Whichever team wins Game 1 will take control of the series.

Although that is not necessarily the case since we saw quite a few Game 1 winners who have eventually lost their respective best of seven affairs in the 2010 NBA playoffs like the Portland Trail Blazers and just recently, the top seeded Cleveland Cavaliers, but STILL, winning Game 1 of a seven-game series is STILL huge, especially when you’re up against the Lakers.

On Monday night, the Phoenix Suns will try to take control of the Western Conference Finals by beating the Los Angeles Lakers on their home floor in Game 1. That is, of course, easier said than done since the Lakers are STILL the defending NBA champions and they are STILL a team built to win that very title again but if there’s a team that can dethrone the Lakers, it would have to be the Suns.

The Phoenix Suns are clicking at the right time after a regular season full of doubt. Hell, they came this close from dealing their franchise player, Amar’e Stoudemire before the trading deadline for crying out loud.

Who would’ve thought that Amar’e Stoudemire would still be a Sun playing this deep into the postseason with an opportunity to win the Western Conference and reach the NBA Finals again since Charles Barkley lost to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls back in 1993?

The Pacific Division rivals couldn’t wait to meet each other to play for the Western Conference championship. Both the Lakers and the Suns made quick work of their second round opponents, sweeping the Jazz and the Spurs respectively to face-off against each other in the playoffs again.

However, while the Suns should be the sentimental favorites in…

At least he’ll have a better chance at doing just that now that he is expected to start in Game 2.

After starting the 2010 NBA playoffs on the bench, San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is expected to start Tony Parker at the point guard position after the little experiment he had with George Hill in their 100-94 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 didn’t do as well as he’d hoped.

That’s right, Tony Parker could reclaim his spot in the starting lineup and if you’re still rooting for the San Antonio Spurs to miraculously make their way to the NBA Finals this year, let’s hope Eva Longoria’s main squeeze won’t turn out to be a dud come game time.

And we all know how Pop feels about his players turning out to be duds. In their loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1, Pop was clearly not a happy camper. In fact, he was so pissed that he even said, ”I thought we had a lot of guys that played like dogs.”

”Some turnovers were caused for good reason,” Gregg Popovich said. ”But there were a good number that were unnecessary, and I felt we did a poor job on the boards as far as…”

Ah, the Western Conference. Some people still say this is where it’s at.

And with good reason too because in the West, it doesn’t matter what seed you are because any one of these Western Conference teams can go on and win the NBA championship. In the 2010 NBA playoffs, it’s more or less the same story.

Heck, Kevin Durant, the youngest player ever to win the scoring title this season, will be playing from the no.8 seed with the rest of the Oklahoma City Thunder. You see, these guys could go on and advance to, probably the second round of the playoffs. The problem is, they will be on a head-on collision with the no.1 seed Los Angeles Lakers.

That’s right, it’s the defending champions for the Oklahoma City Thunder. That’s probably why NOBODY expects them to get past the Lakers in the first round other than them Thunder players and their mommas.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy for Kevin Durant and the season he had but when you pit him against Kobe Bryant? They don’t call him the Black Mamba for nothing.

The no.2 seed Dallas Mavericks take on the no.7 seed San Antonio Spurs…

As expected the Western Conference is having a dogfight for playoff positioning.

With merely days before the 2010 NBA playoffs get here, the Dallas Mavericks, the Denver Nuggets, the Utah Jazz and the Phoenix Suns are all battling for control of the 2nd through 4th seeds, each of which come with home-court advantage in the first round.

The only team that knows which seed will they be at are the defending NBA world champions Los Angeles Lakers, taking the number one spot in the Western Conference for the third straight year.

The San Antonio Spurs, the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Portland Trail Blazers could end up as the no.8 seed to face the Lakers and unfortunately for Laker fans, all three teams can upset this Lakers team that has been struggling recently. As for now, San Antonio, Oklahoma and Portland will continue to fight for playoff positioning as the no.6, no.7 and no.8 seeds are still up for grabs.

So which of these three teams should the Lakers hope they won’t have to face in the first round? That’s easy. That team would definitely have to be the San Antonio Spurs.

The Spurs are currently in the seventh spot and has a tough final day schedule when they face the surging Dallas Mavericks. If they lose they would most likely end up in the eight spot and play Kobe Bryant and his Lakers.

Facing the Lakers in the first round is not an easy task for Greg Popovich and the rest of the Spurs team. But they are a veteran team composed of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and the ever reliable Tim Duncan. They all know how to play in the playoffs. And with the addition of Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess, they can shock and beat the Lakers in the first round.

Hell, this Spurs team has been clicking at the right time…

We already know who are the starters, now it’s time to familiarize ourselves with the reserves.

The 2010 NBA All-Star Game is just around the corner as the NBA’s midseason classic will officially shift the attention to hoops with football season officially over. LeBron James and Dwyane Wade lead the East as they take on Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony of the West.

As far as the reserves are concerned, we have a few first-timers. Four first-timers come from the Eastern Conference; Rajon Rondo of the Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks center Al Horford, Charlotte Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace and 2009 Rookie of the Year Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls.

Completing the East reserves are Toronto’s Chris Bosh, Atlanta’s Joe Johnson and Boston’s Paul Pierce.

Rondo is the second All-Star from the Draft class of 2006, joining the Blazers’ Brandon Roy, who earned his third All-Star selection this year. Horford joins the Thunder’s Kevin Durant as the first All-Stars from the Draft class of 2007 while Rose is all alone as the first All-Star from the class of 2008.

Derrick Rose will have a very busy weekend in Dallas. He and his fellow sophomores will take on the rookies in the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge & Youth Jam on All-Star Friday and as the reigning PlayStation Skills Challenge champion, he’ll likely defend his title on All-Star Saturday.

