East may no longer be the least of NBA’s conferences

Wild East.

As I like to say every season at this time, thank heavens that’s over!

Oh, not quite yet?

In any case, having looked at the Never Wilder, or At Least As Balanced, West, we turn to the new Big East, which any of eight teams could win too.

Well, give or take five or six of them.

No one should carp if the East has two powers. It’s two more than the early 2000s, when the Nets made consecutive Finals with win totals of 52 and 49.

This could be the second time the Finals open in the East since 1997, the next-to-last season for the Michael Jordan Bulls.

The first was in 2008, when the Lakers took their light hearts to Boston for Games 1 and 2, and lost both, Learning an Important Lesson.

It just took a while to sink in, like two years, so even after the rude awakening in last season’s playoffs, lack of urgency remained an issue this spring, until injuries surpassed it.

Lakers hearts aren’t so light these days, and more has changed than that.

1. Cleveland

Record since All-Star break, 26-0, er, 18-8.

Why they can win the East: No one else may show up.

Actually, it only seems they never lose.

They started 3-3 when the Shaquille O’Neal Experiment was new — and looked doomed — and lost three in a row after the break before last week, when Coach Mike Brown called the remaining games “high-level practices,” sitting out LeBron James in one because of “bumps and bruises.”

Aside from that, they were 57-10.

Throw out three weeks and they’re on a 70-win pace. That’s with O’Neal having missed 26 games this season, Delonte West 22, Mo Williams 11, and James, Himself, three.

They were 43-11 at the All-Star break, looking only modestly upgraded with O’Neal, Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon, before adding Antawn Jamison.

Not that there’s any mystery: James, last season’s overwhelming choice as MVP, raised his game again, prompting Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy to name him the presumptive MVP through 2018.

Or not: At least, no one has to wonder whom to game-plan for if one player scores or assists on 46% of his team’s points.

LeBron’s human, even if it’s close. The hole in his game was once outside shooting, but he made 34% of his three-point attempts last season and 36% before the break this season.

Since the break, however, he has dropped back to 26%.

So any team that lets him get in the lane, whether it takes two, three, four or all five defenders to keep him out, deserves what it gets.

2. ORLANDO

Record since break: 20-5

Why they can win: They did a year ago, under almost similar circumstances.

Orlando not only shocked the Cavaliers in the Eastern finals . . . it did so after finishing only one game further behind them than the Magic is now.

Dwight Howard rallied his team after this season’s rocky 26-15 start with slothful, if clutch, Hedo Turkoglu replaced by dazzling, if not in the clutch, Vince Carter.

They’re 30-8 since with Howard picking up a post move or two, giving him one or two, Carter getting into it and Jameer Nelson back.

Or not: Whether or not Shaq can guard a pick-and-roll, the Magic won’t surprise the Cavaliers this time.

Cleveland is 2-1 in the season series before today’s finale in (drum roll) Cleveland.

3. ATLANTA

Record since break: 17-11.

How they can win: Learn another play.

Or not: Despite all that athleticism, isolating Joe Johnson — “Iso-Joe” — all night won’t do.

The Cavaliers, who play great team defense, have won 10 the last 12 meetings, counting last spring’s 4-0 second-round sweep.

4. BOSTON

Record since break: 17-12.

How they can win: The Big Celtic in the Sky intervenes, personally.

It would be great if Boston could just get to Cleveland because this Celtics Revival has been great and the Celtics, themselves, totally classy.

They could do it with their 2008 Finals defense, which garroted the Lakers and ABC’s Jeff Van Gundy called the best he had ever seen.

Or not: They haven’t played that defense in a while with Kevin Garnett no longer able to rove all over backing up teammates, who have been pulled back close to the basket.

5. MILWAUKEE

Record since break: 21-7.

How they can win: Get the doctor who treated Paul Pierce when he went off in a wheelchair in the 2008 Finals to see injured Andrew Bogut.

Or not: The Bucks would be major underdogs with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in his prime.

6. CHARLOTTE

Record since break: 16-12.

How can they win: When Larry Brown teams get it, they almost walk on water, like the UCLA Bruins he took to the 1980 NCAA title game with four freshmen, or the Detroit Pistons who shocked the Lakers in 2004.

Or not: This would make those look routine.

7. MIAMI

Record since break: 18-8.

How they can win: With 15 wins in their last 18, at least they have momentum.

Or not: It would be better if they played more than five playoff teams and didn’t lose to three.

8. TORONTO

Record since break: 9-18.

How they can win: Earth opens up and swallows Cleveland and environs.

Or not: Without injured Chris Bosh, who may leave, and Turkoglu, who recently said he was sick but was spotted partying, their over/under on wins against Cleveland in the first round is zero.

9. CHICAGO

Record since break: 13-15.

How they can win: Same way they made playoffs, if they do: Their opponents drop dead.

OK, if the Bulls play the way they did in last spring’s seven-game series against Boston .

Or not: Where have you gone, Ben Gordon and John Salmons?

mark.heisler@latimes.com