Every Monday, I’ll update these rankings based on the previous week’s events. One game has been played in each of the eight playoff series and we already know a lot more than we did before the weekend.

IN A BAD WAY

16. Pistons
15. Jazz
14. Hornets
These are three teams that have struggled this season against larger expectations and were hoping for a fresh start in the Playoffs, but lost by an average of 20 points. The Jazz seem most capable of putting up a fight, but they’re facing arguably the best team in the league with a superstar that is on a championship mission. Likewise, without Chauncey Billups, the Pistons are in no position to slow the Cavs down. The Hornets are the most perplexing team of this trio — they have arguably the best point guard in the league (Chris Paul) and a great power foward (David West), but they aren’t getting any help. (Of course, it doesn’t really help that West went 4 of 16 from the field in Game 1.) Paul and West have to play brilliantly if the Hornets are to upend the Nuggets.

CAN STILL RIGHT THE SHIP

13. Heat
12. Blazers
11. Spurs
10. Celtics
9. Magic
Orlando, Boston, San Antonio and Portland all lost Game 1 at home. Portland was blown out, which makes one wonder if Brandon Roy and Co. can match Houston’s defensive intensity. The Rockets have snatched home court from the Blazers and are now the clear favorite to win the series.

The Spurs look old and out of sorts — but the problem is their defense. Tony Parker vastly outplayed Jason Kidd, and San Antonio got 40 points from Michael Finley, Roger Mason and Drew Gooden. Normally, that would be enough. But the Spurs gave up 105 points to the Mavs, allowing Dallas to shoot almost 54% from the field. That’s not championship defense, folks. The Mavs got great play from J.J. Barea (13 points) and Brandon Bass (14 points), who made the difference off the Dallas bench.

The Magic and the Celtics seem like they can turn their respective series around, but Boston looks to be in more trouble. Without KG, the upstart Bulls can smell blood, and no offense to Paul Pierce, but Chicago might have the best player in the series in probable ROY Derrick Rose. He certainly played that way in Game 1, but it’s a long series.

As for the Heat, Dwyane Wade and Co. look overmatched against a balanced Hawks team. Atlanta beat the Celtics three times at home in their first round series last year, so they should be able to ride home court advantage to the semis.

LOOKING GOOD

8. Sixers
7. Mavs
6. Bulls
Here are three teams that won Game 1 on the road. The winner of the first game goes on to win 79% of all seven-game series, so there’s a good chance that we’ll see at least two of these teams in the next round. The Sixers seem to be more smoke-and-mirrors than good basketball, but they have a young and athletic lineup that can run on the Magic, who miss Jameer Nelson more than they’d like to admit. The Mavs and Bulls are taking advantage of the injuries to Manu Ginobili and KG, respectively.

ROAD BLOCKS

5. Hawks
4. Rockets
3. Nuggets
These are the three teams that look to be the biggest obstacles standing in the way of a Cavs/Lakers matchup in the Finals. Right now, it looks like L.A. has the tougher road with potential series against Houston and Denver looming. Both teams are playing well, but don’t look to have the talent to keep up with the Lakers. Meanwhile, with Nelson and KG sidelined, and the Magic and Celtics dropping Game 1s at home, there isn’t much standing between the Cavs and the Finals. They may get their toughest test in the semis if the Hawks advance. Atlanta gave Boston all they could handle last year and one could argue that the ’08 Celtics were better than the ’09 Cavs, at least from a balance standpoint.

DESTINED FOR THE FINALS

2. Cavs
1. Lakers
Given their advantage in the two regular season matchups, I’m sticking with the Lakers until someone changes my mind. L.A. looks to have the tougher road, but that may mean that they’ll be more mentally prepared if these two teams meet in the Finals. It’s going to be interesting to see if Houston and/or Denver can push the Lakers to six or seven games, or if anyone in the East can challenge LeBron and the Cavs.

“LeBron (James) isn’t a Cleveland guy. LeBron only plays for the Cavaliers, and who knows if he even likes the Cavaliers? He doesn’t like the Indians. He doesn’t like the Browns.”

The Browns receiver made his comments after LeBron James hung out on the Dallas sidelines during pregame warmups prior to the Cowboys/Browns game Sunday afternoon, hugging Terrell Owens and Adam “Don’t Call Me Pacman” Jones, chatting with owner Jerry Jones, and wearing a Yankees cap.

