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Over the past couple of years, the general thought had been that the NBA East had been starting to make its way back towards the top of the NBA, giving a much greater competitive balance to the league. In early 2005, there were signs that perhaps that was true as teams from the East began to emerge with records rivaling that of the Western Conference. But that talk has quickly seceded as the season has moved towards the one quarter mark. Whereas many Eastern Conference teams got out of the gate fast, the West has now clearly once again established itself as the dominant conference.

First examine the general records of the members from each conference. In the East, three teams have winning percentages topping .600, the Detroit Pistons, the Indiana Pacers and the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks barely top the mark at .611 while the upcoming Cavaliers are knocking on the door at .579. Furthermore, sub-five hundred teams, the New Jersey Nets and Philadelphia 76ers, are tied at the top of the Atlantic Division while a .500 Miami Heat squad tops the Southeastern Division.

Head out West and the numbers are vastly different. Seven teams currently have winning percentages of .600 or better. In fact, the Dallas Mavericks at .750 and the Phoenix Suns at .684 are both just second in their respective divisions, while the Memphis Grizzlies with a winning percentage of .650 find themselves third in the Southwestern Division. The Lakers, at 10-10, find themselves outside the playoffs if the postseason were to begin today yet Phil Jackson's team matches the first place mark of Miami and tops that of both the Nets and Sixers.

Meanwhile, the two worst teams in the league both come out of the East. The retooling Atlanta Hawks and the rebuilding Toronto Raptors are currently at the very bottom of the league, a full shelf below even the weakest of Western Conference teams. With two virtually automatic wins on the schedule, the Eastern Conference teams should be fairing much better overall on the season.

Early Season Kudos: The Milwaukee Bucks continue to be among the season's biggest surprises. Though the play of top draft choice, center Andrew Bogut, has clearly helped the Bucks, he appears to be already hitting a rookie wall. The return of TJ Ford and the emergence of Michael Redd are actually the biggest reasons the Bucks are ahead of the Cavaliers at this juncture. The other early season surprise continues to be the Los Angeles Clippers who have played solid basketball in the early going, evidenced by their 14-5 record and first place standing in the Pacific Division. The play of Elton Brand has been nothing short of brilliant in the early going and now that the team has two guards who can get their team into an offense the Clips are giving everybody fits. Moreover, good teams win at home and the Clippers are a sterling 9-1 on the season in LA. One other early season surprise is that of the Phoenix Suns. Last year's biggest surprise, the Suns took a major hit with the loss of Amare Stoudamire in preseason. Most thought that spelled the end for this running, up-tempo team. Instead, Phoenix has adjusted to the loss, and after struggling early has won nine of ten and is now 13 and 6 on the season. The Suns have been fortunate to play only six road games to date, but clearly Mike D'Antoni has the team responding well without its gifted forward-center. Of course, Phoenix did not lose its sixth game a year ago until mid-January, in the team's 37th game of the season.

Early Season Boo-Hiss: The Miami Heat were thought to be legitimate contenders for the NBA crown a year ago, then the team added Antoine Walker, Gary Payton, James Posey and Jason Williams. Yes, the Big Diesel is hurt but the team theoretically went out and got the extra parts necessary to compete even on those nights when Shaq is injured. But a 3-7 road record and an over-reliance on the talented Dwayne Wade has the Heat of to an exceedingly mediocre start to 2005. Three other teams are also not matching expectations, the New Jersey Nets, the Denver Nuggets and the Seattle Supersonics. The Nets feature one of the strongest three man games in the league with superstars Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. The Nets finished very strong a year ago and the return of Jefferson from injury was thought to be just the right catalyst to make New Jersey a strong Atlantic Division title contender. Though competing for the Atlantic Division lead, the Nets are a game under .500 on the season. Likewise, Seattle is a game under .500, and many NBA insiders are now saying that the performance of this team a year ago was more a tribute to Nate McMillan than the actual talent on the team. New coach Bob Weiss has been unable to get the same level of play or effort from this perimeter-oriented team. And last year's blazing finish under George Karl had many thinking Denver was set to make a go of the Western Conference title this year. Instead, the Nuggets are a single game over .500, Karl has missed or been suspended from several games, and Denver has looked like anything but title contenders.

Hats Off: To Lebron James who is now arguably the league's best player at the ripe old age of 20. This guy can do it all, including make his teammates better. If only Kobe had the same understanding of the game as the kid from Akron. Whereas everyone used to want to be like Mike, every kid today wants to be like King James, the one true high school phenom who honestly had the ability to move directly to the NBA.