The Daily Nickel

1. The Mavs and Lakers play tonight in the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs. The D-Fdub is going on record again with their Mavs' playoff predictions. In the first round, none of us were right, but at least Gonzo and Nate picked the correct winner. For their matchup with the LakeShow, Gonzo is picking the Lakers in 5, Hunter has the Lakers in six, Nathan has the Mavs in seven, and I'm going with the Mavs in six. Apparently, two of us are thinking with our brains and two are thinking with our hearts. I'll let you decided which two are doing which.

2. I know that I'm getting ahead of myself here, but IF the Mavs (notice the captital IF) can squeak out their series against the Lakers, I really like their chance to win it all. Their Western Conference opponent (the Thunder or the Grizz) would be loaded with talent, but also very inexperienced, and the NBA doesn't like for young teams to win, so we have that going for us. The Eastern Conference is pretty weak (as usual), so if we can just get there, we've got a shot to win it all. Cuban has been a good boy this year (for the most part) when it comes to harassing refs, so maybe Stern will rig things to make up for the 2006 finals that he and his crook refs stole from us.

3. Neftali doesn't ever want to start. I'm not sure what to think about this one. Why doesn't he want to start? Does he think he'll get hurt? I wish someone would have asked him, but for now we can only guess. The way things are going, we don't need Neftali to start, but we could use him to play center field instead of Borbon maybe.

4. I forgot to thank the Carolina Panthers for taking Cam Newton. I was so scared that Cam would fall to the Cowboys and they'd make the colossal mistake of drafting that bust.

5. Speaking of the Cowboys, I like what they did in the draft. They solidified a leaky, creaky offensive line (Tyron Smith and company), they picked up some potentially dynamic playmakers (Murry and Carter), and they drafted a slot receiver (Dwayne Harris). Now Keith Brooking can take a seat on the bench, Marion Barber can be cut, Marc Colombo can be shown the door, and Miles Austin can be used on the outside instead of the slot, where he was a very bad fit. What's next? The Cowboys (and the D-Fdub) are hoping that free agency happens so the Cowboys can re-inforce their terrible secondary with stud Nnamdi Asomugha at corner and the very effective Michael Huff at safety. Don't think that the Cowboys have a chance at signing either? Think again because they both formerly played under new Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and both have already been linked to Dallas as a possible landing place.