By Dick Harter 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 …showed first 75 words of 737 total…

…showed last 75 words of 737 total…Sometimes in the playoffs, it's a tremendous advantage to have your team play with confidence and calmness. This was not noticeable during the regular season as the Hornets were a very erratic team. When they're good, they're very, very good. When they're bad, they're very, very bad. But right now Charlotte is playing very strongly. Right now they've got to be considered a threat to anybody in the East because I don't know ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**