There are plenty of memorable moments for every coach, year-in and year-out. Sometimes, there are so many, it's tough to pick one. But there isn't any doubt in the mind of Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni when it comes to last season.

It was the kind of scenario that spoiled the outcome of the season and precipitated elimination from the Western Conference finals for the second year in a row, this time by the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs.

Suns point guard Steve Nash had just gotten hip-checked into the scorer's table by San Antonio's Robert Horry, inflaming everyone on the Suns, with Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw jumping up from the bench. They were coaxed back by the coaches. But according to the NBA front office, they'd already gone too far, so they were suspended for the next game and the Suns never recovered. Consequently, the Spurs won the series and their third NBA title in five years.

 

"I think they are definitely the favorites (again). I think they will be the favorites until somebody else proves otherwise," D'Antoni said. "The most memorable moment was when we got off the bench. It probably was one of the last (moments). I don't think we'll build on it. I think we'll just try to sit down next time. I think it kind of defined our season."

 

The sarcasm is palpable, but so is his respect for the Spurs. With the terrific trio of Tim Duncan, 2007 Finals MVP Tony Parker and the incomparable Manu Ginobili, they have a great core that is used to winning, and great role players support everything they do. It's why they exploded out of the blocks with a 17-3 start.

 

Still, they have yet to win back-to-back titles, and they haven't dominated as much as sustained. But who's going to knock them off? The Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets all have great talent bases, and figure to give the Spurs everything they can handle as the season progresses. And yet, with the Spurs racing out to a lead in the West, the perception remains they have the least warts of all the teams.

 

Is it feasible for any of these other clubs to knock them off, or will they have to beat themselves? Now that both Duncan and Parker are hobbled with bad ankles the past week, and Ginobili finally cooled off - we'll get a better feel.

 

"Until someone beats them out, you have to consider them as the favorites," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, whose club lost to them in five games in the conference finals. "Their team is intact and it will be a very difficult thing to beat them. Obviously Duncan is getting a little bit older, but he has such a command of what's going on out there with his team. The players they have around, Ginobili and guys like that, just make their team extremely difficult to beat."

 

The Jazz looked strong last year and the beginning of this season again with Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams leading the way, but they have fallen flat with a five-game losing streak  They tend to struggle shooting from the perimeter, and losing Derek Fisher hurt them a lot in that manner, along with his leadership.

 

The Mavericks looked to be the team to beat last year having won the West in 2006, and followed that up with the best record in the 2006-07 regular season, only to fall flat in the first round of the playoffs to eighth-seeded Golden State. The Mavs appear to be suffering from at least a hangover, if not quite a growing chemistry problem despite the talent brought to the table by Dirk Nowitzki and Josh Howard as the two leaders.

 

The Nuggets have lots of special parts, with Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony, Marcus Camby and Kenyon Martin, for starters. The problem is they blow very hot and very cold invariably in prolonged streaks. At the moment, they've got a two-game lead over the Jazz in the Northwest Division, but that has the makings of a battle all season.

 

The Suns added the mature, all-around skills of Grant Hill in a great addition, but they dealt Kurt Thomas and brought in Brian Skinner instead - that's a dropoff inside, and Stoudemire has very little help in the post. Nash remains superlative and Shawn Marion is an All-Star talent at forward, but can they run their way to a West title? There are times when the Warriors trio of Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis run that speedball attack more effectively, although not as consistently, which is why the Warriors are more of a disruptive force than a serious challenger in the West.

 

Perhaps the most confusing crew to watch would be the Houston Rockets, now coached by Rick Adelman. With Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, they may have the best inside/outside combination in the game. They added another tough big in Luis Scola to join Shane Battier up front. But their four point guards - Rafer Alston, Mike James, Luther Head and Steve Francis -- are wild enough to drive everyone to distraction, with tough rookie point guard Aaron Brooks farmed out to the D-League while waiting for the other four to sort themselves out. They just seem to lack the continuity to be contenders other than being an interesting group.

 

Fitting into the same category are the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Hornets.  With Kobe Bryant still among the top three players in the game, along with talented but injury-prone Lamar Odom and gifted young center Andrew Bynum, they are dangerous for brief periods of time. But they're not deep enough to reach the conference finals. The Hornets -- with exciting young point guard Chris Paul, rapidly emerging center Tyson Chandler, the still-great shooting of Peja Stojakovic on those rare occasions when he's healthy and the underrated David West -- are a very good team. Then again, they still lack the experience to be serious playoff performers.

