We've been conditioned by years of Timberwolves futility to scroll fast and hard, straight to the bottom, when looking at any web item about NBA team rankings.

As such, we were a little taken aback today with yet another reminder of Minnesota's meteoric rise to mediocrity. Upon clicking on Marc Stein's power rankings, we shot straight to No. 30. Then we started a slow climb up ... going ... and going ... hey where are they? ... out of the 20s, this is weird ... hey there are the Knicks ... still going ... and there they are! No. 15!

That's officially the upper half. And with J.J. Barea perhaps coming back tonight, these are, indeed, heady times.