1 vs. 8- Utah vs. San Antonio. The Jazz have some good pieces with Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Gordon Heyward and company. But the Spurs of Duncan, Ginobli and Parker have too much experience. Plus they will be determined to put last year behind them. Spurs will gut out a tough series. Spurs in six.

2 vs. 7- Dallas vs. Oklahoma City. A rematch of last season’s Western Conference Finals, the Thunder are out for revenge. Plus this year, they are just the better team. The Mavs really miss Tyson Chandler. Without him, they don’t have enough for the Thunder. Thunder in five.

3 vs. 6- Denver vs. L.A.Lakers. Will not having Ron Artest hurt the Lakers? It may hurt a little, but not enough to cause them to lose this series. Denver probably made a mistake trading Nene for McGee. That guy is a knucklehead and will probably do something dumb to hurt the Nuggets. Lakers in six.

 4 vs. 5- L.A.Clippers vs. Memphis. This is must see TV. Blake Griffin and Chris Paul get their first taste of the Playoffs together. Blake is getting his first taste period. I expect the Clippers to show up, especially in L.A. But one thing they will learn is there will be no “Lob City” allowed in the playoffs. Rudy Gay and the Grizzlies will see to that. Look for Marc Gasol to have a big series. Grizzlies in seven.

Western Conference Semifinals

Assuming all the previous predictions pan out, here is how the rest of the Western Conference Playoffs will go:

Memphis vs. San Antonio- last year the youthful Grizzlies ran the aging Spurs out of the first round of the playoffs. The Spurs are not any younger. The Grizzlies are a year better. No reason to think it won’t happen again that I can see. Grizzlies in six.

L.A. Lakers vs. Oklahoma City. Let’s hope Artest and James Harden are both back for this one. And let’s hope Harden lays him out. This is going to be a battle. The younger and more talented Thunder will win out in a close one. Bryant will have a great series. So will Durant. Thunder in seven.

Western Conference Finals. Another rematch from last season’s playoffs. Another series that will go the same way. The Thunder just have a little too much for the Griz. Memphis won’t go down quietly though. Thunder in six.

So your Western Conference Champions…The Oklahoma City Thunder!

1 vs. 8- Philadelphia vs. Chicago. The Bulls went 50-16 in the regular season, even with Derrick Rose missing a lot of time due to various injuries. Guys like Deng, Boozer, Hamilton and Noah really stepped up in his absence. The Sixers started strong, but then nearly played themselves out of the playoffs with five games to go. They did however, show some heart by winning on the road in Cleveland, Indiana and New Jersey to make the playoffs. Bulls in five.

2 vs. 7- Miami vs. New York. These long time rivals of playoffs past get together in the first round in what should be an entertaining series. Last year it was these two franchises who went out and got the superstars that they felt would put them over the top. Miami got Lebron James and Chris Bosh. New York went out and got Carmelo Anthony to go with Amare Stoudamire.Let’s watch and see which team made the right moves. I’m guessing it was Miami. Heat in five.

3 vs. 6- Orlando vs. Indiana. Injury riddled Orlando has no chance. Not only no chance to win the series, they have no chance to win a game. They won’t even be able to keep a game close. Indiana has a cake walk to the next round. With Danny Granger playing at a high level and Tyler Hansbrough, Roy Hibbert and company, this is going to be ugly. Pacers in four

4 vs. 5- Atlanta vs. Boston. This will be the most competitive series in the first round by far. Atlanta is so up and down it’s hard to predict how they will play. The Celtics have plenty of playoff experience, but do they have enough left in the tank? The crazy 66 games in four months regular season will likely have taken a lot out of the old men.

Eastern Conference Semifinals

Assuming thos first round series go according to plan, the semifinals go like this:

Atlanta vs. Chicago. Chicago just has way too much for the Hawks. If Rose is at the top of his game, this won’t be close. The Hawls will be doing well if they can pull out one game. Bulls in five.

Indiana vs. Miami. The Pacers will hang a little bit tougher than the Hawks. The games will be close, but the Heat will have too much in the end. It will be interesting to see how James does in the fourth quarters in this series. That could set a tone.

