Dick Harter has long been regarded as one of the top defensive minds in basketball. Harter, who was the first head coach of the Charlotte Hornets franchise, was most recently an assistant coach for Larry Bird in Indiana. Harter will be NBA.com's Playoff Correspondent throughout NBA Playoffs 2001.
             The opening weekend of the NBA Playoffs has come and gone, and several series have gone according to plan. San Antonio did what they had to do by holding the home court advantage and sending the series back to Minnesota up 2-0. After a tough first game, San Antonio came back, played very strongly and won in business-like fashion Monday night.
             Utah's experience prevailed and that got them a Game 1 win over Dallas on Saturday. Now the series becomes interesting as Utah tries to protect their home court against a very good Dallas team. And the Lakers certainly got off and played well, while Portland continued to unravel.
             So I guess you could say some things stayed normal. Some things, though, are turning into typical postseason craziness.
             A big surprise in the first round was in Philadelphia where the top-seeded Sixers succumbed to a late Pacers rally and a three-pointer by Reggie Miller in the game's final seconds. I don't know if there's ever been a player in the history of the NBA that's made more big shots than Reggie. The fact that he made that clutch shot is certainly not a surprise, as we've come to expect that from Reggie. He has supreme confidence, particularly when things aren't going well, to still keep having the courage to make the play or take the chance down the stretch. I think his comments after the game about how he thought he had a great chance of making it, even after shooting just 4-of-20, is what he's all about.
             But the surprising thing about that game was maybe not Reggie's performance but that the Sixers allowed that type of lead to get away from them at h
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