The NBA playoffs aren't a sprint; they're a two-month marathon. You can find a game on TV almost every night.

To prepare yourself for any conversational environment in which you might be watching -- barstool with co-workers, couch at a buddy's house, restaurant table on a date -- check out the list of What's Hot heading into Saturday's playoff tipoffs:

WHAT'S HOT, WHAT'S NOT FOR THE NBA PLAYOFFS
Category	Hot	Not Hot
Streaking	Bucks (won 4 in row)	Jazz (4-6 last 10)
TV guy as management	Jim Paxson	Doug Collins
No. 1 fan	Tyra Banks	Jack
Suck to be you	T'wolves (open with Lakers)	Mavs (if advance, home-court vs. Kings)
Last-minute seedings flip-flop	Lakers and Blazers	Bucks and Magic
"Oh, sure, I always liked the ..."	T'wolves	Nets
First-found series	T'wolves-Lakers	Pistons-Bucks
Coach on the hot seat	Flip Saunders (T'wolves)	Rick Carlisle (Pistons)
NBA's "He Hate Me"	Kobe Bryant	Allen Iverson
Pacer due for national breakout	Al Harrington	Jonathan Bender
Home court	HSBC Centers (Spurs)	FleetCenter (Celtics)
Mr. Clutch	Robert Horry (Lakers)	Doug Christie (Kings)
Hot-head	Ron Artest (Pacers)	Zach Randolph (Blazers)
Off-court action	Who draws LeBron?	MJ coming back?
Jersey to be seen in	Jordan Bullets retro	'Sheed Wallace retro
Fire up the crowd music	50 Cent	Nelly
Functional accessory	Double-wide headband	Two-color headband
Six-seed sleeper	Blazers	Celtics
Three-point ace	Steve Nash (Mavs)	Keith Van Horn (Sixers)
X-factor	Jamal Mashburn	Matt Harpring
Unemployment-line sighting	Jerry Krause	Lon Kruger
Designated hack-a-Shaq'er	Malik Rose (Spurs)	Shawn Bradley (Mavs)
Must prove it this year	Kevin Garnett	Tracy McGrady
Strategy trend	Run, run, run	Slow-down, plus D
Impact sub	Tim Thomas (Bucks)	Mark Madsen (Lakers)
Payback time	Spurs over Lakers	Mavs over Spurs

For the office pool, elevator debate or, most important, the blind-date conversation piece:

PAGE 2's PICKS
Category	Hot	Not
West upset special	Blazers over Mavs	Jazz over Kings
West sleeper	Do the Lakers count?	Fail-Blazers
West champ	Kings	Spurs
East upset special	Bucks over Detroit	Celtics over Pacers
East sleeper	Hornets	Magic
East champ	Nets	Pistons
Finals	Kings over Nets	East champ over West

Dan Shanoff is a columnist for Page 2. His "Daily Quickie" commentary appears every weekday morning.