A host of veteran-laden NBA teams take a run at the regular-season champions Los Angeles Lakers when the playoffs open Saturday.
Now the NBA will see if Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers, Hollywood's version of the Chicago Bulls, can dominate the league the way Michael Jordan's team did.
With NBA scoring champion "Shaq" and guard Kobe Bryant leading the way, the Lakers rolled to a league-best 67-15 record and established themselves as runaway favorites to win the NBA title in the playoffs which open Saturday.
"I'm like the Pythagorean theorem. There is no answer for me," O'Neal said. "I have not been programmed to become tired."
The Lakers are coached by Phil Jackson, the man who guided the Bulls to six titles in eight years, and use the same triangle offensive scheme that Chicago worked to perfection.
But waiting in the Western Conference playoffs are such foes as reigning champions San Antonio and Utah, who have swept the Lakers out of the postseason the past two years, and a Portland team led by ex-Chicago star Scottie Pippen.
Throw in 50-game winners Phoenix and Minnesota and a trio of perennial Eastern Conference contenders in New York, Miami and Indiana and the Lakers' path has its share of pitfalls.
First-round best-of-five matchups begin Saturday with Seattle at Utah and Phoenix at San Antonio in the West and Detroit at Miami and Philadelphia at Charlotte in the East.
Starting Sunday are the other four opening round encounters -- Milwaukee at Eastern Conference champions Indiana, Toronto at New York, Minnesota at Portland and Sacramento at the Lakers.
"The Lakers are the best team right now but they haven't won anything. I think the team to beat is still San Antonio," said Detroit All-Star guard Jerry Stackhouse.
The Lakers' dodged a bullet when playmaker Kobe Bryant was declared fine, despite hurting his wrist in each of his club's final two games of the season.
For many veterans who watched Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls win six titles in eight years, this might be the last great run at a championship.
Utah's Karl Malone, 36, and John Stockton have been in more playoff games than any men in NBA history without capturing a title, Malone's record 158 being 10 more than Stockton and 28 more than retiring teammate Jeff Hornacek.
"The last four or five years there has become a sense of urgency, but you don't want to change everything you do," said Malone, who averaged 25.5 points and 9.6 rebounds. "I'll just keep doing what I do."
San Antonio's David Robinson achieved his dream last year and Portland's Pippen joined Jordan's title spree. Both veterans want another title ring.
New York center Patrick Ewing, a 15-year veteran, would be among the five players with the most playoff appearances if the Knicks advance to the final. But Toronto won the season series from New York 3-1.
"We haven't brought our A game when we played them this year. We got our butts kicked," Ewing said. "Are we afraid of them? I'm not afraid of them. It's gonna be a great series.
"The race is up in the air. The Lakers are definitely the dominant team out there. In the East, it's either Miami, us, Indiana, Philly. It's wide open. Anybody can win it. It depends on who goes on a roll at the right time."
The Knicks face a possible second-round matchup with archrival Miami and former coach Pat Riley, who was denied his 1,000th coaching victory Wednesday by Charlotte.
Miami's Tim Hardaway has spent 11 years trying in vain to get to the final, including last year when the Knicks dumped the Heat in round one.
"When you get in your 30s, each year slips away from you," Hardaway said. "If your team has a good year and is in the playoffs, it gives you hope. But if you lose in the first round, it makes you wonder if the opportunity is going to open up again."
No club knows that like Indiana, where coach Larry Bird is in the final year of his contract and the Pacers are trying to turn their first Eastern Conference season crown into a first-ever trip to the NBA finals.
"Once you get there, anything can happen," 13-year Pacer veteran Reggie Miller said. "The finals are another season. It's an eternity. I have played in everything except that final season" - (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
