I need to say that we still need to play the Hornets Wednesday, and Mavs also have to win one game against the Spurs, but more than likely, this is going to be the 2nd round matchup, and I like it pretty well.

Are this Dallas Mavericks of the Playoffs different from the regular season?

We all know the Denver Nuggets swept the Mavs 4-0 on regular season series, but in the postseason might be different. I've seen two Mavs' games in this postseason and I have to say that Josh Howard is looking really good to me. Nowitzki is really not looking awesome, but he will always score. The surprise might be J.J Barea, who is energizing the whole team with his long range jumpers and his fastbreak layups. The guy is really fast, and I think our best option for guarding him is Jones, because Carter is not as fast as him. The Nuggets will also need to keep an eye on "Jet" Terry, if not he will absolutely kill us with transition three pointers (one of our weakest points in the New Orleans series, as well as open corner three pointers). Hollins is very athletic and will provide some hustle plays inside the paint, probably blocking some shots and making trips to the zone pretty hard for J.R, Billups, Melo and co. Offensively, both Hollins and Bass will get some easy dunks probably thanks to Kidd's IQ.

We need a fully recovered Nene (yesterday's version would be fine) to punish their mediocre post players like Dampier. Martin will have another really tough 1 on 1 matchup on him with Nowitzki. He can cover the german player pretty well, but I seriously think Nowitzki is a lot more dangerous than David West, so Kenyon Martin has a lot of responsability on him (again). We need to cover Kidd's three pointers. We know that he is not a shooter, but if you leave him set and open, he is going to hit it. J.R needs to get fired up in this series. I'm not saying he's been playing bad, but obviusly he is capable of doing a lot more than what he's done so far against the Hornets, and he certainly is going to be a factor against the Mavs.

But let's first beat the Hornets Wednesday so we can have some days of resting before facing the 2nd round of the Playoffs for first time in 15 years.

GO NUGGETS