They May... Just... Go.. All The Way! Western Conference

There are three real contenders playing out West. The San Antonio Spurs, coached by an evil genius, the Los Angeles Lakers, coached by an evil genius, and the Dallas Mavericks, owned by an evil genius. Oklahoma City has created some distance between them and the lower seeded teams, sitting comfortably in 4^th place, and the Thunder have a much more talented roster than those below them, so they’re worth a mention in this category. Certainly the Thunder will feel good going into the first round, and they should take care of business against Portland (who currently own 5^th place and are likely to stay there for the remainder of the regular season) giving the city of Oklahoma City and its top notch fans their first ever playoff series victory and a trip to San Antonio. There, however,the party will end, for if there’s ever a team that the Thunder can’t figure out, it’s the crafty veterans of the San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs are healthy and playing within a deep dream system that fits together perfectly. The big shot veteran trio of Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Tim "Snake Bite" Duncan is held to around 30 minutes each per night by Coach Greg, the craziest old coot to ever master the brain game of hoops. The young fellas are all starting to find their roles, and bad attitudes are nowhere to be found, and winning 46 games going into the break is definitely a great indication of a confident and satisfied team. Moving the ball is the most important aspect of Spurs basketball. They don’t have any ball-hogs in the half-court offense, such as an Anthony Randolph, Nick Young, or Kobe Bryant. Nobody ever feels the need to take over a game (although Ginobili or Parker are both very capable), which is often what hurts the Lakers with Kobe’s stubbornness. Bryant is a great player capable of great things, but when he’s having a bad night, the Lakers tend to have bad nights as well. On the Spurs, nobody is trying to prove anything to their teammates or coaches, except that everyone has the ability to make the right decisions. Coach Greg knows who he has on his team, and he knows what to expect from each player.He knows how to put his players in the right situation to succeed within a very specific role. He doesn’t care if Matt Bonner misses six straight three point attempts. Bonner's out there to shoot the three, and that's what Popovic expects him to keep doing. Oklahoma City won’t stand a chance in a second round series against San Antonio. This season they lost the first two meetings with San Antonio by an average of 20 points, and tonight the Spurs got the best of OKC once again, winning 106-103 in Texas. With the Thunder losing tonight, very few players on their roster will feel any level of confidence about a playoff match-up with dusty ol’ San Anton.

Mavericks and Lakers in the second round would be about as good as it gets. For one reason, the two somehow haven’t met in the playoffs since the 1988 Conference Finals. It’s incredible to think that with all of the playoff appearances by both teams since 2000, when Dallas upset Utah with three straight wins and put themselves back on the NBA map, that LA and Dallas have managed to avoid each other in the tournament. Both teams have represented winning consistency for the most part of a decade, but with the Lakers doing so in June. Coming into the break, the teams couldn’t be in more different situations considering they sit next to each other in the standings. Dallas has won 13 out of 14 and has a small cushion of 2 and a half games over LA, who has lost 3 in a row, including an embarrassing road loss to lowly Cleveland. The Lakers’ big three are all playing up to par, with Lamar Odom leading the way in the sixth man race, and Kobe and Pau representing the West in the All Star game. The injury to Matt Barnes really hurt LA, and Ron Artest is constantly causing minor internal problems. His production is invisible on the court, and his antics are completely strange. It’s possible that Artest has been in the midst of a season-long joke, and he’s just the kind of player to hit seven threes in the second half of a conference finals game, but at the moment many Lakers fans wish he were somebody else’s headache. Thankfully for the Lakers, Barnes is close to returning from injury. He is the heart of the Lakers bench. Obviously Odom’s their star sixth man, but Barnes completes the guard rotation and his ability to play small forward gives Phil Jackson a quality player to take away as many minutes as Ron Artest can flub away. If they’re healthy in the playoffs, they’ll be just about as good as their probable second round opponent, the Dallas Mavericks.

