Eastern Conference in commotion: Infighting helps push East's top teams into slump.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Israel Gutierrez

MIAMI _ News flash: The Eastern Conference is flawed.

The NBA's version of the junior varsity, the East is clearly only in the hunt for a secondary prize this season, a conference championship. Thank goodness they give out those cool trophies for each conference winner.

For the better part of this season, the Pacers, Nets and Pistons have partially masked the inequity between the conferences. But those three teams are beginning to display some major defects.

"It's a very weird time in the league," Indiana coach Isiah Thomas said. "I don't think I've witnessed a time like this when you've got three or four of your top teams not playing well. You wake up in the morning and you look at the newspaper and you see your name at the top of the standings and you scratch your head and say, `I can't be too mad at the guys."

"Maybe it's the moon or something."

Or maybe there are more specific problems.