It's playoff time! It all comes down to this as sixteen teams battle it out for the most coveted of NBA hardware - the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. The storylines abound as the Celtics try to continue their amazing turnaround with a run at the trophy, the Suns get their arch nemesis Spurs in the first round, only this time they think Shaq is the difference maker, and the surprising Hornets try to keep their young team going and Kobe leads the Lakers against Iverson and Anthony...

Sunday's huge win against the Spurs put the Suns record at 4-6 with Shaq in the lineup. Getting the win was the good part. The bad part? The Suns with Shaq may now be better equipped to handle teams that play a more conventional half court game like the Spurs, than run and gun teams like the Warriors and Nuggets. This from the team that was THE run and gun team in the league before the trade.

The 2007 NBA draft class was the most hyped and highly covered of any draft class in the last five years and maybe even this decade - and 9 of the 10 first picks were still teenagers. Something very profound has occurred in the NBA in the past two years due in large part to the new rule that disallows any high school student from entering the NBA draft until they are 19 years old...

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Columnist Greg Wyshynski examines the Dallas Mavericks' protest of a recent NBA game, and wonders if Commissioner David Stern's reaction to it has exposed one of the league's biggest shortcomings...