed the week out with a modest 19 points in an easy win for the Lakers over the Cavaliers in Cleveland. But it was anything by easy for Kobe who was battling “flu-like symptoms” all day and even took an IV at half-time.

On the injury front, the big news is obviously with Al Jefferson. After suffering a season-ending ACL tear, Al will be sliding down the rankings after working so hard to make his way up to the number five spot. It may take a couple of weeks for 11 players to overtake him, but his farewell tour has certainly begun.

Chris Bosh and Chris Paul will probably be doing a little sliding as well. They’ve both suffered a little skid already and they continue to miss games so don’t expect to see them gain any ground this week.

All that is good news for the man who now sits at the number 15 spot, Joe Johnson. Johnson just eked out another week on the list and is poised to do so again next week thanks to some of these injuries.

Hopefully everyone can get back to tip-top shape after the All-Star break.

1. LeBron James [2098]
2. Dwyane Wade [2018]
3. Kobe Bryant [1900]
4. Dirk Nowitzki [1785]
5. Al Jefferson [1783]
6. Chris Bosh [1770]
7. Kevin Durant [1746]
8. Dwight Howard [1729]
9. Chris Paul [1701]
10. Tim Duncan [1675]
11. Antawn Jamison [1656]
12. Danny Granger [1626]
13. Vince Carter [1565]
14. Paul Pierce [1546]
15. Joe Johnson [1535]

Note: Point, rebound and assist total listed next to the player.