Everyone knows how James Harden has become perhaps the league's MVP. His brilliant mix of off the bounce skill, shooting, craftiness, and overall guile has made him one of the most irrepressible forces in the NBA. That he has led his Houston Rockets team (without Dwight Howard for most of the season, and now without their starting point guard Patrick Beverley) to the No. 2 seed in the impossibly competitive Western Conference is beyond astounding.

His Rockets meet in the first round with a Dallas Mavericks team that most people have written off after a furious offensive start to the season. Bench genius Rick Carlisle had turned this forgotten bunch into the first Mavericks 50-win team since the 2011 championship season, but they haven't looked like the same potent team that stretched the San Antonio Spurs to seven games last year, and got off to a blazing start this season.

At the epicenter of the questions is Rajon Rondo, who after being acquired back in December, has made it difficult to look at the Mavs the same way as they started the season. It'll be interesting how Carlisle tries to turn things around when they face Harden and crew.

Of course, Dirk Nowitzki appears to have dialed back in time to rediscover his shooting touch right as the playoffs come, and that should be huge. The Mavs have all the pieces to make this series interesting, but how they put it all together as one cohesive unit on the floor is another question.

Houston's M.O. is well-known league wide"”threes, lay-ups, and dunks"”but how they manifest it still has most of the league clueless. You know what they want to do, and you know who they're going to do it with, stopping it is a different matter entirely.

The series opener is scheduled for Saturday at 9:30 p.m. ET, check out the live stream link here.