Insider Special: Power Outage

[Guest]

Here lies the

Eastern Conference

Died Jan. 1, 2003

RIP

At a funeral, they say, everyone has something nice to comment on about the recently departed.

We'll do our best.

Six of its 15 teams have posted winning records up until this point after the New Year.

The team that represented it in the NBA Finals last season, New Jersey, got back to .500 in that same period by beating the Hornets on Sunday.

The team that represented itin the NBA Finals the year before that, the Philadelphia 76ers, beat the Sonics in Seattle last Friday to give the conference one team with a winning record on the road.

The Indiana Pacers, trailing those aforementioned Nets by only one game for the second-best record in the conference and the team that represented the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals before the Sixers, finally ended that nasty six-game losing streak back on Feb. 28 and have only lost five in a row since.

One of those teams with the 2003 winning record, the Detroit Pistons, has won two in a row after losing seven straight to become the team with the best record in the conference.

As a group, the Eastern Conference has won 228 games, even if it's taken 494 games to do it.

And no one can prove in a court of law that the Cleveland Cavaliers have lost a single game on purpose.

Amen.

HOTTEST TEAMS SINCE JAN. 1

1. San Antonio Spurs

Record: 25-5 (83%)

Comment: Let Gregg Popovich gloat for a second. Or two. Since January, the Spurs are 13-3 on the road and 13-4 against teams currently qualified for the playoffs. Do the math and that makes them 12-2 at home and 12-1 against lottery teams. In one particular stretch, in the midst of their legendary nine-game road conquest, they scored 109 points to beat Orlando by one, then 67 to beat Miami by two (on back-to-back nights), then 103 to beat Golden State by four (making it three victories in a row by a total of seven points), then 83 to beat Denver. Now get this. After six straight games on the road, after fast-paced games, slow-paced games, mostly close games and an occasional blowout, they then beat Portland (which had won 9 of 10 before that game and is now second in the Pacific Division), Los Angeles (which had won seven in a row before the game and are now third in the Pacific) and Sacramento (in the middle of a seven-game homestand at the time and the team with the second-best record in the entire NBA, tops in the Pacific) in a row. Or three.

2. Los Angeles Lakers

Record: 22-8 (73%)

Comment: Life and death. Or the other way around as the case may be. Prior to the New Year, the three-time defending champs were 13-19. Make that 13-20 after their first game on the calender. Make that out of the playoffs and getting even worse. Since then, they've won 22 games by an average of almost 11 points, including 12 of 15 against playoff teams and seven of 10 on the road. By the way, Kobe averaged 40.6 points per game in February. Shaq is averaging 35 per game in March.

3. Minnesota Timberwolves

Record: 25-10 (71%)

Comment: Tear February off the calender on the wall and frame it. In 28 days, the Timberwolves went 12-1 and from first-round bystanders to methodical Western Conference killers. Perception is everything. And right now, Kevin Garnett is the MVP, Flip Saunders is a genius and you can almost say LakersKingsSpursMavsTimberwolves in one breath.

4 (tie). Dallas Mavericks

Record: 23-10 (69%)

Comment: The Spurs may be 25-5 after the New Year, but the Mavericks were 25-5 before it, including a 14-0 run to start the season. But doesn't that seem so very, very long ago . . . Very, very rarely does the team with the best record in the league post three-game losing streaks in back-to-back months, coming within overtime against a non-playoff Eastern conference team of making it three times. And very, very rarely does a team go through that and still get to say it's more than three games ahead of the second-best team in the league (San Antonio) and four games ahead of the team everyone thought would win the regular season (Sacramento).

4. (tie) Portland Trail Blazers

Record: 23-10 (69%)

Comment: They ended the year winning eight of nine and settled into the fourth seed smiling as everyone else covered their ears and squinted tight in anticipation of the blow up. This is Portland, right? This is Bonzi Wells? And Rasheed Wallace? And Ruben Patterson? Tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . Now open your eyes and realize that the Blazers won four in a row on the road at the end of January, four in a row to start February and four in a row to start March. And are still ahead of two teams above them on this list for home-court advantage in the first round.

COLDEST TEAMS SINCE JAN. 1

25. Chicago Bulls

Record: 12-22 (35%)

Comment: This is what happens when the worst road team in the league plays 14 of its first 21 games of the year away from home and all that's left to scrape off the pavement is the fact that five of those losses within a one month span came in overtime.

26. Miami Heat

Record: 10-24 (29%)

Comment: Thank goodness for moral victories like the two-point loss to the Dallas Mavericks on March 7 and two-point loss to San Antonio on Feb. 1, a couple referees getting fined and the best player in franchise history who hasn't played since last season getting booed in the house of your rival as he speaks in behalf of his retiring friend.

27. Los Angeles Clippers

Record: 8-24 (25%)

Comment: Shake your head and spit. Wash your hands, your face, burn the clothes you were wearing and try to forget you ever thought this team, this franchise, would ever make the playoffs. If it weren't for the Bulls, this team would be working on a 10-game losing streak as we speak. Instead, the Clips are 1-9, fighting over towels in the shower and wondering if their billionaire owner even paid the water bill.

28. Denver Nuggets

Record: 8-27 (22%)

Comment: Well, these guys did lose 10 in a row. Right before they lost 11, then 12, then 13, then 14. The good news is that they beat Miami to end the streak there. The bad news is that there are 17 games left in the season to start another one.

29. Cleveland Cavaliers

Record: 5-26 (16%)

Comment: The closest this team has gotten to winning two games in a row all season was back on Jan. 25, when they lost to the Hawks by one point in overtime, 102-101, and then beat the Clippers the next game by four. But you remember that game against Atlanta, don't you? Up by five with 1:53 to go before Glenn Robinson hit a three and Shareef Abdur-Rahim hit that jumper with 12 seconds left. The Cavs never lead in overtime but came within one when Smush Parker drilled a three with 57 seconds left to make it 100-99 and Dajuan Wagner hit some free throws to make it 102-101. If only Ricky Davis had called a timeout right after Jason Terry missed that three-pointer for Atlanta as the shot clock wound down. He dribbled once, thought about it, twice, thought about it, three times. Heck, that 40-footer almost went it . . . kind of. Aw shucks, those were the good old days.