[hirschmanz]

Heading into the playoffs stretch run,
Detroit is sitting on its throne atop the Eastern Conference, and the whole league.
Cleveland is the 4 seed
Indiana, currently the 5th seed
Milwaukee is the 7 seed
Chicago stands merely 2 games behind philadelphia for the 8th seed.

Now, philly is wearing down (CWebb hasn't missed significant time all year and AI has a sprained ankle/bruised foot); a prolonged slump could lead to 5 teams from the central in the playoffs!

[futuristxen]

If Chicago hadn't dumped their starting frontcourt in the offseason for a bunch of guys who they never play--you would have had 5 almost guaranteed. I doubt the Bulls sneak in though. Philly will handle itself.