Maybe Kobe Bryant is too beaten up to last through three playoff rounds against the rest of the West.

Perhaps the aging Boston Celtics do have one more run in them, or the Atlanta Hawks are ready to take the next step.

Sure, it’s easy to think this year’s NBA champion will be LeBron James and Cleveland, Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers, or the Orlando Magic.

Just don’t tell that to all the other teams believing the trio can be knocked off.

“I don’t think anybody is afraid of anybody,” Dallas owner Mark Cuban said. “We think we can beat anybody and anybody thinks they can beat us. That’s how good the teams are.”

The best during the regular season were the Cavaliers, but they were last season, too. All that got them was a trip to Orlando, where the Magic ended their season in the conference finals.

But with a bolstered front line that now features Shaquille O’Neal and Antawn Jamison alongside James, there may not be anything that can stop the Cavaliers this time.

“Dan Gilbert, Danny Ferry went out and got the pieces that I feel should help us against the bigger teams that we’ll be going against,” Cleveland coach Mike Brown.

“We still have a long way to go. It’s going to be tough for us, because we’re going to face a lot of different types of teams on this run, hopefully. We’ll see how we pan out after we get started.”

That comes Saturday, when the Cavaliers open against the Chicago Bulls, who earned the NBA’s final playoff spot on the last night of the regular season. Also Saturday, Milwaukee visits Atlanta; Boston hosts Miami and Utah visits Denver.

On Sunday, it’s playoff newcomer Oklahoma City at the Lakers; Orlando hosting Charlotte, another first-time postseason team; San Antonio visiting Dallas; and Phoenix entertaining Portland.

The Suns, who missed the playoffs last year but rode a late-season surge to the No. 3 seed in the West this year, are another team that could spoil one of the presumed finals matchups.