Five players on the spot in the playoffs

By Michael Cunningham

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Five players on the spot as the NBA playoffs begin this weekend:

1. LeBron James, Cleveland: He’s probably going to win his second consecutive MVP award, the latest indication that he’s moved ahead of Kobe Bryant in the debate about the best player in the game. James recently boasted that he could lead the league in scoring every year if he wished and players around the league nodded in agreement.

Yet for all his accolades, James hasn't come close to sniffing the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Is it ridiculous to put those kinds of expectations on a 25-year old? Well, then it’s also ridiculous for seemingly half the league ready to make salary-cap moves for the chance to sign a guy who is obviously gifted but hasn't won a game in the Finals.

James has the team to win it all this year, so there are no excuses. He has a knack for quietly dictating the flow of the game with his passing and then taking over when it’s winning time.

"The fourth quarter and the second half is when it's time for me to score at a high level," he said. "That's when it's close-out time for me. That's what I prepare myself for. I have to make sure I'm in tune in that quarter."

If he’s not and the Cavs don’t at least make the Finals, then maybe the hype machine will quiet down. For a while.

2. Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas: The Mavericks have won at least 50 games in all but the first of his 11 NBA seasons. He’s been league MVP. He helped redefine the power forward position with remarkable skills and shooting ability for at 7-footer.

Yet the perception persists that the Mavericks will never win it all with Nowitzki as the main guy.

It’s a view rooted in the Mavericks’ collapse in the 2006 Finals when Nowitzki, an excellent free-throw shooter, clanked a critical one late in Game 3. That perception was only enhanced when Nowitzki won the 2007 MVP award, the same season the top-seeded Mavericks lost to No. 8 seed Golden State in the playoffs.

Both collapses were historic. Now the Mavericks are loaded after they acquired Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood at the trade deadline. While that takes some pressure off Nowitzki, it also adds to it because if they flame out, he will get the blame again.

“I think we got a good shot at it this year, so hopefully we can give it a good run,” he said.

3. Dwight Howard, Orlando: He’s among the league leaders in technical fouls. Some critics wish he’d get as mad at opponents as he does at officials.

Detractors look at Howard’s sculpted physique and his finesse game around the rim and say he’d be more dominant if he had more of a mean streak. Howard, who after all did lead the Magic to the finals last season, has rejected that kind of talk.

“People don’t understand that I play my best when I’m happy and having fun,” Howard recently wrote on his blog. “When I’m angry, I’m thinking too much about what I’m going to do to that guy across from me. It gets me distracted from what we’re trying to do and I lose my focus.

“So if you see me out there smiling, that usually means we’re winning and I’m having a good game. A lot of people [are] taking my smiling the wrong way, acting like I’m just goofing off and I’m too nice on the court. If ya’ll think that, ask the dudes who have to guard me if I’m too nice.”

4. Kobe Bryant, Los Angeles: What’s left to prove for a guy with four rings (but just one of them won without former nemesis Shaquille O’Neal), a new $90-million contract extension and the top-selling jersey in the league? How about lifting the Lakers out of their late-season funk to make a strong defense of their title?

Some naysayers point out the Lakers didn’t take the 2009 title from the Celtics. Even Bryant has admitted that took a bit of the luster off of it. Bryant has been nagged by injuries this season and Lakers coach Phil Jackson acknowledged that Bryant, 31 years old and finishing his 14th season, may finally be in physical decline.

“The inability to go just over people and shoot the ball with people on him or at him, I think that’s something he has to adjust to,” Jackson said. “Individual versus three or four players, sometimes he would draw a crowd and still rise above the crowd to score or to get fouled. I think those are things that now have to be measured.”

5. Kevin Garnett, Boston: When critics say the Celtics are too old and injured to make another run, they mostly mean Garnett. He’s been dragging around a bad leg for a couple months and with their emotional leader hurting, the Celtics haven’t seemed to have the same fight.

Many nights it’s been clear that Garnett’s pain is more than physical. He’s been frustrated that the he has the same fire but not the same legs. Over All-Star weekend, he wasn’t his usual gregarious self when reporters questioned him about his struggles.

Now he’ll get the change of subject that he wants. The Celtics are in the postseason and they aren’t looking for excuses.

"We are not injured anymore,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “And that's the point I'm making with our group. Enough with the injuries.”

-- Information gathered by NBA beat writers was used in this report.