Great news, the NBA players association has finally agreed to allow the first round of the playoffs to go best of 7 instead of best of 5. See this article. Why is this such good news? Well, take last year for example: the pacers came within a point (twice) of knocking off the Nets and then the Nets continued to the finals. The Kings vs. Jazz series was also like this, to a lesser extent. Its too easy for good teams to lose best of 5's. This is especially important because the Lakers will probably be a low seed which means that two of the best teams will be playing in the first round. Having one of them eliminated only by losing 3 games leaves way too much to chance.