The Playoff Race and Potential Match-Ups

Most teams are now around 60 games into the season, so there are only about 20 games left for each team. The playoff race is heating up in both conferences, and the competition for playoff seeding is intense. If the playoffs started now, here is what the first round match-up list would look like:

EAST
Seed 1 Detroit vs. Seed 8 New Jersey
Seed 2 Cleveland vs. Seed 7 Miami
Seed 3 Washington vs. Seed 6 Indiana
Seed 4 Toronto vs. Seed 5 Chicago

WEST
Seed 1 Dallas vs. Seed 8 Denver
Seed 2 Phoenix vs. Seed 7 L.A. Clippers
Seed 3 San Antonio vs. Seed 6 L.A. Lakers
Seed 4 Utah vs. Seed 5 Houston

From my view, the first and second seeds from both conferences should win the first round with relative ease - unless Dwyane Wade comes back at decent health for the defending NBA and Eastern conference champion Miami Heat. Wade and Shaq together in good health would make it far more difficult for the Cleveland Cavaliers to take the series. All the other match-ups could go either way. The Washington Wizards are only a few games ahead of the Indiana Pacers in the standings - and the Chicago Bulls actually have a better record than the Toronto Raptors, but have a lower seed since the Raptors are first in their division.

In the West, the Spurs and Lakers match-up could be a more competitive series than the teams' win and loss records indicate. The Spurs have eight more wins than the Lakers at this juncture, but the teams have a notorious rivalry dating back to the late 1990s, and it's never a good idea to count out a team with the likes of Kobe Bryant. The Lakers nearly beat the higher seeded Phoenix Suns in last year's playoffs, so don't be surprised to see Kobe and company make a run against the Spurs this year.

Finally, the Houston Rockets might be a better team than the Utah Jazz, but Houston has seldom been at full health this season. After starting out slow, Tracy McGrady is now playing his best basketball of the year, and Rockets teammate Yao Ming is expected to return to his dominant ways when he comes off the injury list on March 5th. The lethal duo of McGrady and Ming might be too much for the Utah Jazz to handle.

McGrady image courtesy NBA.com (Fernando Medina/NBAE/Getty Images)