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After ranking universally in the top 5, and oftentimes within the top 3 last week, pundits were put off by the Clippers' play this week and dropped them down a bit, deservedly so. A lot of power rankings are weird for the first few weeks due to subjective criteria for each individual, but even ignoring preseason expectations and potential, the Clippers might still be a little overrated based on their performance this last week. A win over Golden State tomorrow would go a long way towards assuaging the fanbase and affirming their continued membership among the NBA elite.
| Outlet | Ranker | Ranking | Comment |
| SB Nation | Drew Garrison | 7 |
The Clippers opened the season 2-0, but unimpressive wins over the injury-riddled Oklahoma City Thunder and Los Angles Lakers left much to be desired. Then, they were stunned by the Kings. Blake Griffin is having serious struggles from mid-range but is firing away from outside the paint. |
| ESPN | Marc Stein | 8 | Maybe it's a good thing that the Clips have to see their hated rivals by the Bay so soon, because this is a team already in need of a jolt. Most Underwhelming Team of the Week, to be precise, heading into Wednesday's Golden State trip after following up two nervy wins with a home L to the Kings. |
| CBS Sports | Matt Moore | 11 | Struggled with the Los Angeles Lakers. Struggled with the Oklahoma City Thunder after Westbrook went down. Lost to the Kings. Their resume right now looks like that kid who's only worked for his or her dad's law firm. |
| Yahoo! | Marc Spears | 7 | Slow start so far with a three-point win over the Thunder sans Kevin Durant, a close win over the Lakers and a bad home loss to the Kings. |
| NBA.com | David Aldridge | 7 | Clippers still play down to their opposition, which ultimately means expending a lot more energy during the regular season than necessary. |
| NBA.com | John Schuhmann | 9 | It's great that Blake Griffin has put in a lot of work on his jumper. Bob Thate knows what he's doing and floor spacing is critical. But Griffin has become a little too jumper happy, taking 52 percent of his shots from outside the paint through three games, up from 37 percent last season. He was 0-for-8 from the outside in Sunday's loss to the Kings. |
| Sports Illustrated | Matt Dollinger | 7 | The offense hasn't looked sharp, including poor shooting (37.5 percent) that included an 0-for-12 fourth quarter from three-point range in a home loss to the Kings. If this is what Steve Ballmer looks like when he's happy, we'd hate to see him when he's angry. |
| Pro Basketball Talk | Kurt Helin | 7 | They haven't really impressed so far. They have lapses of interest and effort (third quarter against the Jazz Monday for example). Do that in the showdown against Golden State on Wednesday and they will get crushed. That said good record to start as they have eight of their first nine games at Staples Center and don't leave California until Nov. 19. |
| USA Today | Conglomerate | — | |
| /r/nba | Conglomerate | 7 |
The Clippers have underwhelmed so far this season thanks to lackluster shooting and poor defense, and while they got away with it against injury-depleted teams in the Lakers and Thunder, they couldn't say the same for Sacramento. They'll need to start playing better to live up to their lofty preseason expectations, but it's likely that rebounding and wing defense will be season-long concerns. |
| Average | 7.7 |