Rockets Drop in CBS Sports' Latest Power Rankings

The Houston Rockets' most recent contest against the Washington Wizards was a bit of a beat down. The Wizards, who are clearly in a rebuild phase, were outmatched from the start and it showed.

Houston got out to a 81-54 lead in the first half and it was essentially over at that point (although we have seen several seismic comebacks, even this season).

Kevin Durant had 16 points in the first quarter alone, while the entire Wizards team had 29 points in the opening period. Durant was five-of-eight from the floor, shooting 62.5 percent, and five-of-six from the foul line.

For the day, Durant had 23 points in 30 minutes of action but played sparingly in the second quarter and even less in the fourth quarter, as he simply wasn't needed. The Rockets received contributions up and down the roster, as they had six players score in double figures.

Even more, they had three 20-point scorers, as Tari Eason and Reed Sheppard joined Durant with 20-balls of their own.

Again, the Rockets made easy work out of the Wizards, which was expected.

(Although Washington did still manage to eek out 112 points, in large part to their outside shooting, as they made 39.5 percent of their 3-point attempts).

The Rockets will take on the Portland Trail Blazers next, who are a better ball club than Washington, by far. The Blazers current sit eighth in the Western Conference, in spite of their betting scandal that forced them to abruptly change coaches from Chauncey Billups to Tiago Splitter, the former Rockets assistant.

Houston has won five of its last six games this month and is generally one of the league's better teams.

However, they dropped a bit in CBS Sports' latest power rankings, from third to sixth. The writer, Bradley Botkin, gave his synopsis of the Rockets' play of late.

"Houston owns the No. 1 offense in the league despite not having a designated true point guard. It still feels like that is going to be a problem down the road, but right now the Rockets are killing teams with sheer size and offensive rebounding. They hardly shoot any 3s, but the ones they are taking are dropping at a league-high 42%. Reed Sheppard is coming around."

This is a bit perplexing, due to the Rockets' play of late, but Botkin still has Houston fourth-best in the Western Conference, which is also their true ranking in the standings.