By Shawn O'Neal
SportsLine NBA Editor

The Philadelphia 76ers may be an underdog in their first-round playoff series with the Orlando Magic, but they won't go quietly.

The new Sixers don't do anything quietly.

Coach Larry Brown's team has the NBA's scoring champion in Allen Iverson, a bruise-inflicting defense led by Theo Ratliff and an owner, Pat Croce, who rides a Harley Davidson and joins the team mascot in repelling from the First Union Center ceiling during games.

You gotta love these guys ... unless, of course, you're a fan of the Orlando Magic, who couldn't have drawn a more miserable first-round pairing in the Eastern Conference playoffs. Rightfully, the Magic are favored in the series with the upstart Sixers. They have a better record, the third seed and get to play the first two games of the series at the Orena.

What they haven't had thus far is a legitimate answer for Philadelphia. The Sixers won two of three meetings this year, taking a 103-86 decision April 25 and hanging a 95-75 beating on them back in February. Philadelphia nearly swept the series, but lost a 74-73 game when George Lynch threw an errant in-bounds pass to Darrell Armstrong, who sank a decisive basket to let the hosts off the hook.

If the Sixers can avoid getting lost in the frenzy surrounding their first playoff appearance since 1991, they'll go farther than most expect them to.

ONE TEAM GOING NOWHERE FAST is the Seattle SuperSonics.

Actually, a year after winning 61 games, they are headed to the lottery for the first time since after the 1989-90 campaign. In winning their last two games, the Sonics managed to avoid posting the franchise's first losing record since that season, but they did bring to light numerous questions about their future.

When Vin Baker opts out of his contract do they want to pony up the cash it will take to sign the player who best represented the sloppy NBA season? Does Gary Payton's brilliant play really merit suffering his incessant pouting and negative influence on younger players?

Can Paul Westphal be successful coaching a team not led by veterans like Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson? Just who is general manager Wally Walker? Is he the crafty fellow who found UCLA's Jelani McCoy hanging out in the second round of last year's draft, or the clown who sunk a load of cash into signing Billy Owens for three years?

If the answers don't come decisively, the Sonics will become perennial lottery participants while former coach George Karl keeps taking the Bucks to the playoffs.

Sizzlin' ... The Countdown

5. Dana does it

When Boston point guard Kenny Anderson went down for the season with a hamstring injury, reserve Dana Barros got his chance and made the most of it. Barros led the team to a 7-9 mark to close the year (the Celtics were 12-22 with Anderson), and had it running as well as it had all season despite not having the services of leading scorer and rebounder Antoine Walker. Anderson might have more talent than the Boston College product, but Barros appears to be the better fit in coach Rick Pitino's system.

4. The middle series

The 4-5 series in both conferences look like hot stuff. The Lakers have the homecourt edge over Houston in the West, while the Hawks hold the honor against Detroit in the East. The Lakers-Rockets clash has supreme star power. The Hawks-Pistons battle pits two of the league's hottest teams.

3. Crazy like Nellie?

As the season closed, criticism of Dallas Mavericks coach/GM Don Nelson increased. The often goofy Nelson began to hear increasing talk that he was leading the Mavs down the wrong road and that the team might never go anywhere under his guidance. It was all coming down just as Nelson was leading the team to an 8-6 record to close the year. They're not in the playoffs, but it looks like the Mavs might be on the right track, after all.

2. Rare Air in San Antonio

Patience does pay off. After hanging behind the Utah Jazz much of the year, the San Antonio Spurs took the tiebreaker and ultimately ended up winning their first-ever Western Conference regular season title. With Tim Duncan and David Robinson inside and Avery Johnson, Sean Elliot and Mario Elie on the perimeter, the Spurs look like a good bet to shake their embarrassing reputation as choking playoff dogs.

1. Philly phenomenon

OK, so maybe they won't win the title, but they're having a lot of fun in Philadelphia.

Fizzlin' ... The Countdown

5. Bad magic

The Washington Wizards are a mess of a franchise. They have no coach, a GM (Wes Unseld) who continually makes silly moves, and are about to lose Mitch Richmond, the only player of value they received in the ill-conceived Chris Webber deal last summer. A few of the pieces for success are in place, but if things don't improve quickly, it might not matter.

4. Bad magic II

On a more personal note, what exactly is Wizards point guard Rod Strickland thinking? He gets pulled over and charged with reckless driving and DWI two weeks ago and then failed to show up at his court appearance Friday morning. A missed flight was blamed, but c'mon ... the Wizards traded Webber to improve their character.

3. Canadian Catastrophe

The Vancouver Grizzlies finished the year with a league-worst 8-42 record. There's reason for hope with solid youngsters like Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Mike Bibby, but there's no excuse for finishing with a worse record than the Los Angeles Clippers.

2. The slumming of the Bulls

Now that the first post-Jordan season is in the books, the question must be asked: Just how, Jerry Krause, are you going to restore the Chicago Bulls to greatness? It's a question everybody figures to be asking this time next year, too. Chicago could have all the money in the world and it wouldn't matter. Most of the top would-be free agents already have signed or have been traded and re-signed, and under the new collective bargaining agreement, the Bulls don't have the leverage to lure anybody of any magnitude to Chicago anyway. Sorry, Bulls fans, you're in for a long rebuilding process.

1. Lottery winners?

Seattle is another once-proud franchise now languishing out of the playoffs. At least Cleveland and New Jersey can point directly to injuries. Chicago can blame Jordan's retirement and the dismantling of the Bulls. And Charlotte also went through a major house cleaning.

The Sonics? They just blew it.