Eastern Conference Finals

Miami vs. Chicago. This one will be a good one. The two top teams in the East will meet for the second straight season for a trip to the Finals. This time, the Bulls will prevail because they’ve gotten one year better. Plus Richard Hamilton will come up with some big shots and Carlos Boozer will show up this year. Bulls in seven.

So your NBA Eastern Conference Champions will be…The Chicago Bulls!

Running a franchise does in fact take some talent. Judging skills, mental make-up of players, team chemistry, dollars and cents (or sense) takes a bit of talent. You can’t play fantasy basketball and win games. This isn’t the Olympics.Your team lost to the Knicks, who rested their starters, BY TWENTY?? That’s horrible. But a bit amusing.

Charlotte finished this season 7-59. That’s right, 7-59. Thank God for them this was a short season. Otherwise the 9-73 posted by the 1972 Philadelphia 76ers would be in jeopardy. Had Michael Jordan not been so arrogant towards ownership at times in his playing career, this would be sad. Instead it’s almost funny. It’s a long needed lesson in humility for “His Airness”. Michael, you were a great player. Now how about acknowledging you had some help on Bulls management and teammates. You of all people know that it’s n ot as easy as it looks.

Now, this could turn out well for Jordan and the Bobcats. They will surely get a very high draft pick, and there’s a good chance they’ll get the number one pick. Anthony Davis? He could sure make your team better in Go get a guy who has built a team through the draft, hire him, and let him pick for you. You cannot afford another Adam Morrison. And if you are thinking of busting open the piggy bank and sign a big free agent, there’s a guy down in Orlando…

I wonder how the fine folks in Charlotte feel about the Hornets and George Shinn Now?

The Knicks remained in the hunt for the seventh spot by beating the Clippers, but they don’t seem too concerned about it. They rested Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudamire for most of the fourth quarter, even while nearly squandering an 18 point lead in the 99-93 win. When it’s a choice between Miami or Chicago, it’s not that big of a deal anyway.

”Right now it really doesn’t matter,” Anthony said. ”Whoever we play, we’ll have to start on the road anyway, so we just want to start just preparing for whether it’s Chicago, whether it’s Miami, just get ready to go.”

The Knicks will play Charlotte on Thursday while the Philadelphia 76ers will play at Detroit. If the Knicks win or the Sixers lose, the Knicks will play Miami. If neither one happens, then they get Chicago.

”Chicago has had the best record in the league the last two years, so why does everybody jump ahead and say, ‘Oh, you should dodge Miami and play Chicago?” center Tyson Chandler said. ”I think both of those teams are 1 and 2, so you can pick your poison on them. I feel like we have to believe in ourselves enough that it doesn’t matter who we play.”

I’m guessing it’s probably because Miami is the defending Eastern Conference Champions and have three superstar players as opposed to Chicago who has one? But we get your point.

The Clippers were obviously more concerned with making sure Chris Paul is healthy for Memphis even if that means playing them on the road in a decisive Game Seven. They sat him out of the Knicks game with a slightly strained groin.

Blake Griffin led the Clippers with 29 points and Randy Foye had 28. J.R. Smith led the Knicks with 21 points.

”It’s tough because we controlled our own destiny for this last week, lost three out of our last four. It’s tough.” Paul said. ”We’ve still got a chance. I’m sure Memphis is going to come out hard and aggressive. I don’t know. Now we just got to sit and wait.”

Don’t feel too badly for the Clippers though, because the gap that has been Pacific -Ocean-wide for decades has shrunk to a crack-in-the-sidewalk sized gap in one year. The Clippers will be in the Playoffs and will have home court advantage in the first round as well as the Lakers. That is as long as they can beat the Knicks on Wednesday or if Memphis loses to Orlando on Thursday.

Joe Johnson scored 28 points, including a desperate 3-pointer in the final minute, and the Hawks held on for the victory over the Clippers moving a step closer to wrapping up home-court in the first round of the playoffs.

”The craziest I ever hit in a game” was how Johnson described it. ”I had no clue how much time was left or what even happened,” he said. ”I just heaved it up there. I wanted to at least hit the rim. I accidentally made it.”

Blake Griffin scored a season-high 36 points, while Chris Paul added 34 in a back-and-forth game in which neither team led by double figures until Atlanta went on a 15-2 run at the end of the third quarter, sparked by Jeff Teague and Josh Smith.

