There is so much out there this morning that it's hard to know where to start...

Jeff Caplan writes about the problems Dirk has had scoring against the Hornets this season.

Two of Nowitzki's six lowest-scoring games this season came against New Orleans, including a seven-point performance Dec. 14 and a 12-point game in Wednesday's regular-season finale.

Dallas won both of those games.

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Brad Townsend has a couple of articles on Josh Howard.  The first is a typical adversity article, and the second has a some very honest quotes from Howard on his use of marijauna.

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Here's an article on the way the Hornets guard Dirk from a New Orleans point-of-view.  Byron Scott says they prefer to have Tyson chandler on Dirk, but will use West the majority of the time.

"He's [West] done a fairly good job against him in the few games that we played with him on him," Scott said of West. "We always thought that Tyson was probably better suited to guard him, but what it does, it takes away Tyson from the basket, and it takes away our help defense sometimes when he's on the perimeter.

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Charley Rosen says Dallas is good enough to beat New Orleans, but not do much else.

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Henry Abbott at True Hoop assembled some statisticians to make predictions for NBA postseason.  All but one have the Hornets advancing.

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David Moore writes about Chris Paul, comparing him to a young Isiah Thomas.

Comparing someone to Thomas is almost an insult these days.

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Joe Garza with a short 'advantage goes to' preview.

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Mario Elie thinks playoff experience matters.

"The good thing with our squad is we have playoff experience," he said. "I understand New Orleans is a very good team. They say experience doesn't count, but it does. It really, really does. We've all been through the wars. It's going to be interesting how Chris Paul and David West, who haven't been in this environment, respond."

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Jason Kidd says the Mavs don't have any pressure on them.

Sefko says all the pressure is on Kidd.

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Kevin Sherrington lists 20 reasons the Mavs will win the series.

• A seven-game series tests depth, and the Hornets' starters showed signs of wear late. Dallas' bench outscored New Orleans', 167-87, during the regular season series.

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Jan Hubbard says that a regular season as crazy as this one, the Mavs could win it all as a 7th seed.