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Earl's NBA power ranking · Week 1, 2026

Houston grades out as a legitimate top-three team at 9.637 points better than average on a neutral field, a massive jump from last year's 4.626 prior rating, and they've backed it up at 4-0 against a schedule that's no cakewalk (5.334 SOS). The market is still catching up, with a 6.21-point gap between their rating and the number, so this is a clear buy — their rating implies they should be laying roughly 9.5 to an average opponent, meaning any spread near a touchdown or less is value. No key players are docked for injury (0.0), so the rating is clean.