The Lakers won't be playing Phoenix in the first round, for once, though the difference might not be that palpable.
The Denver Nuggets are a less polished version of the Suns, pushing the pace at will, sometimes to their own detriment, while having the built-in advantage of trying to outlast opponents in the wispy Denver environment.
Don't tell the Lakers, but the Nuggets actually scored more points than the Suns this season, finishing second in the league at 110.7 points a game.
Then again, don't tell the Nuggets, but the Lakers swept them in the season series, winning their three games by an average of 16.3 points.
Game 1 in the best-of-seven series is Sunday at noon at Staples Center.
The Nuggets (50-32), who were locked into the eighth seeding when Dallas defeated New Orleans on Wednesday night, have had this little problem of getting out of the first round, losing in five games each of the last four seasons, and the Lakers (57-25) have the added edge of cleaning up against the Nuggets this season, but Lakers Coach Phil Jackson still sounded the caution bell.
"I'm not taking any solace in the fact that we had a 3-0 record against them during the regular season," Jackson said. "We can't take anything from what happened in those games and use it even in present-day terms."
He might be right.
The teams haven't played since Jan. 21, a lifetime in an NBA season, particularly one such as this. The last time they met, Andrew Bynum had been sidelined for a week, Pau Gasol was still 11 days from saving the Lakers' season, and Carmelo Anthony left midway through the second quarter because of a sprained ankle. For the record, the Lakers won, 116-99.
But they had barely sewn up the top seeding in the Western Conference on Tuesday before Jackson brought up Allen Iverson's 51-point outburst in the Lakers' 111-107 victory in Denver on Dec. 5.
"Obviously, you've got an offensive team in Denver, a free-wheeling team," he said.
There's always the other side of the coin, though, for those teams that run and run. They often forget to defend and defend.
The Nuggets gave up 107 points a game, second-worst in the league, and didn't exactly rush to the finish line, winning five of their last nine.
The Lakers, meanwhile, went 8-1 to conclude the regular season, their lone loss coming in Portland, where they would probably lose even if they suited up an All-Star team.