Dallas has had a classic Hollywood season heading into the All Star break. They started off strong, racking up wins just a notch below the Spurs. As the season continued the Mavericks kept winning, and Dirk Nowitzki suddenly resembled the MVP version that lead Dallas to 2007’s best record. December arrived and Caron Butler started playing better, his field goal percentage shooting skyward through the month. The Mavericks were beating everyone, from Boston to San Antonio to Miami. They were part of the equation again, but the New Year brought injuries to Dallas in one giant knock. Dirk and Butler were lost for extended periods. Butler is perhaps lost for the remainder of the year. Suddenly Dallas was left without their two best scorers and a serious gaping hole at small forward. A six game losing streak followed, and panic in the stands and on the sports page came with it. Fans, who have become accustomed to Mark Cuban’s wheeling and dealing around the deadline, were screaming for a replacement for Caron Butler. Dallas answered by signing Toronto buy-out Peja Stojakovic. Fans didn’t think it was enough, and as Peja racked up DNPs in his first few weeks as a Mav, Dallas continued to struggle as Dirk returned. Stephen Jackson, Tayshaun Prince, Carmelo Anthony, or even Shane Battier. Maverick fans wanted a household name to start at small forward, and many considered a trade to be the only way Dallas would be able to right the ship. The only ones who weren’t in panic mode were the Dallas brass and players, who knew that getting Dirk back on track, getting Rodrigue Beaubois back into the lineup, and by having a deep roster filled with unselfish role players, would be all the wheeling and dealing they would need to be back in the Finals equation. Nowitzki recently reminded everyone that the Mavericks are 36-7 when both he and Tyson Chandler, who has arguably been Dallas’s second best player so far, are in the starting five. Cuban’s always ready to improve his roster if the opportunity shows itself, but this season, looking to shake things up is the furthest thought in his billionaire brain. Dirk agrees, the Mavericks are ready. There’s no need to bring in any help, and winning 13 of 14 games going into the break is proof. If Dallas can stay healthy, they have the roster to win in May.

The Mavericks play a similar style to the Spurs, which is why both teams have enjoyed the two best records in the West. Neither team has a black hole on offense, a guy who demands touches and gets frustrated when others miscue. A sense of family exists in both Texas locker rooms. Roles are understood, and lineups are designed to give the players enough time on the pine to keep them healthy and fresh. Everyone will agree that team depth is a huge benefit during an 82 game season, but perhaps Dallas and San Antonio are proving that it’s essential. The family atmosphere creates confidence, even for bottom of the bench players like Dallas’s Ian Mahimi, who plays without the fear of making mistakes or needing to prove something, and thus creates productive minutes in his short time on the court. Everyone on Dallas’s roster buys into it, as does Cuban, the Maverick Godfather. He may have finally found the right coach for the long-term, with Rick Carlisle making all the right moves with his roster to utilize an ideal rotation. It’s this that separates Dallas from their probable second round opponent, the Los Angeles Lakers. LA has the talent, but the depth isn’t as prominent. If Dallas can hold onto the home court advantage over LA for the second round, old-timer Mav fans will finally have their revenge for the 1988 Conference Final loss to LA, and they will have it in the two teams’ first playoff meeting since.

NBA fans deserve to watch the Lakers lose to Dallas in the second round. Although many fans might prefer to watch Kobe and LeBron in an NBA Finals free throw shooting contest, many diehards want to see the NBA’s best rivalry of the last decade in the Conference Finals, the San Antonio Spurs against the Dallas Mavericks. The Spurs will have the home court advantage (unless...), but Dallas has already beaten San Antonio in their building once this year (the other game in SA came without Dirk or Beaubois, and should be thrown out the window). The teams know each other about as well as anyone, and the two teams playing for a Finals berth would be an absolute treat for basketball lovers everywhere. The Spurs have been the team that figures out a way to win, but this season, the Mavericks are the hungrier team. "This is your big brother, little brother," Jason Terry says of the Mavs Spurs rivalry. "They're big brother because they have all the titles ... You never want to sleep on little brother, though. You know the saying, 'Little brother, in the end always wins.’” This is the year when Terry’s weird predictions might finally come true. Dallas did it in 2006, and they’ll win a game 7 in San Antonio again to find themselves in the NBA Finals for a chance at redemption, just as long as Dirk and Tyson Chandler stay healthy. The Spurs visit Dallas on March 18th, and that game should be watched and enjoyed very closely. If both squads come into it healthy, it could should be one heck of a match, and perhaps, a gauge for the upper hand.