09 SPORT SHORTS 11 MARCH 9, 2005 This Season’s NBA Contenders ADAM HUSSEIN SPORTS COLUMNIST Every NBA team has about twenty games to go, so it is time to separate the Million Dollar Babies from the Barbershops. In other words, let’s sep- arate the teams that will be playing basketball in June from the teams whose players will get an extra couple of months of the parties and strip clubs they enjoy so much. I am going to start in the Eastern Conference with the defending cham- pion Detroit Pistons. The Pistons seem to be overshadowed by Miami, and a few other plot lines in the Eastern Conference. Lebron James is leading Cleveland back to respectability, and the Bulls are finally playing above .500 basketball again, not quite Jordanesque, but I am sure Bulls fans will take it. Then there is the Atlantic division. Not a single. team im that division is worth mentioning as a legitimate championship contender, but one of Millennium Scholarships tr Be those teams is getting the third seed in the east, just another one of life’s inex- plicable incidents. Forgetting about those things for a little while, here is my take on the Pistons. If I had to pick an Eastern Conference team to make the finals right now, Detroit would be my team. They started off the season in rough shape, and the “basketbrawl” incident with Indiana seemed to hurt them more than it hurt the Pacers. Lately, they have finally been back to playing the type of basketball they are capable of, and that is championship quality basketball. Miami is easily the next best team in the east. Shaq and Dwyane Wade can play some incredible basketball togeth- er, and any team with Shaquille O’Neal on it has to be considered a contender. ; The only other team I consider contender in the east is the Indiana Pacers. As I write this, they are seventh in the east and twelve games behind Miami for first in the east. Despite this, I think they are a team everyone should watch out for. They have not been themselves all year. They lost key players to suspension after the fight with the fans in Detroit, but they have what it takes to come out of the east- ern conference playoffs. Remember this is the same team that gave Detroit a serious run for their money in last year’s playofis. ‘ Outside of these three teams, I don’t think anyone else in the east can make it to the NBA finals, especially those teams that are currently sulking away at .500, or worse, in the Atlantic division. For those teams, well, in the words of Crash Davis in Bull Durham: This is hopeless. This is utterly (bleep- ing) hopeless. In the Western Conference there is only one team that I think will make it to the finals. There are a few other teams worth mentioning, but in the end I have to pick the Spurs. The defending Western Conference Champion Lakers are nowhere close to being the same team as they were last year. Even 50 Cent and Shania Twain are more similar than last year’s Lakers team and the one Lakers fans are stuck with now. There are two other teams, howev- er, that need to be mentioned. The LEADERSHIP Les bourses du millénaire www.awardforexcellence.ca Phoenix Suns started off the season at a blistering pace, but the injury to Steve Nash slowed them down. They are still at the top of the league, but their lack of a serious defense should hurt them. The Seattle Supersonics are also ‘playing unbelievable basketball, but with their reliance on three-point shooting they are likely to stumble along the way. San Antonio has the defense to con- tend with absolutely any team, and Tim Duncan is quite possibly the greatest assct any team in the league could have right now. When you put San Antonio up against Phocnix and Seattle in one game anything can hap- pen, but in a seven game series San Antonio will win. As for the rest .of the teams in the west, their players can enjoy some pri- vate time at the local strip club, err, I mean with their families, because they will not be spending much time on the basketball court in May and June. you someone who's _ nd who's involved ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT