Power rankings roundup: Fallout from the West Coast trip

For many fans, hours of sleep were lost due to staying up and watching the Atlanta Hawks during their late tip-off times on the West Coast. We were able to witness some exciting games and some that were not so exciting during the road trip.

Colin Ward-Henniger of CBS Sports refers to this as in dropping the Hawks to No. 26 in his power rankings

Trae Young is doing his best to keep the Hawks in games, but his team is simply overmatched on most nights with John Collins out of the lineup. They started the week with an improbable win in Denver, but proceeded to lose the next three games by an average of 28.7 points (the 49-point loss to the Clippers didn’t exactly help). Atlanta is playing fast, but that’s a recipe for disaster if your defense is terrible.

ESPN drops Atlanta to No. 21 while pointing out the critical absence of Vince Carter.

Vince Carter has been out since Nov. 8 and has missed the past five games for personal reasons. The veteran forward is expected to return to action on Wednesday against the Bucks in Atlanta. The 42-year-old is averaging 5.1 points and 2.1 rebounds in 14.5 minutes per game in what is expected to be his final NBA season. -- Spears

John Schuhmann’s ranking on NBA.com sees the Hawks drop to No. 28 after a couple of blowout losses.

Give the Hawks some credit for showing some fight on Sunday and not getting totally embarrassed for a second straight night at Staples Center. But after losing by 49 points to the Clippers, they were down 30-6 to the Lakers less than 24 hours later. It was so bad that Chandler Parsons (making his season debut) was a minus-10 in less than 2 1/2 minutes. After a 2-0 start, the Hawks have lost nine of their last 11 games, and after allowing less than 103 points per 100 possessions through their first seven, they’ve allowed more than 122 over the last six, with their opponents averaging more than 20 fast break points and shooting 41% from 3-point range over that stretch. They’re going back home for three of their next four games, but the schedule doesn’t ease up in regard to the strength of the opponents. The L.A. back-to-back was just Games 3 and 4 of a stretch where they’re playing 10 of 11 against teams that currently have winning records.

Michael Shapiro of Sports Illustrated puts Atlanta at No. 21 this week.

Trae Young is embracing his ball-dominance to a striking degree in year two, seizing the reigns with a 34.5% usage rate in his second year. No player holds the ball longer per touch (6.39 seconds per NBA.com) and his 6.04 dribbles per touch trails only DJ Augustin among qualified players. Atlanta is deep at the wing and severely lacking behind Young at point guard. Expect the early-season trend to hold up

Finally, Tommy Beer of Yahoo Sports drops the Hawks to No. 23 after pointing out the blowouts in Los Angeles.

The Hawks wrapped up a five-game west coast road trip this weekend and looked exhausted. After losing by 16 to the Suns on Thursday, Atlanta was blown out by Clippers on Saturday and the Lakers on Sunday. Over that three-game stretch, the Hawks were outscored by a whopping 86 points.

That does it for the rankings this week and, as you would expect, it looks like the Hawks have fallen overall after a rough road trip.

As always, feel free to leave your thoughts below.