 

The Memphis Grizzlies are in a perpetual state of transition, with their third coach over the past 12 months - this one Marc Iavaroni. The talent around Pau Gasol and Mike Miller is still too young to be taken seriously. The Portland Trail Blazers could have been a factor if rookie center Greg Oden hadn't been lost for the season with microfracture knee surgery, but youth will preclude them doing anything but having streaks and slumps.

 

Fraught with injuries, the Sacramento Kings are better than they've played, but most of the discussion surrounds the trade value of Mike Bibby and Ron Artest as opposed to where this team can go this season. And as long as the Los Angeles Clippers are counting on the battered and aging Sam Cassell to lead their team with Elton Brand still sidelined after an Achilles' tear, they're bound for the lottery again.

 

Seattle will struggle to win 30 games, with rookie Kevin Durant the only source of interest other than the future home of the franchise, while Minnesota is even worse, with Al Jefferson the only Wolves property of merit in the organization.

 

So as we consider the possibilities, it still figures to come down to the Spurs and Suns ... or Mavs or Jazz or Nuggets, or maybe somebody else will crop up. Could this be the year Yao and McGrady finally get out of the first round and dominate?

 

It's probably too early to tell. We're nearly one-third of the way through the season, with injuries and deals still waiting to impact every one of these teams. But if the Spurs are healthy in the spring, it may not matter anyway.

 

Shots from the perimeter

 

• Just when we thought the Pistons were starting to get it together, they lost to the Rockets 80-77, which under normal circumstances wouldn't be a big deal. But when you consider the Rockets won the game despite making just 6-of-22 free throws (including a 1-for-15 start), you have to wonder exactly what the Pistons were doing Wednesday night.

 

• For all the myriad injuries to Chris Bosh, the surgery to the ankle and leg that has rendered Jorge Garbajosa out for possibly the season and Andrea Bargnani suffering a classic sophomore slump - not to mention the scary fall to T.J. Ford that has him out for a week - the Toronto Raptors have the fourth-best record in the East. Is that a compliment to coach Sam Mitchell or an indictment of the conference? Let's settle for both.

 

• Actually, the Washington Wizards fit into the same category. Struggling from the outset of the season, then losing Gilbert Arenas to knee surgery, the pressure was on coach Eddie Jordan and the rest of the team to prevent a complete collapse. Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison raised their level of play and Thursday night, DeShawn Stevenson had a season-high 26 points as the Wiz went into Miami and pounded the Heat. Now they're nipping right on the heels of the Raptors in this bizarre race in the East that promises not to be settled until April.

 

• And while we're on the topic of the not-so-hot Heat, they now have a 2-7 home record - second worst in the NBA. And at 6-16, with having yet to comfortably get Shaquille O'Neal consistently in the offense, there are some fatal flaws on this team that may be so significant that not even Dwyane Wade can pull them out of their funk to be playoff-ready. It's hard to fathom that they won't make it to the postseason, but even since Wade rejoined the team after rehabbing from offseason knee and shoulder surgery, they haven't shown even a hint of the play that was anticipated. They were 1-5 without him and are 5-10 with him. They are in dire need of a point guard, with the operative question being: What do they have talent-wise to offer for someone who can actually make a difference?

 

• Interesting that commissioner David Stern elected not to take any action against the New York Knicks or president Isiah Thomas in the wake of former Knicks employee Anucha Browne-Sanders' $11.6 million settlement from the sexual harassment/wrongful dismissal case after the Knicks were found guilty. Do you think Stern would have let it go had it been a player convicted of sexual harassment?  I don't, and can't quite figure out why he's stayed at arm's length in such a high-profile problem.

 

• Not surprisingly, Kevin Garnett leads the All-Star balloting in the first count, and why wouldn't he? He has had better statistical seasons, and others are having better seasons in numbers than he has right now. But putting him on the Boston Celtics with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen erases any doubt that Danny Ainge actually knows what he's doing as president of the Celtics. He already has the Executive of the Year award locked up, and it's hard to fathom anyone else winning the Most Valuable Player award unless he and the Celtics go south for the winter. Generally speaking, the guy who starts off as the hot candidate and doesn't fade will win the award. LeBron James is the second highest vote-getter, just ahead of Orlando's Dwight Howard. Dwyane Wade and Jason Kidd fill out the top five in the East. The top five in the West are Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady, Dirk Nowitzki and Yao Ming.