Of course, it was a Yankees cap that first had people questioning LeBron’s loyalty to his hometown. As a (tortured) Cleveland fan, I was pretty fired up when LeBron wore a Yankees hat to Jacobs Field for the Indians’ opening playoff game against the Yanks last year:

Cleveland is most definitely a football city, but LeBron is without question the face of Cleveland sports right now. That doesn’t mean that he has to root for every Cleveland sports franchise, but he crossed the line when he wore a Yankees hat to the game last night. That’d be like David Ortiz donning a Peyton Manning jersey during a Colts/Pats game in New England or, even worse, Tom Brady wearing a Yankees hat to a Sox/Yankees game at Fenway. You just don’t do it.

At the time, what irked me most wasn’t that LeBron wore the hat to the game, but that he taunted the fans — who are, of course, his fans during basketball season — by holding the hat above his head and egging on the crowd. It was an immature and classless move, and at the time I said that it spoke very poorly of his so-called loyalties to his hometown.

And now this.

As I mentioned previously, athletes are fans too, and they can root for whomever they want. I’m not ragging on LeBron for being a Cowboys fan or a Yankees fan or even a Bulls fan, all of whom he rooted for as a kid growing up in Akron. I do think it’s fair to call him a frontrunner, since all three of those teams were winning titles back then, but that’s not the point.

In fact, LeBron choosing to publicize his allegiances in front of Cleveland fans and, in the Indians/Yankees case, even taunting the fans in the process, isn’t even the point anymore. The point now, as Braylon Edwards pointed out, is simple: LeBron James isn’t a Cleveland guy. And that’s very bad news for the Cavaliers and their fans.

LeBron can opt out of his contract after the 2009-10 season, at which point the Cavaliers will be able to offer the star forward more money than any other team in the league. That may sound like a big advantage for the Cavs, and maybe it will prove to be. But working against Cleveland is the fact that LeBron’s contract with Nike will reportedly pay him more if he moves to a larger market like New York or LA. Maybe that’s just a rumor, because I haven’t found any concrete numbers on this, but it’s a widely reported rumor that LeBron has never bothered to shoot down. Add on top of that the fact that LeBron would make even more money in endorsements playing in a big city while also inflating his already enormous worldwide popularity, and however many more millions the Cavaliers can offer LeBron will look like chump change in the final equation.

And then, of course, there’s LeBron’s buddy Jay-Z, who just happens to be part owner of the New Jersey Nets. The Nets just happened to shed a bunch of salary by trading Richard Jefferson this offseason. They also just happen to be planning to move to Brooklyn and open a brand new arena in 2010. And Brooklyn just happens to be LeBron’s “favorite borough” in his favorite city of New York.

Throughout all of this city-wide “will he stay or will he go?” fretting, the one ace the fans thought they had up their sleeve was the fact that LeBron was a hometown guy who actually wanted to stay in Cleveland. Well, I’m not buying it, and neither is Braylon Edwards:

“He’s a guy from Akron who likes everybody but his hometown. I don’t know how that’s possible, but it is what it is, and he is who he is. You know, it’s LeBron.”

Preach on, Braylon.

Hey, everyone has a right to root for whichever team they want, even professional athletes. To each his own, right? But as a Cleveland sports fan myself, I’m not down with LeBron showing up for Game 1 at the Jake Thursday night wearing a Yankees cap, and then taunting the fans with the hat during the game. That just doesn’t sit right with me, and judging by this message board, it doesn’t sit right with a lot of Cleveland fans.

Cleveland is most definitely a football city, but LeBron is without question the face of Cleveland sports right now…at least until Brady Quinn takes the Browns to the Super Bowl. That doesn’t mean that LeBron has to root for every Cleveland sports franchise, but he crossed the line when he wore a Yankees hat to the game last night. That’d be like David Ortiz donning a Peyton Manning jersey during a Colts/Pats game in New England or, even worse, Tom Brady wearing a Yankees hat to a Sox/Yankees game at Fenway. You just don’t do it.

Yes, athletes are fans too, and they all rooted for other teams before they landed their current gigs. I get that. We all get that. But fans need to feel connected to their superstar players, to feel like they’re rooting for one of their own. LeBron showing off his Yankee pride at the Jake doesn’t have any effect on what he’s going to do on the basketball court this coming season, but it certainly has an effect on the fans’ relationship with him. That’s not to say that he’s going to get booed at The Q, but it creates that much more separation between the fans and the player.

Even worse, it leads to even more uncertainty about LeBron’s future in Cleveland. After all, if he’s not loyal to his hometown baseball team, then how loyal is he going to be to his hometown basketball team when his contract runs out, especially if a big market franchise has the cap room to give him a max deal?

Take note, LeBron: If you’re going to side with the enemy, do it in the comforts of your own home.