Round One Riot: (1) Pistons vs. (8) Magic

Say what you want about the regular season, but the first round slate of playoff matchups are nice. While we tap our feet in anticipation of postseason joy, the FanHouse NBA crew is happy to take you by the hand and lead you into the postseason with our first round playoff previews.

Biggest Reason You Should Watch: The Pistons are heavily favored, but this should be a grudge match. The Magic were swept 4-0 by Detroit in the regular season, which has started to annoy guys like Jameer Nelson. Plus, there's the chance that these might be Grant Hill's final games -- if this series goes five and he opts to retire this summer, he'll have ended his career in the same building in which it began.

Orlando Can Win If: Detroit's team bus falls off a cliff on the way to Amway Arena. Trouble is, there are no cliffs in the greater Orlando area. Detroit will definitely show rust -- they haven't played a meaningful game since facing the Heat, Bulls and Cavaliers the first week of April -- but it would take a massive stroke of luck in the form of multiple injuries to the Pistons' starting lineup for the Magic to pull this off.

Detroit Can Win If: They avoid said cliffs. No team in the East has played in more playoff games than the Pistons over the past five years. To these guys, the regular season is just one long series of exhibitions until the games start to matter. They swept the first four games against Orlando this year, and they could easily sweep the next four.

Stud of the Series: Dwight Howard. The Pistons are loathe to double-team any big man, even giving Shaquille O'Neal single coverage in recent seasons. So Howard should be a one-man wrecking crew, carrying the offense and cleaning the glass, especially when matched up against the immobile Chris Webber.

Biggest Liability: Jameer Nelson. Chauncey Billups is one of the strongest point guards in the league, and he's taken to abusing the diminutive Nelson whenever they've squared off this year. It'll be hard for the Magic to hide Nelson on defense, as switching him off to any other player presents even more of a height mismatch. When the Magic don't offer Nelson a contract extension this summer, he'll have Billups to thank.

FanHouse Prediction: Pistons in five. Detroit has the talent to sweep, but this early in the playoffs it won't be a surprise if the Pistons let their concentration wander just a bit and drop a game, likely Game 3 in Orlando.