”I guess we just made it real interesting,” Paul said. ”We’ve got to use this game (Wednesday) as a huge barometer as far as what it’s going to be like in the playoffs. In the playoffs you’re not going to be able to get down 10, 15 and try to come back in the fourth quarter, because the game’s going to be way too intense for that.”

Memphis and the Clippers should be a very competitive series no matter which team has home court advantage. The Clippers won two of the three meetings between the two, but the Grizzlies won the most recent.

The Clippers will need more production from the guys other than Griffin and Paul in the playoffs. Mow Williams, Kenyon martin and others will need to step up.

”It’s good to make people eat their words,” Utah’s Al Jefferson said of doubters who thought Utah was too young and inexperienced to reach postseason. ”That’s what we did. Now it’s time to go and shock the world.”

Jefferson left the game with 7:30 remaining in the third quarter after suffering a gash over his left eye.

”You should have seen me back there rushing the doctors,” Jefferson said.

He returned with the Suns within five at 85-80 and hit an 18 footer following a baseline dunk. He finished with 18 points, 16 rebounds and a few stitches on the night.

”We contained Al for three quarters and then he started scoring all over the place,” Phoenix center Marcin Gortat said. ”He got hot.”

Wednesday night’s game with San Antonio may be Steve Nash’s final games as a member of the Suns. He will become a free agent. With his advancing age and the fact the Suns have missed the Playoffs two years in a row, he may have to think about moving on.

”Phoenix feels like my team,” he said as he iced down in the locker room. ”It has the feel – and you don’t always get it in professional sports – but it feels like a high school or college team. I spent so many years here and had so much success here. It’s a special place for me, no question.”

Nash finished with 14 points and 11 assists. ”Their bigs gave us a really hard time,” Nash said. ”Without Channing and Grant, it would have been just too much to ask.”

”On the offensive end, it creates a mismatch,” said Paul Millsap, who led Utah with 26 points and 15 rebounds. ”On the defensive end you got me out there roaming, and got two shot-blockers down the middle. We got the best of both worlds.”

”Seven long years, seven long years since I’ve been in the playoffs,” Jefferson said. ”It’s a great opportunity. A lot of people counted us out. It’s a great group of guys and everyone on our team deserves it.”

Utah has 7 of it’s players under 26 years old. This playoffs will be about gaining valuable experience. But with a mix of veterans who’ve been in the playoffs before, the Jazz should know what to expect. They could prove to be a tough match-up for San Antonio who does not have too many young legs on their roster.

And it’s not like this is his first offense either. We saw him attack paying customers at a game in Detroit before. What next? Are we going to wait until he kills someone. And oh by the way, that day could easily have been Sunday. The spot where that elbow to Harden’s head landed is about the same place that a third base coach named Coolbaugh caught a line drive and was killed by it. There have also been instances of baseball being hit by throws just below the ear and killed by it.

So Ron Artest vengefully throws an elbow into that spot and he’s not only walking around a free man but he’s going to be allowed to resume his career making millions? And do we know yet how many games Harden will be out? Because at the very least, Artest should not play in Harden cannot. If Artest is not booted from the league for this vicious attack, then how about the heave-ho for trying to insult our intelligence by saying it was an accident? If that’s an accident, then empty all prisons now for the accidental” crimes the inmates are serving time for.

Here’s the icing on the cake. The guy changed his name to of all things “World Peace!” Hey Ronnie. World Peace begins with you. Stop being such a dirt bag, then you can be an advocate for peace. Until then, you are Ron Artest…sorry thug.

Philadelphia can now rest their starters in Wednesday and Thursday night’s games if they choose. Coach Doug Collins breathed a sigh of relief afterward.

”Adversity can send you south or make you forge together and be stronger,” Collins said. ”I think our guys have done that. Every team goes through it, especially in a season like this, where games are piled on with no practice, no rest days, five games in seven nights in five cities, three games in a row. I am so proud of my guys. I really, really am. They answered the bell and when I looked up there with one minute to go and I knew we were going to be in the playoffs, it was a very satisfying feeling.”

