One month into the season, and three nights into this early Hanukkah, comes our gift to the Eastern Conference.

You're deeper, fellas.

We've seen enough to say it: You're the deeper conference.

Deeper, of course, doesn't exactly translate to better. The next NBA champion will still come from the West, from what is suddenly regarded as a fearsome threesome: Lakers, Kings and Mavericks. That group becomes a foursome if Tim Duncan and the Spurs play to their capabilities come spring.

	LEASTERNERS NO MORE
	The East's top six teams are all playing .600 ball and have increased their win totals from a year ago. Listed below are each club's record this season -- and last -- through games of Dec. 1.
	Team	2002-03	2001-02
	Pacers	14-2 (.875)	9-9 (.500)
	76ers	14-4 (.778)	8-7 (.533)
	Pistons	12-5 (.706)	11-5 (.688)
	Celtics	11-5 (.688)	8-6 (.571)
	Hornets	11-6 (.647)	7-9 (.438)
	Nets	11-7 (.611)	10-6 (.625)

The West, though, hasn't flexed its normal 1-through-8 muscle. Not yet, and not close. The woebegone East, meanwhile, has rallied, and there's more evidence than its 47-45 edge in head-to-head play with the West.

Home to just two 50-win teams last season, the Leasterners-no-more have six teams on such a pace. Mere months removed from the shame of three lottery teams -- New Jersey, Detroit and Boston -- rising from nowhere to claim the top three seeds for the playoffs, the new East has three teams each in the Atlantic and the Central thinking they can win their division.

"I know I'm probably not the most impartial observer, but I think it is (deeper)," Boston general manager Chris Wallace said of the East jumble. "You have to stay on your bike and you have to hit every mile marker. You can't afford a dry spell or you're going to slip several spots in the East. Especially us. We don't have a tremendous margin for error."

The same can be said for New Jersey, the prohibitive preseason favorite in the East and now a team with more to worry about than Dikembe Mutombo's stony hands. The Nets have some competition to deal with to make it back to the NBA Finals, and that isn't what they expected or needed in the season they're trying to convince Jason Kidd to stay instead of moving on next summer as a free agent.

There are two East teams with more options off the bench than New Jersey and thus worthy of the Nets' concern: Indiana and Detroit.

There's Philadelphia, too, revitalized by a more mature Allen Iverson, helped by the arrival of Keith Van Horn and solidified by the returns to health of Aaron McKie and Eric Snow, both of whom help Iverson so much. Things are going so swimmingly that A.I. is clamoring to spend his whole summer with Larry Brown, together in the Team USA camp.

Boston remains a contender as long as its ever-presents, Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, can avoid catastrophe. New Orleans is fretting over Baron Davis' ongoing back trouble, but it has plenty of size, depth and a home-court advantage in its new city. Orlando gives the East a clear-cut top seven if Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady can play 70 games together -- although that's the biggest if, as the Magic grows increasingly freaked by Hill's fragile left ankle.

Should form hold for all of the above, that would leave only one playoff spot open for Milwaukee, Atlanta and Michael Jordan's Washington Wiz. The West powers aren't feeling the same threat from Houston/Seattle/Minnesota on down.

	“	My feeling is, the West has that one dominant team -- if Shaq's healthy. The East doesn't have that one team, but we've got nine or 10 pretty good ones. ”
		— Hawks GM Pete Babcock

"My feeling is, the West has that one dominant team -- if Shaq's healthy," Atlanta general manager Pete Babcock said. "The East doesn't have that one team, but we've got nine or 10 pretty good ones."

Said Indiana president Donnie Walsh: "The East is really competitive this year. A lot of teams have gotten better. There's no Shaq in the East, but I don't see why some of our teams aren't on the same level as a Sacramento or San Antonio."

Walsh's Pacers look especially dangerous, with two 7-foot scorers (Jermaine O'Neal and Brad Miller) and two defensive hounds on the perimeter (Ron Artest and Al Harrington) and a late-game killer (Reggie Miller) to lead them.

The Pistons can't score, but they also don't give up more than 80 points most nights. None of which, incidentally, accounts for the forthcoming salary-cap flexibility and draft picks (potentially three first-rounders in June) that should re-establish Detroit, like Indiana, as a long-term power.

Throw some of this stuff at Bucks curmudgeon Anthony Mason and the response is predictably curt. "I'm not scared of any team in the Eastern Conference," Mase says. But that's not the story.

Story is: The West's fear-factor quotient is gradually dwindling and the East's self-esteem is growing back.

Happy Hanukkah, commish.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.