Another first-timer on the East is Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace. With…

It’s that time of the year when the NFL concludes its season for the NBA to pick up the slack.

And just like every other year in sports, the NBA will pick up the slack with a bang, kicking off the second half of the season with the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. Yes, it’s the East All-Stars going up against the West All-Stars once again as fans voted in who they feel are the five best players in each conference as All-Star starters.

Leading the East All-Stars this year is leading vote-getter LeBron James. The reigning league MVP got 2,549,693 votes this season, becoming the first player in balloting history to draw at least 2.5 million votes on three separate occasions.

James is making his sixth All-Star appearance and will start for the Eastern Conference for the sixth time in his career. Joining James in the East are Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics, the Miami Heat’s Dwyane Wade and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson , the 2001 and 2005 All-Star Game MVP.

Among active players, Garnett’s 13th All-Star selection ranks second to Shaquille O’Neal who has 15. Dwight Howard of…

SportsCenter will be a little busy in a few days.

Because in case you didn’t know, the 2009 NBA basketball season is here. And since we already have the NFL season underway and the MLB playoffs starting to heat up, it’s certainly nice to be a sports fan at this time of the year.

And as far as the NBA season is concerned, the Los Angeles Lakers will try to defend Kobe’s first ever title without Shaq, hoping that last June’s successful run to the title will be the first of successive championship seasons. After all, teams coached by Phil Jackson are known to win titles by threes. But do they have enough this season to win it all again?

With the departure of Trevor Ariza, mercurial stalwart Ron Artest should quickly fill that hole. At this point of his career, Artest just wants to win a title so hopefully, he won’t be a distraction to this Lakers team like he once was with the last few teams that he played for.

Back to back titles would virtually be a wrap if the Lakers could get steadier production from big guys Andrew Bynum and Josh Powell. The team’s Jekyll and Hyde play is still a concern but as long as Kobe Bryant keeps this team together, they will still be in the position to win a world title.

If there’s one team that can challenge the Lakers this season, it would have to be the very team they played in the conference finals last season, the Denver Nuggets. After acquiring a true floor leader in Chauncey Billups, the Nuggets tied their franchise record of 54 regular season victories back in the 2008-09.

Chauncey Billups and Carmelo Anthony will continue to…

Everybody knew that the Spurs are not the same without Ginobili. The Mavericks knew it and took advantage of it.

As soon as the 2009 NBA Playoffs began over the weekend, it was apparent that homecourt advantage can no longer save you. If you don’t show up to play, you can expect to get your asses handed to you in front of your hometown, just like what happened to the Celtics, the Trail Blazers, the Magic and the Spurs.

Sure, the absence of Manu Ginobili is huge and it definitely had something to do with the way the San Antonio Spurs folded, 105-97, to the visiting Dallas Mavericks but still, this is the postseason and you have to play like there’s no tomorrow.

If the San Antonio Spurs continue to play the way they did in Game 1, there won’t be any tomorrows. You see, the Spurs were so terrible defensively that any Spurs fan would cringe to the idea that Erick Dampier can put up double digits on this defense.

What’s even worse is the fact that the Spurs defense back in Game 1 made Jose Juan Barea look like Kobe Bryant. Seriously, the six-foot, 175-pound Barea was on fire, as he virtually humiliated Tony Parker all over the arena.

Josh Howard scored 25 points to help the…

What’s with all the injuries in the NBA these days?

The 2009 NBA Playoffs are finally here and yet, NBA fans are being deprived of seeing their favorite stars lead their teams to the title. Well, it’s not anyone’s fault really but the number of injured stars that fans were suppose to see in the postseason this year is deeply troubling.

In case you haven’t noticed, we have quite a number of stars who’ll more likely miss the entire duration of the playoffs all throughout the 2009 NBA Finals. And while it’s unfortunate for a player to work his ass off for 60 – 70 games in the regular season only to miss the opportunity to help his team win the title in the playoffs, it’s even harder for their fans to take it.

One guy who’ll likely miss the playoffs is Boston Celtics forward Kevin Garnett. KG played an important role on the Celtics’ championship run last season and with him being out, the Celtics’ defense of their title is becoming more of an impossibility.

And while the Boston Celtics have done fairly well without Kevin Garnett during the last few weeks of the regular season, that doesn’t prove anything since it’s in the playoffs where business picks up. Hell, the Celtics might not even get past Chicago without Kevin Garnett for crying out loud.

Another key guy missing the playoffs this year is…

Who cares? As long as you see the best players in the NBA put up one heckuva’ show right?

But as far as those guys who have their money on the 2009 NBA All-Star Game in Phoenix, they do. And although they probably could care less which team wins the actual game, they have cash riding on who’s going to be MVP, who’s gonna’ score the most points and things like that.

But if you are betting on the actual winner of the game, read on. The Eastern Conference will be lead by Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Allen Iverson. All five starters (other than Iverson…) are favorites to win MVP this season and this could be the All-Star game that the Eastern Conference should easily dominate.

In the Western Conference, we have Kobe Bryant, Yao Ming, Tim Duncan, Chris Paul, and Amare Stoudemire. This team counters the East’s speed with their size and as long as Kobe is in there to keep things interesting, the Western Conference still have a fighting chance.

The East is riddled with crazy talent, even if some of the players are starring on less-than-stellar teams. Danny Granger of the Indiana Pacers, for one, has proven that he can score with the best of them, currently averaging a little less than 26 points a game.

We also have Joe Johnson of the Atlanta Hawks and Devin Harris of the New Jersey Nets playing for the East. And although their respective teams haven’t made that much noise this season, these two guys certainly can, and WILL, in Phoenix. Don’t expect both guys to just…