THE TIMES’ RANKINGS : NBA TOP TO BOTTOM

Capsules and Rankings

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

1. Lakers (15-2): Maybe they should let Campbell rest, too, and just play with their guards. (1)

2. Seattle (15-4): Who’d have thought Lakers would start 15-2--and only lead them by a game? (2)

3. Atlanta (15-3): Mutombo, who hasn’t averaged 15 since rookie year, now at career-high 17. (4)

4. Miami (12-5): No keeping Mourning down. He’s practicing, hoping to be back before Christmas. (3)

5. Portland (11-6): After events of past week, Dunleavy hires eight-man security detail. (6)

6. Phoenix (11-4): Oops: McDyess, slated for megadeal, averaging 13 points, 5.7 rebounds. (7)

7. Indiana (10-6): Larry Legend, defensive specialist? Pacers haven’t allowed 100 yet. (12)

8. New Jersey (11-7): Van Horn’s debut means Calipari finally has his starting team out there. (13)

9. New York (11-7): They’re back in the pack in the East, before Mourning and Pippen ever play a game. (5)

10. Orlando (13-7): Real contenders don’t let the Warriors end their six-game winning streaks. (8)

11. Utah (11-7): No keeping Stockton down. Practicing, hoping to return by month’s end. (10)

12. Houston (11-5): Barkley-Willis tandem gets 158 points, 73 rebounds in three games. (16)

13. Chicago (11-7): Things are so bad, they gloat about payback after beating . . . Celtics. (14)

14. Cleveland (11-6): Say what you want about his offense, but the Czar is one heck of a coach. (15)

15. Charlotte (10-7): Mason, Rice tell guards Wesley, Phills, forwards get the shots around here. (9)

16. San Antonio (10-9): If they can’t deal with Campbell and Wright, they’re not ready for O’Neal. (11)

17. Milwaukee (10-8): Better but still marginal: In nine games against winning teams, they’re 2-7. (17)

18. Minnesota (8-10): What playoff race? Already lead Grizzlies by 2 1/2 games for No. 8 in West. (20)

19. Washington (8-11): All they need is new arena every week: Start 2-0 in their MCI Center. (21)

20. Boston (7-11): Five-game losing streak means Pitino has entire roster on block (again). (18)

21. Detroit (7-12): Collins survives latest crisis, but All-Star break still looks good. (19)

22. Vancouver (7-13): Won seven games in November, beating the franchise record for a month by two. (22)

23. Sacramento (5-14): OK at home (4-5) but forget it when they get out on the road (1-9). (23)

24. Philadelphia (4-11): Good news: Thomas gets 16 in first start. Bad news: everything else. (24)

25. Clippers (3-15): Steve Fisher should have been fired for holding Mo Taylor to 11 a game. (25)

26. Dallas (5-13): Now that they’ve got preliminaries out of the way, they can start season. (28)

27. Golden State (2-14): Donyell Marshall gets 51 in two games as ball suddenly starts going inside. (27)

28. Toronto (1-17): Darrell Walker should have retired back on Nov. 5 when Raptors were 1-2. (26)

29. Denver (1-15): Hanzlik gets haircut, wins! By April, he’ll be bald, they’ll have 16 wins. (29)

GAME OF THE WEEK

NEW YORK AT CHICAGO

* When--Tuesday. Time--5 p.m. TV--TNT.

* Storyline--The former Eastern kingpins still have a special dislike for each other and both need a big victory badly so it will be fun watching them try to pound the stuffing out of each other.