As the Lakers were trampling the 76ers during the Finals, there was a universal opinion that the Bucks would have provided at least more entertaining competition. Could the Bucks have won two games from the Lakers? At least the possibility of triple-digit shootouts existed. The Bucks were not only unafraid to run with the Lakers, that is how they beat them twice last season.

And tonight, when the Bucks and Lakers play for the first time this season when it counts, few are precluding the possibility that they could meet in June, when it really counts.

A national television audience will have the chance to see the teams with the league's best records - the 12-1 Lakers vs. the 9-1 Bucks - stage what could, barring catastrophic injury, be a prelude to the 2002 Finals. No one in the West appears capable of stopping the Lakers, while the Bucks might again be on a collision course with Philadelphia.