European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 21, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Stars and stripes saturday april 212007 sports Crosby playoff stay a Short one As penguins sent Home in 36 2007 Aba playoffs mavs suns get rare second Ehan Cei bulls lakers get re matches j Pat the Miami heat and guard dwyane Wade 3 will begin defense of their Aba championship against the Chicago bulls on saturday the bulls pushed the heat to five games last year by Brian Mahoney the associated press Obe Bryant and the los Angeles lakers get another Chance to finish the Job against the Phoenix suns the Chicago 3ulls try again to Knock out the Miami heat in the first round the nabs second season is All about Sec Ond chances and the Dallas Mavericks Hope to get theirs in the Aba finals after their collapse against the heat last year theres Only one Champion Maver icks coach Avery Johnson said no mat Ter what you do in the regular season at the end of the Day youve got to try to get it done in the playoffs if s not like you Are playing against your b team where you Are guaranteed to have the ring there Are other teams that have some says in this if s not an easy task the playoffs begin saturday afternoon starting with Vince Carter going Back to Toronto in the opener of the new Jersey nets series against the Atlantic division Champion Toronto rap tors that one of two High profile returns in the first round the other coming when coach Don Nelson leads Golden state into Dallas for the Start of the warriors first playoff series in 13 years analysis of each series Page 38 heat ready for another playoff Fin Dirk Nowaki right and the Dallas Mavericks get another shot at a title after falling the the Miami heat in the Aba finals last year the Mavericks went 6715 during the regular season Ted s also saturday Miami visits Chicago in the rematch of a tense first round series from a year ago to seeded Detroit hosts the Orlando magic and Utah travels to Houston for a matchup of former West Powers Back in the play offs this year on sunday Cleveland welcomes Washington in yet another first round rematch the lakers head Back to Phoenix the Denver duo of carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson takes on san Antonio and the league est mavs Host the warriors the Aba had one of its most exciting postseason in 2006 with a record 10 games going to overtime this one brings Back three of its most competitive series from a year ago the suns and lakers also met in the no 2 is 7 series los Angeles had a 31 Lead before the suns won the next three games with Bryant managing Only one Point and three shots in the second half of Phoenix 12190 game 7 rout it haunted me All summer Long lakers Forward Luke Walton said if s not like we forgot about it its definitely in our Heads we have a lot of Guys with a bad taste in their Mouths hopefully we will havea Chance to redeem our selves it wont be easy the lakers had an advantage in the Middle last year this time Phoenix has both Amare Stoudemire and Kurt Thomas pos Sibly negating the Interior advantage los an Geles exploited on paper there a better team with Stoudemire a More powerful team lakers coach Phil Jackson said we just cant go inside against them like last year and change the course of the game by doing that Stoudemire does have a pres ence the suns Raja Bell was suspended a game in that series for a hard foul on Bryant but that s nothing compared to the bad blood be tween Chicago and Miami James Posey was suspended a game for knocking Kirk Hinrich to the floor and us onis haslem has been tossed twice against the bulls in his career see Aba on Page 38 Rodriguezs blast Caps yanks rally is indians 027664 Iii Iii 463149