It is only 8-10 games before the money season starts in the 2007-8 NBA regular season.

Currently in the Eastern Conference, the only "true" contenders are probably the Celtics, Pistons, and the dark horses being the Cavs and the Magics. Aside from the East, the West is pact with contenders vying just for a spot in the playoffs.

Currently the Nuggets are a half game behind the Warriors for the last spot on the Western Conference playoff pictures while the Hornets are only 6 games ahead overall. That shows that this year's playoff picture is absolutely compact with big teams in one conference and the other conference teams below 0.500 are allowed to enter the money season. However, because of this, most Eastern teams will get the higher picks of this year's draft and probably bolster their rosters to make next year's playoff picture more balanced.

And so forth, this years playoff picture by today's standings:

Hornets VS Warriors: The team that traded Baron Davis and the team with the new point guard Chris Paul. Both teams are fast tempo with Hornets more inside oriented with West and Chandler and Warriors being more shooter oriented. If the Warriors pull off another upset against the first seed, then the Bay Area fans have every reason to go bananas.

Rockets VS Mavericks: Two Texax team duking it out in the first round. The Rockets will be without Yao Ming and the Mavs will likely be without Dirk, so the balance of the rosters are pretty even. It will all come down to McGrady making his shots and staying away from injury along with role players Alston and Scola doing their jobs. For the Mavs it'll be the ability of Kidd to mesh with Johnson and the players in time. If not, Mark Cuban may look like the most riskiest and the laughing stock of the League.

Lakers VS Suns: Three years straight these teams are duking it out against each other with the Suns winning both previous series. This time, with all this rivalry, their will be the Shaq-Kobe Drama mixed in with Kobe leading the Lakers along with Odom, Bynum, Gasol, and 2000-2 winning teammate Fisher against Shaq, two time MVP Nash, Bell, Amare "I should be the MVP" Stoudemire, and Diaw. Besides the Shaq/Kobe thing, there also will be the Bynum/Shaq thing between the rising star and the falling star battle of the true centers. It'll all come down to who can make the stops, and who can make the clutch shots. Look for the Zen-Master to maximize his new crop of excellent bench (last two years, they were under developed) and role players' ability again against the Suns.

Jazz VS Spurs: It'll be Tim Duncan VS Carlos Boozer, Derom Williams, top 5 point guard in the League against last year's Finals MVP PG, Tony Parker. Besides these guys getting theirs, it'll come down to whether AK47 being able to stop Manu from going on a rampage since both coaches Sloan and Pops are a master at adjusting for the money season. This series will be interesting if you're a purist like Charely Rosen since these two teams emphasize the fundamentals along with hard nose defense.

Any one of these teams actually have a good to slim chance of making it to the Finals, but give the Lakers and the Spurs the nod if they survive the first round because of their outstanding bench players and coach. The best situation is the conference finals between these two giants in a 7game third overtime game and it's only available in the NBA.

The LA Lakers looks like a true contender for the O'Brien Trophy this April.

They just came off a win against another contender the Dallas Mavericks in an amazing overtime victory. In that game, Kobe Bryant AKA "the black mamba" scored 52 points and had 11 rebounds.

Now Analyzing the game bit by bit:

Mavs:

Jason Kidd was doing a fine job running the point. Obviously he had the better against Derek Fisher given that Fisher's scoring percentage was quite low and was hounded by Kidd's defense throughout the game, allowing him only 5 assists. Kidd on the other hand, was the player who missed the tying free throw with only seconds left in the game. Clutch no?

Dirk Nowitzki; wow, who thought he'd come up with a clutch 3 ball at the end of regulation? This guy is the guy who flopped during the historical Golden State comeback last year and now he comes and drops the biggest bomb of the season against the Lakers. Maybe some Avery Johnson talk got into his head. Nowitzki was doing alright, dropping points, boards, keeping Gasol from scoring too much, but he didn't box out Gasol enough. Gasol for the record had 14 rebounds. That's way too much for a MVP to allow to a former All-Star.

Dampier had a good game with 17 boards against Gasol, going 7-7 on the field and starting a run in the third quarter. Too bad he fouled out though late in the fourth.

Now the Lakers:

Luke Walton was horrible, he missed shots, turned the ball over too much for a passing foward, AND fouled out. And to give this guy an extension just for his "knowledge" of the triangle offense huh?

Odom did his usual thing, scored some and grabbed a ton of rebounds. He kept Josh Howard quiet and that will be important when teams turn to their third options during playoff games. Odom though needs seriously work on his shooting, missing all of his five shots in the third quarter? Come on, half of those were within the paint!

Gasol did a decent job grabbing the boards, but needs to keep his opponents (Dampier) off the boards at the same time. He shouldn't be grabbing the ones that isn't in traffic, but he should get the ones that's in traffic instead. Gasol got his usual number of points, 17. Overall, Gasol seemed tired and bit worn out. That'll probably change after his switches back to Power Foward after Bynum's return to the Center.

But the most important factor as usual was Kobe Bryant. No more to say. The guy was singled, doubled, and even tripled, yet he broke away for shots everywhere. This guy is unstoppable. Who stopped this guy ever from scoring how much he wanted before besides MJ when KB24 was rookie? Anyhow props to Jason Terry for doing all he could to leave Kobe at 52 points instead of 90points.

On my last post, I said that Spurs are also contenders of the West, but after their 2 point win against Bucks, maybe the Spurs are too overconfident, out of energy, or just are old now. Anyhow, unless Kobe somehow breaks his hand before the playoffs, expect Kobe and the Lakers to be ferorcious come the big season.