The Western Conference already looks like titans in 2006-07. Eastern Conference teams are left for dead. Take a look at the Atlantic Divide. The best team is 5-8–Boston Celtics. Will the East teams get up and compete this season?

The Western Conference is full of hot teams. Take a look at who’s playing really well right now: the Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, LA Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks and even the New Orleans Hornets have a record winner.

So who’s hot in the Eastern Conference? That would be the Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic and, oh, that’s it. In fact, the Pacers have faltered last week, so you might call them lukewarm.

The most popular team in the NBA is the Dallas Mavericks. After stumbling through the first four games of the season, they turned it on and went on a 10-game winning streak at the time of this writing.

The two worst teams are the New York Knicks at 5-11 and the Memphis Grizzlies at 4-10. I would tell you the Knicks are the worst. Despite winning just one more game than the Grizzlies, the Knicks have been horrible at home. They have lost 6 of their 7 home games.

The San Antonio Spurs are rapidly winning the title of road warriors. They have won 7 of their 8 away games and they look great from the start. They are 11-4 and 7-3 in their last 10 games. The Spurs need to play a little better at home: 4-3 so far.

Let’s close with the Eastern Conference. They look capable when they play each other, but when most of these teams play West teams it’s a different story. New Jersey shot out the door at 5-3, but then lost 6 in a row and now sit at 5-9.

Last season, the West looked much better, but the East stole the show when the Miami Heat took the crown. We could see a rematch of last season.