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No. 1 vs. No. 5
No. 1:
Best 3 (Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Allen Iverson)
Worst 3 (Kwame Brown, Pervis Ellison, Joe Smith)

No. 5:
Best 3 (Kevin Garnett, Scottie Pippen, Mitch Richmond)
Worst 3 (Isaiah Rider, JR Reid, Jon Koncak)

The Pick: No. 1 Much like the Western Conference finals, this is the defacto overall championship. (Who seeded this thing?) Factoring what they had to work with, the No. 5s have more impressive depth top-to-bottom. But even the up-and-coming No. 1 picks -- Yao, K-Mart and Brand - are tremendous. (And after this year -- LeBron? -- it's ovah.)

No. 3:
Best 3 (Grant Hill, Baron Davis, Pau Gasol)
Worst 3 (Chris Washburn, Benoit Benjamin, Dennis Hopson)

The Pick: No. 2 The previously easy road for the No. 3s runs out. The winner is just a sacrificial lamb to the No. 1s anyway. But this is how it should be, right? 1 vs. 2.