Thank you, Neal Pollack. Thank you very much. We only know you from what we read about you Gawker, but if you ever see us in any city in America (burbs included!), we owe you a drink. Lists suck. They are lazy. Lists are lame. Still, they happen. Frequently. On the internet. To everyone. Us included. (We made allusion to the incredibly-overhyped MVP race during a Carmelo Anthony rant earlier this week, but mostly, people disagreed with our take on ‘Melo at the WWL, and probably missed it. Sigh.)

NBA playoffs. Right. Cousins of Ron Mexico put it much better than we could (and he ran shit in a Fantasy Hoops League this season), but we’ll throw out our dimestore opinions anyway. For all the hype the Western Conference gets, there will be nary an upset in the first round, and if you really count the Spurs over the Hornets in round two an “upset,” then so be it; the Lakers will reach the Finals. We’ll be pulling for the Suns, and for the first time ever, we might finding ourselves rooting for the Spurs just because we can’t take six weeks of Kobemania. As much as we’d like to take the Jazz at 15:1 to win it all, that’s a waste of money. They don’t play well on the road and there’s no chance of them defeating the Lakers and Spurs/Suns. No shot. A better hole to throw your money into is the Wizards at 50:1. But beating LeBron and then the Celtics sounds mighty difficult. For the naysayers: Washington has much more firepower than the LeBrons, and played above-average in taking three of four from Boston. We do smell upsets by Washington and Toronto in the first round, and think the Celtics will bury the overrated Pistons (Rip ain’t Rip, the bench is untested, Saunders is a terrible postseason coach when it matters) in five to meet the Lakers in the Finals. And Boston raises the banner, against either the Lakers or Spurs, but not the Suns.