Just in case you were wondering whether LeBron James's shopping spree and subsequent loss of eligibility for the remainder of his high school season has caused any NBA teams to question whether he'll be the first pick overall, we offer two teams who'll certainly be in the lottery.

Team 1: "It doesn't change anything. He's been watched and scrutinized and evaluated over the season. Everyone knows what his talents are ... we've seen him enough."

Team 2: "Unless ... he pillaged some old lady to get the clothes, it won't be a factor."

Hope that clears things up.

They are the favorite team of split personality-disorder patients the world over.

Is anyone more schizoid than the Portland Trail Blazers?

	Scottie Pippen hasn't played like a 37-year-old who had offseason knee surgery.

Off the floor, they're a perp walk. On the floor, no team has been better over the last six weeks. Once an afterthought, Portland has won 20 of its last 25 games to roar into second place in the Pacific Division, and currently would have home-court advantage in a first-round series. During Rasheed Wallace's seven-game suspension, the Blazers went 5-2, and 4-1 on the road, including wins at New Orleans and Dallas. And the Blazers have used the Wallace suspension to galvanize themselves into an us-against-the-world mentality. Most teams pretend it's that way to get them through the season. For Portland, it sort of makes sense.

"We're mentally tougher," Derek Anderson said. "Last year, we would have had guys getting T'd up, getting thrown out of games."

But through all the arrests and investigations, coach Mo Cheeks stuck to his guns. He shortened the rotation early in the season, and the results have been stunning. Pippen now runs the point, and Damon Stoudamire rides the pine. Anderson and Bonzi Wells are the starters, and Ruben Patterson and Jeff McInnis have accepted their reserve roles. Antonio Daniels gets spot duty. Arvydas Sabonis started two years ago; he comes off the bench now. No one is complaining, a tribute to Cheeks's pull with his players. It was Cheeks that made sure Wallace stayed with the team during his suspension, going on the road for practices and meetings -- "He took part in everything (until) two hours before the game," Cheeks said -- and didn't let Stoudamire brood by himself.

"I knew he could handle it," Cheeks said.

"Nothing has went on that's affected us on the court," Scottie Pippen said. "When we come together as a team, we're like a family. We're covering each other out there on the court, and whatever happens off the court, we're not thinking about it once we go into the game."

Stoudamire doesn't hide the fact that he'd like to get traded. But he's more aware than anyone that with two years and almost $25 million left on his contract, there's almost no chance he'll get his freedom, save a Shawn Kemp-ish settlement with management.

"It's like being in rehab," Stoudamire said, apparently OK with the shaky analogy, given this team's history. "You take it one day at a time ... I have to be ready to play when I get a chance. If I don't come out and perform, people are going to think that that's all I've been doing -- bitching and moaning."

	“	We've responded in a way that makes people think about us as a basketball team. ”
		— Scottie Pippen

Wallace's sabbatical cleared out playing time for Zach Randolph, who continues to make big man-starved teams around the league drool with his ability to score the ball. During Wallace's suspension, Randolph averaged 12 points on 48 percent shooting and almost six boards.

"'Sheed is a little more reluctant to go out and score, whereas Zach is hungry," Pippen said. "It's a big difference. 'Sheed can make guys around him better, whereas Zach makes our team better. He gives us that interior post position that we need."

The Blazers have also needed Pippen. It's amazing that the 37-year-old is on the floor playing important minutes again, given how fragile he looked after offseason knee surgery. No one expected him to come back so quickly and provide the kind of defense that he did almost a decade ago. Early in the year, he was mentioned in trade talks as a cap castoff. Now, the rumor mill has the free agent-to-be going to L.A. next season for one more run with Phil Jackson.

"It was pretty rough on me, basically the whole summer," Pippen said. "I never really had the opportunity to do what I normally do in the offseason: train and be ready at the start of the season. I went into camp not really knowing if I'd be able to play, knowing the pain I was feeling in my knee. It was very difficult for me to play the way that I play. But the pain finally subsided and I got myself in shape and I've been able to pick up my routine again. I feel good."

Cheeks would prefer it if his team stayed under the radar all season. The Blazers, of course, could help in that cause themselves by getting through one month of the year without having to post bond or file an appeal. Cheeks constantly makes that point to his players, that they are in charge of how they are viewed and what external pressures are on them. The talent, of course, has always been there.

ALDRIDGE'S RANKINGS

THE TOP 10 1. Dallas 2. Sacramento 3. Detroit 4. San Antonio 5. New Jersey 6. Indiana 7. Portland 8. Minnesota 9. Phoenix 10. Utah THE BOTTOM FIVE 25. Atlanta 26. Toronto 27. Miami 28. Denver 29. Cleveland THE MIDDLE FOURTEEN 11. New Orleans 12. Boston 13. Milwaukee 14. Houston 15. Philadelphia 16. Seattle 17. L.A. Lakers 18. Orlando 19. Washington 20. New York 21. Golden State 22. L.A. Clippers 23. Chicago 24. Memphis

"The more games you win, the more confidence you're going to feel, you're going to have in yourself, you're going to have in your players," Cheeks said. "I believe the confidence is going pretty high now. It's not about who's on the floor and who's on the bench. I think everyone that participates in the game, they are ready to play, and the guys that are on the bench are cheering for the guys in the game."

"We've responded in a way that makes people think about us as a basketball team," Pippen said.

If it could only stay that way.

Around the League
The Rockets now acknowledge that they got a little too geeked after beating the Lakers in overtime two weeks ago, sleepwalking through the next four or five games before beating Minnesota on Friday. The performance of most of their young guys, not just Yao Ming, dropped off noticeably. "To be a champion," Rudy Tomjanovich said, "you have to fight human nature." ... Vlade Divac thinks the Mavericks are on the right track, despite those ugly losses to the Lakers, Kings and Blazers. "We're just a little better on defense," he said. "We do everything else about the same. We can shoot; they can shoot. We run up and down; they run up and down. A lot of similarity. But defensively, we're much better. We were the same way three or four years ago. They'll get there. I like their team. They're nice to watch, how they play." ... Mark Cuban's "Where's Fin?" billboard he plans to put up during the All-Star break to point out Michael Finley's absence from the West squad will be on Interstate 85, just short of Hartsfield International Airport. "It'll get people talking, and then you guys will start debating it all week, whether Fin should be there or not," Cuban predicts. ... Phil Jackson, a big man himself, understood the historical ramifications of the Shaq-Yao matchup. "It's like heavyweight boxing in a little way," he said. "I don't know if you can compare all the way through, but it's the massive man and the agile man that carry that kind of spectacular play that create the dominance of this game. This game is a game about height, because there is a limitation of the size of the basket. Also, big men have dominated the game in the history of the NBA, although the last 10 years, you wouldn't say so." ... The Pistons will get Memphis' first-round pick unless it is the first pick overall. But it wouldn't surprise me if Detroit offers to forgive that pick for one of the Grizzlies' young bigs. I don't think Memphis would move Pau Gasol, the way he's playing, but with the Logo, you never know. ... The Nuggets would love to move Marcus Camby, and there are still some teams interested. If only he actually played. ... The Hawks are finding deal-making hard with the luxury tax looming. "We've talked to everyone in the league," general manager Pete Babcock said, "but there are only a handful of teams that are motivated to make a move, so we're concentrating on those teams." Babcock said he had a deal just about done last month, but the team he was talking with didn't want to take on any contracts that didn't end after this season. "Both teams can't accomplish that," Babcock said. "Somebody has to take the larger contracts back."

David Aldridge, who covers the NBA for ESPN, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.