From Dennis Velasco,
Your Guide to Basketball.
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The Spurs remain well behind the Mavericks, but have found a winning groove. Look ahead to a 7-game playoff series between the Mavs and Spurs. Who ya got?

Nick: I got the Mavs all the way. The Spurs no longer have the experience factor over Dallas and I think that Dallas has the hunger after being close enough to sniff a championship last year. I also like the way that Avery Johnson has his troops playing. Coach Popovich is a tremendous coach, but I just feel that Avery is the poster child for the next generation of NBA coaches because players today respect him as a former player and champion because he is not that far removed from his playing days. He knows what today's NBA is all about and what it takes to be a winner in this era.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dennis Velasco of About.com for assembling myself and the rest of these great NBA bloggers for this Roundtable's discussion. This is my favorite time of year and to be a part of this discussion has been the cherry on top.

Atma Brother #1: It looks like the Mavs will run away with the #1 seed in the West, while the Suns are locked in at #2 and the Spurs at #3. I don't think we'll even see the Mavs and Spurs face off in this year's playoffs. The Suns will take care of the San Antonio Snores in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Now, a Suns-Mavs conference championship - that's going to be fun. A Warriors-Mavs first round matchup? Now that would be truly UNSTOPPABLE BABY!

Dave: I picked the Spurs at the start of the season just out of spite towards all the people who take a single-year’s occurrence and make it into a definitive trend. The Mavs do look better this year, but I’ll stick with my pick.

Ryan: Until the Mavs win a Championship I'm going to stick with the franchise that has won three Championship in the past decade. I think the addition of Melvin Ely adds some much-needed depth to their front court and you can't count out vets like Michael Finley, Robert Horry, Bruce Bowen and Brent Barry come playoff time.

As the brilliant Ric Flair once said, "to be the man, you got to beat the man!"

Dennis: Spurs. I gotta keep the faith in my preseason pick to be the champs. I know that Dallas had those three win streaks with at least a dozen wins and they do look pretty bad (not bad meaning bad, but bad meaning good - thanks, Run DMC). However, it seems that the Spurs are just coasting in a sense that they're winning and flying under the radar per usual. Yes, I would agree that outside of Manu Ginobili, the Spurs are a boring team, but maybe it's just because they make winning look so easy.