31.   Houston is taking a small gamble because the Houston Rockets will be the only playoff contender with room under the salary cap to sign him to a lucrative deal.

32.   If the Clippers want to become a serious playoff contender, this is the position that deserves immediate attention.

33.   If the players could put aside their differences, he implied, they could be playoff contenders.

34.   If Williams returns, and the Clippers make only minor adjustments, they should be considered a playoff contender based on maturity alone.

35.   In all those years when the Sonics were playoff contenders, Payton played with veterans like Sam Perkins, Dale Ellis, Detlef Schrempf and Jerome Kersey.

36.   Indeed, the Kansas City Chiefs have been playoff contenders for a decades.

37.   It left Hardaway wondering which team is the real playoff contender.

38.   It would not be smart, however, to suggest that he no longer can be productive and an integral member of a playoff contender.

39.   Jimmy Johnson seems to have built Miami into a playoff contender.

40.   Kerry Kittles, whose unpretentious talent should help the Nets develop into a playoff contender again.