Make what you will of the first few weeks of an NBA season, but know this: These games count the same as the ones after the turn of the calendar, and getting off to a good -- or bad -- start can be all the difference.

Who's hot? Who's not? Who's churning about in the middle? In the latest installment of our CBS Sports NBA Power Rankings, we're going to try to strike a balance between what we're seeing so far and what can reasonably be expected to play out over, say, the next month.

We will not go so far as to rank these teams based on championship expectations, because in that case it would take a lot more to alter, at least in tiers, the generally accepted hierarchy. Winning matters, and it will get you on the move up this board form week to week. But if you're beating bad teams, just a

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