24-Second Clock: Quick takes from the NBA

Game of the week

Jazz at Nuggets, Thursday

Utah's tough, late season schedule includes this TNT-televised battle with the Northwest Division leaders. The Jazz need a win to have any realistic hope of catching Denver for the division title. Denver, meanwhile, is still in the thick of the hunt for the No. 2 seed in the West.

24-second clock

If the playoffs began Thursday, the day after Orlando beat Boston to move into second place in the Eastern Conference, the Magic would have opened against the Detroit Pistons.

The Magic, according to some thinking around the league, would prefer to avoid another matchup with the Pistons.

"I don't think they want to see us to tell you the truth, just from the simple fact (of) the success we've had (against them) over the last couple years," the Pistons' Richard Hamilton told ESPN.com last week.

According to Dwight Howard, the Magic not only want to play the Pistons, they need to.

"Those guys have beaten us two years in a row and they leave a bad taste in our mouth, so hopefully this year would be different," Howard said.

"Every year, I don't know what it is about the Pistons, but they seem to have our number and we have to get over that hump mentally, and I think that's the biggest thing. It's like teams around the league that give us problems. It's one of those teams, and in order to I think grow out of it, mentally we have to step up to the challenge and beat those guys."

Detroit swept Orlando in the first round two years ago, then won a second-round series in five games last year. The Pistons were clearly better both times, so neither was a surprise. What is shocking is Detroit's three-game sweep this season of a Magic team that is one of the NBA's best . . .

If there's one obvious pick in the first round of the NBA playoffs, it would seem to be the Los Angeles Lakers over any team they play.

Don't rule out the upset, though. So says the man who authored the greatest one ever in the NBA.

"I think anybody can beat anybody," Golden State coach Don Nelson said. "I think it's like when we beat Dallas when we were eight and they were one. Everybody is trying to get to full strength, rest their guys and make sure everybody's healthy for the playoffs, as it should be."