The Lakers are the prohibitive favourites in the Western Conference, where they are matched up with the Utah Jazz in the first round. There are plenty of intriguing matchups and storylines there if you look a little deeper, though. For one thing, there are only three or four games difference in the win column separating the two through to seventh seeds. This is an astonishing degree of parity for a league that is sometimes maligned for being able to produce only six or seven good teams out of a league of thirty.

Number two seed Denver are playing against seven seed New Orleans. This is a matchup for connoisseurs of point guard play, with Denver’s Chauncey Billups, traded at the start of the season for the declining Allen Iverson, going head to head with Chris Paul, who finished second in MVP voting the previous season. The addition of Billups has energized the once moribund Nuggets, who are four and twenty in the last five postseasons and haven’t advanced past the first round during that time. In the first game of that series, Billups hit eight three pointers and scored thirty-eight points in the Nuggets’ win.

The three versus six series sees ancient antagonists San Antonio and Dallas square up. San Antonio will be missing their star shooting guard, Manu Ginobili, and Dallas has to like their chances against the Spurs, who have made the postseason the past twelve years and taken home four titles during that span. Dallas took game one in San Antonio, then got thrashed by twenty-one points in game two. This series is the most likely out of the four opening in the West to go seven games.

Finally, Portland and Houston play each other at the four versus five bracket. Portland are seen by many as a potential challenger to the Lakers (eventually), but they will have their hands full against the Rockets, who are led by veteran coach Rick Adelman and have unusually strong team chemistry for a team that has a few glaring weaknesses. The teams split the first two games.