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NBA briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 20, 2001

Subplots abound in playoff openers

No shortage of subplots in the first round of the NBA playoffs.

A rematch of last year's Western Conference final; a chance for the 76ers to overcome their nemesis; a Heat-Hornets series chock full of ex-teammates; Mark Cuban vs. the Mailman.

It all begins this weekend with four games Saturday and four more Sunday.

The most compelling matchup is Lakers-Trail Blazers in a rematch of last year's Western Conference final in which Portland, after coming back from a 3-1 deficit, blew a 15-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 7.

Los Angeles, the defending NBA champion, finished the season with eight consecutive victories.

"I think this winning streak might give us the ability to get back to our "A game' as we call it," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said Thursday. "It's an appropriate way to begin the playoffs, an appropriate way to begin defense of our championship."

Allen Iverson won the scoring title with an average of 31.1 and Philadelphia ran away with the East, but the 76ers must open the post-season against the same team -- the Indiana Pacers -- that sent them home for the summer in 1999 and 2000.

The Sixers also started to look like a less-than-dominant team over the final six weeks of the season after trading Theo Ratliff, Toni Kukoc and Nazr Mohammed to Atlanta for Dikembe Mutombo. They went 15-12 after acquiring Mutombo, just 5-9 against playoff-bound teams.

"In their heads, the hatchets can't be buried until they see me and Reggie (Miller) going home instead of hugging and celebrating after one of those series," Indiana's Jalen Rose said.

The Mavericks are in the playoffs for the first time in 11 years, and their series against the Jazz looks to be a tossup. The teams split the season series 2-2 with the road team winning each time.

There is some bad blood between the franchises, too, although not as bad as it was two years ago when coach Don Nelson got in Karl Malone's face, screaming and gesturing, after Malone knocked Shawn Bradley to the floor. Mavericks owner and Internet billionaire Mark Cuban had some choice anti-Malone comments afterward.

Although it might not be the prettiest series to watch, the matchup of the Heat and the Hornets is interesting because it reunites several players who were traded for each other last summer.

P.J. Brown and Jamal Mashburn, veterans of so many Miami meltdowns against the Knicks, now play for Charlotte. Anthony Mason and Eddie Jones, both of whom were post-season busts last year for the Hornets, now take their orders from Pat Riley.

Mashburn has been saying for weeks how he wants to play Miami and exact a measure of revenge, and now he'll get his wish against a Heat team that will have its entire roster available, including Alonzo Mourning -- himself an ex-Hornet.

HORNETS: Eddie Robinson, bothered by a sore groin, practiced with the team and was listed as probable for its first-round playoff game Saturday against the Heat. He averages 7.4 points and 17.9 minutes.

LAKERS: Coach Phil Jackson left guard Isaiah Rider off the 12-man playoff roster, ending his season, according to rosters released by the NBA. The team almost waived the talented Rider last week after a string of behavioral problems.

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