Phoenix wins homecourt advantage in the first round  

It's actually surprising to see the Suns do this good as of late. First of all, the Suns are aging. Steve Nash and Grant Hill are both not younger than 35 years of age and are still playing at a very high level. Not a lot of players at that age could still play very well. Michael Jordan and Karl Malone are among the very few who did. Second is the Suns shallow roster. Phoenix is basically playing with only 6 players at the start of the season where they also had a very impressive start. Goran Dragic, Jared Dudley, Louis Amundson, and Robin Lopez have stepped their games up during the course of the season which made the Suns a lot better team. And lastly, Phoenix is playing a lot better defense now. Alvin Gentry really did a very great job in employing defense for the Suns who are known to be a purely offensive team. They were able to keep their high octane offense and have drastically improved their defense which made the difference this season.

As Charles Barkley said, the Lakers is the only team that the Suns can't beat and that speaks a lot. Phoenix is really playing very well as a team. Though they aren't as deep as the Lakers and Mavericks, their experience will be very useful for their cause. Though the Suns are playing great, I predict a second round exit for them whether they face the Lakers or Mavericks.

Another big game to watch out: Phoenix Suns vs the Utah Jazz. The winner of such game would clinch the third spot in the West and will most probably face the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round. The loser of the game will definitely face the Denver Nuggets which is a lot better team than the Blazers considering Brandon Roy's status.