They’ll let in anyone these days.

The NBA playoffs are fast approaching. Tremendous as the level of competition may be, it won’t come without its share of bad apples. It looks like at least two and possibly four losing teams will crash the party. Handicappers will take some solace in this; unlike the NHL, where it looks like all 16 playoff teams could win the Stanley Cup, the NBA title chase looks like something that can be reasonably analyzed and forecast. So let’s give it a shot.

The bottom three seeds in the East will be swept: The gap in talent between the Top 5 in the Eastern Conference and the rest of the pack is insane. Detroit looks like it will win the East, followed by either Chicago or Cleveland, then Toronto. Miami appears entrenched in fourth place; these may be the only teams in the entire conference with winning records. Can the Magic win a playoff game against any of them? How about the legless Wizards? Even the Knicks might sneak into eighth place. The horror. The horror.

There will be a major upset in the West: If the playoffs started at the time of publication, the Suns would face the Lakers, and San Antonio would square off against Denver. One or both of those series will go to the lower seed – I’m thinking Denver here. Although L.A. almost did it last year, Amare Stoudemire wasn’t around to put in his 20 points and 10 rebounds’ worth. I see the Iverson-Anthony combo (and the Camby-Nene combo) giving the Spurs a headache.

The Dallas Mavericks will win the NBA title: Yawn. Way to go out there on a limb, Nostradamus. Well, at 7-5 to earn their first championship in franchise history, it’s obvious the Mavs are the pick of the litter. A value pick? Of course not. That would be the Toronto Raptors at 33-1. But that’s another kettle of dromaeosaurids.

These are men on a mission.

These days in the NBA, there are the Dallas Mavericks, and then there is everyone else. The Mavs (62-12 straight up, 37-33-4 against the spread) are mere days away from clinching the best record in the league. Dirk Nowitzki is running away with the Most Valuable Player race, and Dallas is the clear favorite at 7-5 to win the first NBA title in franchise history.

But what if they have to play Phoenix? On Apr. 1, the Suns (56-18 SU, 40-33-1 ATS) evened their season series with Dallas at two games apiece with a convincing 126-104 victory as 2-point home faves. The Suns have the second-best record in the league, they play the increasingly fashionable brand of team basketball that has won championships across the pond in Europe, and at 7-2 odds appear to be a better value on the futures market.

Speaking of Euro ball, let’s not forget about Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and the San Antonio Spurs (53-21 SU, 38-35-1 ATS). Unlike the Suns, these international superstars have proven themselves title-worthy at what remains the highest level of league play in the world. Would you bet against three-time champion Tim Duncan at 4-1?

Rounding out the list of top contenders are the Detroit Pistons at 5-1. The other three teams have to survive one another in the Western Conference playoffs just to get to the finals. The Pistons have Miami (11-1), Cleveland (15-1), Chicago (22-1) and maybe Toronto (rising quickly at 28-1) to contend with in the East. It won’t be easy, but it will be easier enough to make Detroit a value pick.

Yeah, yeah, but who’s going to actually win the title? I think you have to go back to the Mavericks. They’ve been playing at an elite level for a prolonged period of time, and they have the motivation of finishing the job they didn’t quite get done last year. Everyone else but Dallas has question marks for a change.