When it comes to the Eastern Conference in the NBA, its obviously the lesser of the two conferences.  The Western Conference potentially could have a 50 win team in the lottery.  Its scary good.  On the other hand the East would have 3 teams under .500 in the playoffs right now.  When it comes down to picking a favorite though, there are obvious contenders - Boston, Detroit, and Cleveland.  So which one is the true favorite?

Boston right now is sitting at a cozy 41-11, and even though they are coming off back-to-back losses, still have have a 3 game lead on the Detroit Pistons.  Boston was horrible last year, but added two potential Hall-of-Famers to the mix in Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen.  Those two combined with Paul Pierce have formed a very dangerous trio with each part complementing the other two parts.  When those three get decent production from any other player on the team, the Celtics are close to unbeatable.  They're definitely a team to watch out for.

The Pistons are the Pistons.  Nothing has changed about them since 2004.  They added Juan Dixon at the deadline, which might prove to be a important deal in the playoffs.  He gives them a little bit a firepower off the bench.  The biggest problems the Pistons face is a lack of depth and the fact that they rely on a shoot first point guard.  No team ever wants to rely on a shoot first point guard, but the Pistons have done alright with it the past 5 years.  Granted, they play in the East, so take that for what its worth.

Now for my favorite, the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Last year the LeBrons Cavs won the East with one of the least talented rosters in the league.  It was LeBron and one hot game of shooting from Daniel Gibson that propelled these guys the Eastern Conference title.  At this point, LeBron is undeniably the best (offensive) player in the East.  Combined with the recent 11 player deal with the Bulls and Sonics, the Cavs finally have some pieces around LeBron.  They added a very good shooter in Wally Z, a ball handler with Delonte West, and rebounding bigs in Joe Smith and Ben Wallace.  Plus, Joe Smith has a pretty decent mid range shot, which is ideal with a guy like LeBron.  Considering the Cavs still have a effective low post scorer in Zydrunas Ilgauskas, and rebounder in Anderson Varejao, and shooters in Sasha Pavlovic and Daniel Gibson and suddenly you have the deepest team in the East... and they still have LeBron.