The Sixers can still move into the seventh spot. Moving into that spot is probably not a huge priority however. From the eighth spot you get Chicago, from the seventh you get Miami. Neither one will be a lot of fun. But it beats going home early which is what the fans were expecting when they booed the team off the floor following their last home regular season game.

Thaddeus Young had 15 points, all in the second half to lead the Sixers.

”We just wanted to get this over with, and finally clinch and not have our minds on other things,” Young said of making the playoffs and avoiding a showdown game with Milwaukee on Wednesday. ”We wanted to start thinking about the playoffs and getting ourselves mentally prepared and ready physically. It would have been real ugly if we lost tonight.”

The game was the Nets last game in New Jersey. They will be moving to a new arena in Brooklyn next season.

”I’m excited,” the Nets MarShon Brooks, who led them with 18 points, said. ”I’m a little sad leaving New Jersey, but I’m Brooklyn ready. I have to whole offseason to think about Brooklyn. Like I said before, I was born in Jersey. I have a lot of family helping me get through it, my grandmother, my mother, and I appreciate everything this year and playing in front of wonderful fans. The reality is we head to Brooklyn.”

”No contact at all. It was a great battle,” Stoudemire said. ”It was a phenomenal game. From what Coach Woody’s (Mike Woodson) saying, the way to win a championship is defense and rebounding.”

There was not much defense played until the last possession. The Hawks shot a season high 15 of 23 from three point land and the Knicks were 12 of 19. Atlanta;s Joe Johnson spent much of the day chasing Anthony but was also 9 of 14 shooting himself. He wasn’t too happy about the defensive effort of his team.

”It’s frustrating that we’re still playing for something and defensively we were non-existent,” Johnson said. ”There was no help (on defense). If you were guarding somebody 1-on-1, you were definitely guarding 1-on-1.”

The lack of defense on New York’s end can be attributed to the Knicks giving Tyson Chandler the game off to get rested for the playoffs. The Knicks allow 93 points per game when he plays and 116 points when he doesn’t.

”It shows how valuable Tyson Chandler is to our ball club,” Knicks Coach Mike Woodson said. ”He plugs a lot of holes for us. It’s fun for fans, but we have to defend better.”

A win for the Hawks would have clinched the fifth spot in the East over Orlando. One more Hawks win or Magic loss will mean the hawks and Celtics will meet in the first round.  The hawks didn’t sound like a team where they have everyone on the same page going into the playoffs. Joe Johnson complaining about a lack of defensive help and a lack of touches does not seem to bode well for Atlanta. After the game he was quoted saying ”Down the stretch, I just figure you got to put the ball in the hands of your playmakers,” he said. ”The Knicks did it all game. ‘Melo shot 32 times. They got the ball to the right man.”

The Hawks had better get these things ironed out before they play the Celtics. The C’s are a team of trash talkers who can get into an opponents head very easily. Kevin Garnett will surely make life miserable for Johnson if he and his teammates are not cohesive.

”It’s not so much that we beat Oklahoma, but how we did it,” said Bryant, who shook off his own woeful shooting game with two key 3-pointers late in regulation. ”In the playoffs, particularly if you don’t have home-court advantage, you’re going to have games like this. We have to have the poise and the confidence to just keep chipping away.”

The game was marred by the ugly incident where Artest elbowed Harden after dunking on him. He caught him with his left elbow in the back of his head. It was the definition of a cheap shot. Therefore I will from now on refuse to refer to him as World Peace. He doesn’t deserve it.

”I got real emotional and excited, and it was unfortunate that James had to get hit with the unintentional elbow,” said World Peace, who had scored 12 points and played solid defense on Durant. ”I hope he’s OK. Oklahoma, they’re playing for a championship this year. I apologize to the Thunder and James Harden. It was just unfortunate.”

So you’re cheap shot artist AND a liar? Nice going Ron. I hope you enjoy watching the playoffs the way the rest of us do. On your living room sofa.

”I’m just happy my teammate is all right,” said the Thunder’s Kevin Durant, who scored 35 points on 11-for-34 shooting. ”It was a bad play. Hopefully Ron didn’t do it intentionally or have any malicious intentions on that. We’ve got to move past that.”

”Being down double digits against a very good team, we could have folded easily,” Lakers coach Mike Brown said. ”This might have been our best team win of the year.”

With the Spurs winning