Oh no. Is it too late to download my brain about the best two months of the year - the NBA playoffs?

It is an hour into the first game of the first best-of-seven first-round series, which means I've probably already missed the sweet, gentle, self-effacing Canadian basketball fans in Toronto ripping Vince Carter a new one in pre-game introductions. There's plenty of time for that, though. That series, Raptors-Nets, is going at least six games, I'd have to think.

I would like to reiterate here, as I did when the season began, that it is KILLING me to be in a town with no NBA team. Even a bad team. I spent nine years in a city with a bad team (the Warriors), and it wasn't as bad as this.

Nevertheless, I will be in front of a TV for at least the start of the next game, Chicago-Miami, even though that seat will be in Camden Yards. The weather's nice enough that there will be baseball tonight, so I'll have to sneaks peaks at Orlando-Detroit, easily the most potentially lopsided series of the first round. And depending on how things go with what I write for tomorrow - barring something spectacular happening, it'll be about Jackie Robinson Day, Take 2 - I should catch some of the last game of the day, Utah at Houston, which also should be something special.

And tomorrow? No budging while Cavs-Wizards is on. Same for Kobe-Suns - er, Lakers-Suns.

At this time last year, it didn't seem as if the playoffs would be anything out of the ordinary, particularly in the first round, which had become tedious ever since it went to best-of-seven. That all changed when the actual games began. Best playoffs in NBA history, maybe the best in any sport, from start to finish. If you're immediately disagreeing, it's probably because you tuned it out prematurely and rebuffed every attempt to draw you in by disbelieving viewers. That's becoming a little too commonplace among the hardened NBA haters in the world.

You'd be crazy to make the same mistake this year. Yes, March Madness is fun, with the whole single-elimination format and the usual (except this year) string of upsets and magic moments. But - and it's a shame I have to keep repeating this - the best basketball in the world is played right now. What stinks about this year is that it could have been even better, except that Gilbert Arenas' and Caron Butler's injuries took one of the most intriguing teams of the postseason right out of contention. The Wizards are still intriguing, since they played really hard and developed a knack for finding new ways to lose by a basket or two in the final minute nearly every night the final two weeks of the regular season. Plus, if you're really sold on the Cavaliers and LeBron walking through them, because they're so mature and playoff-hardened (not), good luck. Still, the postseason landscape could have been so much tastier.

Still, there's nothing wrong with, say, Dallas having to get past a Warriors team that 1) has its number this year and matches up well, 2) is starving after missing the playoffs 12 straight years, or ever since Chris Webber was a rookie and Latrell Sprewell's hands were known for flicking away loose balls, and 3) is coached by former Mavs coach/career unpredictable lunatic Don Nelson.

And Spurs-Nuggets? AI and Melo seeing if this is really going to work out. Melo trying to win his first playoff series (what's up with that?). Steve Blake fitting like a glove. And, you know, the Spurs. Same as always, except probably more shots of Eva Longoria than ever before.

Seriously, did I really need to explain all that to you? I wish I hadn't. I probably missed valuable Vince Carter taunting time.

Uh-oh, almost forgot, predictions. First round: Raptors in 6. Heat in 7. Cavaliers in 5. Pistons in 5. Suns in 5. Mavs in 6. Spurs in 7. Rockets in 7.

Conference semis: Pistons over Heat in 7. Cavs over Raptors in 7. Spurs over Suns in 6. Mavs over Rockets in 6.

Conference finals: Pistons over Cavs in 5. Mavs over Spurs in 7.

NBA Finals: Mavs over Pistons in 6. Finals MVP: Josh Howard, Mavs. It's kind of cliche to call him the X factor anymore, since everyone knows how and why he's dangerous. But of all the Mavs key players - including Dirk - he's the one the Pistons will have the hardest time getting a handle on. There's a better chance that they shut down Dirk, or he shuts himself down.

Time to check in on Vince, to see if he's shot every time he's touched the ball, or run away from it, or writhed in agony on the floor only to rise up and return pseudo-dramatically. Or all of the above.