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Earl's NBA power ranking · Week 1, 2026

The Clippers grade out at 12th with a 3.897 neutral-field rating, a big jump from last year's 1.864 prior, and they've done it against a schedule 1.784 points tougher than average. That rating implies they'd be roughly 4-point favorites over a league-average team on a neutral floor, yet the market sits 12.94 points off their rating, meaning the number is pricing them well above what the underlying data supports — that's a sell signal, not a buy. With no key players listed as unavailable, the gap is purely market hype versus production, so I'm fading LAC against the spread until the rating catches up.