King Kaufman's Sports Daily

NBA playoff preview: Lakers and Celtics back atop the heap, but watch out for the Pistons in the East -- and everybody in the West.

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April 18, 2008 | The NBA playoffs start Saturday, and this is the year you don't have to listen to this column whining about how the first round is such a waste of time.

You know what I mean. In the 24 years since the NBA expanded the playoffs to eight teams per conference, No. 1 seeds have won 45 of 48 series against No. 8's, even after last year's Golden State Warriors upset of the Dallas Mavericks. Two-seeds are 44-4 against No. 7's. Harlem Globetrotters games are more competitive than half of the NBA bracket in the first round.

But this year, in the Western Conference anyway, the eight playoff teams are so evenly matched, with only seven games separating the No. 1 and No. 8 teams and two games separating No. 1 from No. 6, that the first round is legitimate competition.

I'm still going to complain about all those days off in the first round, though. There, that's better.

Western Conference

1. Los Angeles Lakers (57-25) vs. 8. Denver Nuggets (50-32)
Want to read something funny? Get a load of NBA commissioner David Stern trying not to admit on a conference call this week that having the Lakers and Boston Celtics atop the standings again is good for the league.

"I think it's great for the fans in those cities," he says at one point. "But you're not going to get from me what you want in response to that question. I apologize."

At another, he says, "There is no question that there is a level of enthusiasm and excitement in L.A. and in Boston, and amongst the media that I haven't seen for a while, and I understand what that's from. That's my story, and I'm sticking with it."

You do that, Dave. Out here in reality, we'll all acknowledge that when glamourpuss franchises in big cities are in the championship hunt, it's good for business. It would be nice if we lived in a world where the public lapped up Detroit vs. San Antonio Finals because of the quality of the basketball. It would also be nice if everybody ate their vegetables and shrunk their carbon footprint.

But really we just talk about how we're sick of the evil-empire teams, and also that we're eating better and going green. Mostly we watch the glitz babies, chow down on pork rinds and drive to the corner to mail a letter.

Still, it'd be delish to have an 8-over-1 upset in consecutive years, which has never happened before. And the Nuggets are a strong No. 8. They're five games better than the No. 4 in the East, Cleveland.

But the Lakers are hot, and, remote as this seemed in October, they're looking like a championship team. The Pau Gasol trade transformed the Western Conference, and not just because it started the chain reaction that resulted in Shaquille O'Neal going to Phoenix and Jason Kidd to Dallas.

The Lakers went 22-4 in games Gasol played in, not counting a loss in which he left with a sprained ankle in the third minute. That means that, as long as he, Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom are healthy, it might be better to think of the Lakers as a 65-plus win team, like the Celtics, than as a 57-win club. Andrew Bynum returning from his knee injury and getting back up to speed at any point in the playoffs would just be a bonus.

The Nuggets are good enough to hang with them. Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson give them enough firepower, but Denver's had trouble being consistent, and 'Melo's recent DUI arrest doesn't bode well for the Nuggets' mental state.
Prediction: Lakers in six

Next page: OK, I'm ready to admit the Celtics (66-16) are pretty good