NBA: Last stand and a last straw

Of the eight destinations a hoop junkie could choose to be when the 2001 NBA Playoffs begin this weekend, the two spots that stand out would make for an interesting travel itinerary during the first week of the Easter season.

On Saturday, a plane could take you to Salt Lake City. (They don't play hoops in Utah on Sundays if they can help it.) See the Mormon Temple and revel in the Easter environment. Then get another taste of old-time religion as Karl Malone, John Stockton and the Jazz host another playoff series, this one against the young and rising Dallas Mavericks. The clash between Utah and Dallas is the ultimate old guard-young stud confrontation, one which -- if Utah loses -- could fully bring down the curtain on the Jazz as the NBA has known them over the past 15 seasons.

Quite ironically, this season saw the Jazz lose 13 games at home for the first time in the past 15 years. If they lose a few more games at the Delta Center to the Mavs, the Jazzmen and the Utah franchise will be at their lowest point in 15 years.

Will the Jazz be able to summon forth the savvy and chemistry that had them on top of the NBA in February? Or will Utah's older legs, which certainly seemed heavy during a calamitous final month of the regular season, give way to the hops of Michael Finley and an energetic team from Dallas that emerged on the NBA scene this year?

The question for the Mavericks is if they can do in the playoffs what they did during the regular season: win in the Delta Center. They shouldn't hurt for confidence, but the reality of the playoffs might throw the young Mavericks a curve. Howard Eisley, John Stockton's backup in Utah for several seasons, might be the X-factor in a series that has five games written all over it. Saturday's game 1 figures to set the tone for what should be a scintillating series.

After the Mavs-Jazz game on Saturday, it's time to catch a big bird to your second destination, one that's just a bit different from Salt Lake: Los Angeles, baby! Palm trees, beaches, big city energy... and a Sunday matchup (you knew NBC would put this in the late-afternoon, 5:30 Eastern time slot, didincha?) between the Portland Trail Blazers and the L.A. Lakers, in a rematch of last year's unendingly baffling, incredibly emotional, and ultimately thrilling Western Conference Finals, won by the Lakers in seven games.

Entering this year's playoff confrontation, the Lakers seem to have regained "the look," while the Blazers are looking for answers. After last season's disappointment at the hands of the Lakers, many people--including this writer--thought that the Blazers, united by defeat, would enter the 2001 season with the hunger needed to get the top seed in the West and deal the Lakers some payback. And with post-championship feuding once again entering the picture in Laker Land, much like a young Magic Johnson's feud with head coach Paul Westhead in a disastrous 1981 season, it seemed that the Lakers were there for the taking.

Yet, it was Rasheed Wallace and the Blazers who ultimately lost control as the regular season ran its course. Now, with Bonzi Wells out for the season, the Blazers lack a significant source of scoring punch. The team assembled by Bob Whitsitt and paid for by Paul Allen is sitting in the position of a #7 seed, just barely a member of the 50-win club.

Can this self-tortured team put the past--from last June and this season--behind it, and respond with a focused effort? Will the absence of Wells mean less griping for playing time and better on-court chemistry from those who remain on the Blazers' postseason roster? Will Sheed avoid getting tossed in game 1 in the Staples Center, something he couldn't do in last year's series? And if the series goes the limit, will Scottie Pippen decide to shoot the rock in the fourth quarter?

Ah, the questions surrounding this delicious series. It should begin... and ultimately end... in Hollywood. And if it ends the same way last year's series did, Mike Dunleavy and many of his players might have to look for employment elsewhere.

Salt Lake City and La-La Land. Two cities with two cultures, but each the home of an awesome playoff series this weekend. The Western Conference offers the best of the NBA, and in Utah and L.A., the West will surely be wild.