Pacers thinking title, despite Western bias

Indiana has a strong record and a favorable schedule down the stretch.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Indiana Pacers have established themselves as the class of the Eastern Conference. And as the joke goes, that's akin to winning first prize at the Miss Ugly pageant.
An Eastern Conference team hasn't won an NBA title since 1998, the last of Michael Jordan's six championships with the Chicago Bulls.
The disparity between talent levels in the East and West has been pronounced this season. A sub.-500 record is not enough to knock a team out of playoff contention in the East, where the Cleveland Cavaliers went into the weekend with a 19-30 record but were only 21/2 games out of a playoff spot.
That same 19-30 record would only be good enough for 13th place in the 14-team Western Conference, barely ahead of the Phoenix Suns (18-33).
But despite all the ridicule the East received, Jermaine O'Neal thinks the Pacers have what it takes to win a championship.
"We have the perimeter players, we have the outside-inside scorers to play with anybody -- the West, the East, the Midwest, a different world, whatever," O'Neal said.
The Pacers have gone 12-6 against teams from the West, splitting the season series with the Timberwolves, Spurs, Lakers and Rockets. They are 0-1 against Portland and Sacramento, both losses coming on the road.
Indiana has only one more semi-long Western road trip on the remainder of its schedule, visiting Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, Utah and Denver in the first week of March. The Kings and Trail Blazers travel to Indianapolis in mid-March.
The Pacers already have secured the tie-breaker over the Pistons in the Central Division by taking a 3-0 lead in the season series. If their winning percentage remains near .700, they figure to be the No. 1 seed in the East -- if not the entire NBA. Sacramento and Minnesota are the only Western teams with winning percentages above .700.
"I feel that at the end of the day we're going to be the team that brings the championship back to the East," O'Neal said.
Patience is running thin in Philadelphia, where the 76ers have lost nine of 12 games.
The word around the league is that anyone on the Sixers roster is available, with the exception of Allen Iverson.