No two teams have less time to prepare for the playoffs than Pat Riley's team, the Miami Heat, and their opponent, the Detroit Pistons. They have the first tipoff early Saturday afternoon.

That'll be less than 72 hours after the teams ended the regular season, but like everyone else, the Heat and Pistons will find themselves waiting around in the ensuing days.In a change from past practice, the first round of the NBA playoffs is being spread over 13 days so that games won't compete head-to-head for viewers on TNT and TBS.

For Riley's team and their opponent, the Detroit Pistons, it means a Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday schedule -- that's eight days overall -- for just the first three games.

"We are subject to the gods of television, but to stretch this out over two weeks is absolutely insane," Riley said Thursday. "It's losing its competitive edge. It's allowing guys to have more preparation. It's allowing people to almost get bored. You've made them wait all year long, 82 games, and now you're going to make them wait two weeks to get through five games?"

If the Miami-Detroit schedule is odd, consider the Lakers-Kings.

Game 1 is Sunday, Game 2 is Thursday, Game 3 is the following Sunday.

Even stranger is the Utah-Seattle series, which features four days off between Game 2 Monday and Game 3 the following Saturday.

"I don't think it's ideal, but that's the way it is," Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy said. "It's for the benefit of TV. Whatever the schedule is, that's how we have to play."

The Phoenix-San Antonio, Seattle-Utah, Detroit-Miami and Philadelphia-Charlotte series begin Saturday, and the other four series -- Raptors-Knicks, Timberwolves-Trail Blazers, Kings-Lakers and 76ers-Hornets -- start Sunday.

There will be Game 2 doubleheaders Monday through Thursday, and there's only one Game 3 next Friday night -- Hornets-76ers.

The downside of the new schedule is a big cut in preparation time before the openers. Teams used to have four or five days to rest weary limbs, break down videotape and study opponents.

Now, they have to get ready quick.

Of all the first-round matchups, the two most intriguing ones are Kings-Lakers and Raptors-Knicks.

"We're expecting a war," Toronto's Vince Carter said.

The Knicks figure to have their hands full against a Toronto team that clobbered them in the season series, winning 3-1, with all the victories blowouts.

It will be the first postseason appearance for the Raptors and their young superstar.

The defending champion Spurs secured home-court advantage for the first round by beating the Lakers Wednesday night in the regular-season finale, but that was about the only good news to be had in San Antonio.

The Spurs' franchise player, Tim Duncan, has torn cartilage in his left knee, and his availability for the series against Phoenix is uncertain.

Duncan's injury is one of several to strike playoff-bound teams and their stars.

No team is worse off than the Suns, who have lost two starters -- Jason Kidd and Tom Gugliotta. Kidd was placed on the playoff roster Thursday, but it's unlikely he'll play.

Miami will have to try to get past Detroit with a rookie, Anthony Carter, playing point guard because Tim Hardaway has a foot injury that is expected to sideline him for at least the first round.

The Pistons aren't immune, either, with Grant Hill nursing a bruised ankle that kept him out of their final four games.

The Milwaukee Bucks, the last team to qualify for the playoffs, caught an injury break when they learned that Ray Allen's sprained left knee is OK. Allen even played Wednesday night -- extending his consecutive games streak to 296 -- and leaped off his left leg for a dunk.

The Bucks get a rematch with the top-seeded Indiana Pacers, who swept them from the playoffs in the opening round last season.

The big difference for Milwaukee this year is that Sam Cassell is healthy, while the Pacers will be entering the final postseason of Larry Bird's coaching career minus some of the toughness they had in years past with Davis. The Pacers also have four starters who will be free agents this summer, and the team could look a lot different next season if it again fails to make it past the conference finals.

Sacramento lost the season series 3-1 to the Lakers, but the losses were by 1, 7 and 3 points.

"They get pumped up for us," Shaquille O'Neal said. "Certain teams get pumped up against other teams, and they get pumped up for us."

The Lakers probably would have preferred to face Seattle in the first round, but the Sonics got the seventh seed Tuesday night by winning in Sacramento.

Seattle will instead face Utah, while the Lakers get an opponent that presents matchup problems in the frontcourt with Chris Webber and Vlade Divac playing alongside each other. Shaq can't guard them both, and Sacramento could provide a test of whether the Lakers are as invincible as they seemed during the final two months of the regular season.

The Lakers won 33 of 35 games before losing their final two. They will have home-court advantage as long as they stay alive.

"The Lakers are the favorites," Utah's John Stockton said. "They have been terrific all year and have been dominating all year. I understand why they have been placed in that role, but you still have to play the games."

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Two of the dark-horse teams heading into the postseason are Charlotte and Minnesota.

The Hornets won 14 of their final 16 games to gain home-court advantage over the 76ers, whose best player, Allen Iverson, will play with a swollen shooting elbow and broken toe.

The Timberwolves were 50-32 for the best record in franchise history, but it won't mean much unless Minnesota can break its two-year cycle of first-round failures.

The Wolves will have to reverse their fortunes against the team that finished with the league's second-best record, Portland (59-23), which has one of the deepest, most playoff-tested rosters in the league.

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