By InsideHoops.com

Tuesday, Feb. 19: Minnesota vs Dallas is a battle of the West's best. The Mavericks lead the league in both scoring and giving up points. Steve Nash is still hot. Michael Finley isplaying while still trying to recover from a bad hamstring. Dirk Nowitzki keeps rolling. Juwan Howard's terrific play has continued, and he's finally finding his niche on this squad. This team has some injury issues right now, but as long as Nash and Dirk are totally healthy they can compete with anyone. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves have lost Terrell Brandon for the season. While Chauncey Billups is doing a good job filling in, depth at point guard is needed. Wally Szczerbiak will need to play almost exclusively at shooting guard now that the team lacks depth in the backcourt. Kevin Garnett is rolling. Joe Smith has put up nice numbers recently. Rasho Nesterovic isn't living up to his potential lately, but unfortunately for the Wolves, he's by far the best option at center. Off the bench, it's up to Felipe Lopez and Anthony Peeler. The Wolves upcoming schedule is very tough. Keep on eye on them over the next few weeks.

Also: Seattle at Phoenix, Boston at L.A. Lakers.

Wednesday, Feb. 20: Portland at Seattle features bottom-rung West playoff teams. The Trail Blazers hover around .500, but have played much better basketball over the last two months than at the start of the season. Damon Stoudamire's role on this team is finally clearer. Bonzi Wells does a bit of everything. Scottie Pippen makes this team better. Rasheed is Rasheed. At center, Dale Davis has stepped up. Ruben Patterson and Shawn Kemp come off the bench to fill in the holes. Derek Anderson is back from a bad toe. For Seattle, a void at power forward now exists due to three dislocated toes on Vin Baker's left foot. This hurts, because Baker's played his best basketball in recent years. He isn't rebounding much, but he's making shots, and being active. At point, Gary Payton is Gary Payton. Brent Barry has stepped up all year, doing a bit of everything. Young star Rashard Lewis keeps growing on offense. Defensively, he's improving. This squad is doing better than anyone expected. And Seattle has a much easier schedule in the second half of the season than the first half, so if Baker can come back quickly, they have a real shot at at least getting into the first round of the playoffs.

Also: Washington at Detroit, Houston at Milwaukee.

Thursday, Feb. 21: Sacramento at San Antonio is an elite battle. The Suns are happy to have the 3-point-shooting Danny Ferry back. He missed two months and returns at a great time; the team's outside shooting has fallen off and, besides hitting people with hard fouls, that's Ferry's forte. Point guard Tony Parker has fallen off a bit. His quick game isn't quite suited to this team, and his half-court game needs development. Steve Smith still lives to bomb from the outside. Tim Duncan actually struggled recently, but we'll just assume that's temporary. After the entire world wrote David Robinson off, he made a statement with energetic play to let everyone know that he still has some fight left in him. Malik Rose still comes off the bench to fill in any frontcourt spot necessary. Bruce Bowen should be back in late February or early March. The Kings, meanwhile, are the same as always: balanced and effective. It's almost pointless to analyze them. They can score inside, and bomb from the outside. Every player can shoot and pass. The bench is solid. They can fast-break, or grind it out in half-court. Mike Bibby fits in perfectly, Doug Christie still does some of everything, Peja Stojakovic is a legit All-Star and an incredible shooter, Chris Webber is dominant, and Vlade Divac is just there to make sure everything is working correctly. Every Kings game is fun to watch.

Also: Boston vs Dallas, New Jersey at Washington, NBA trade deadline is tonight.

WEEKEND

Friday, Feb. 22: New York at New Jersey is fun only to see how the Knicks can hang with the terrific Nets. It's getting easier and easier to type that sort of thing. New Jersey dropped a few games recently, but it's safe to call it a slump and assume they'll bounce back. The Knicks, minus Marcus Camby, have to struggle for everything they get... Also: Atlanta at Seattle, Phoenix at Chicago, Detroit at Toronto.

Saturday, Feb. 23: Minnesota at San Antonio is crucial for both teams. The Wolves are adapting to permanent (for the season, at least) life without Terrell Brandon, while the Spurs are happy to have Danny Ferry back... Sacramento vs Dallas is the best matchup in the Western conference right now (with Shaq out for the Lakers, that is). Best game of the week. Watch it... Also: Philadelphia at Orlando, Miami at Washington, L.A. Clippers at Indiana.

Sunday, Feb. 24: L.A. Lakers at New York gives the Knicks a chance to beat a big name, something they don't do very often these days. The Lakers are merely average with Shaq out and no one other than Kobe Bryant stepping up... Charlotte at New Jersey should be a fun game... Washington at Miami - these teams just met last night, and now they switch locations. Check last night's results and then watch what goes down tonight... Detroit at Milwaukee is the best East matchup today. In case you haven't heard (and we haven't mentioned it yet), the Pistons are one of the hottest teams in the entire league. This is really the game of the night, unless you count, Washington at Miami, which would be perfectly understandable... San Antonio at Phoenix gives us a glimpse of the Suns now that they've had a week under new coach Frank Johnson.