So far so good, and a nice little surprise -- what I would choose to describe the way the NBA playoffs is going so far.  As prejudicial as I am, I still don't think the East is in anyway exciting, except perhaps the Miam-Chicago series. But the west is another story.

  The closest, and maybe the most unexciting series for an average fan might be the Rockets-Jazz series. While perhaps the only already seemingly-decided series is the Suns-lakers series, obviously the balance breaker to this otherwise competitive series last year is the return of Amare Stoudmare, who the lakers just can't provide any answer for.

  Now, the two series that make this post season so intriguing to watch.

  Denver took one from San Antonio, and the way they did it, winning it close rather than a complete blowout, says a lot about Denver's personality. Perhaps one of the strongest frontcourts in the league, Camby, Nene and Melo can provide more than enough trouble for the Spurs. With Nene's physicality agains Timmy D perhaps the decisive factor in the outcome of this confrontation. While this team's inability of an halfcourt defense when Melo is out was commonly known last season, the Addition of AI proved to be just the answer for that. All in all, it is about how much defense is in Denver's personality. IT's hard for a team to hold together for seven teams, but if they do, they might just have enough to knock off San Antonio.

  Ask anyone what the most unpredicted outcome of the season is, 9 of 10 will tell you it's the Warriors leading Dallas 2-1, winning the third, their own first ever home-game since Nellie's retirement in 94, by a resounding 18 points. To me, it's more exciting than surprising. Dallas, as phenomenal as they were in the regular season with the sixth best record of all league history, looks like a .500 team at best, except a little spurt in Game 2. Warrior's tenacity in Defense as well as their overall quickness -- after all, if you have a 2-guard as your power forward, you pretty much have speed advantage over anybody. They switch on every occasion, which takes away Dallas's biggest advange, the pick-and-roll. Dallas, from their look up to now, still does not have defense in their character. Their defense is not clearly drawn up systematically like the Spurs or the Rockets, their defense is about their physical superiority and hussling, when the Warriors take them both away, that's when Dallas lost their defensive composure. Offensively, Dallas' style is into GS's hand. As good as they are, Dallas is a jump shooting team at best. Nothing wrong with that, since they have so many talented shooters. Now, we've seen them struggling against Pheonix, and now GS, why? Because they don't have a style. No post plays, their bigs are either blue collar, or jump shooters. In a way, Nellie destroyed Nowisky as much as he created him a star. Jump shots means long rebounds, which means fastbreak transitions. This takes away their bigman's rebounding edge, and rips open their wound in transition defense against a smaller, quicker Warriors' team.

  Talking about Dirk's MVP candidacy, I always think that Nash still deserves that this season, but the league's not  going to do it, because that means they are putting Nash on line with the 2 MJs as the greatest, which hurts a little National pride. I would use Dirk's performance in Game 1 and 3 as a supporting argument to defy Nowisky, since he was almost transparent. But if only Nash and him are considered, I might have to think twice, after all, Baron Davis almost suffocated Nash in their last regular season meeting, making D'Anthony going with his backups entirely in the fourth quarter. This suggests, that the warriors might be able to beat the top two teams in this league. I think the only team that has a chance against the warriors should they continue such brilliance, is the Spurs, with Tim Duncan being the anchor of both ends. And if the Spurs end up losing to Nuggets, look for GS to go all the way. Baren Davis is unstoppable.