It’s never easy to give up a habit, especially one that’s provided so many good punchlines. But after months of making fun of the NBA’s Eastern Conference, it may be time to reconsider my position.

A few aspects of the West’s dominance still remain. At both top and bottom, it remains the superior conference. The top is where it’s most obvious — the Mavericks, Spurs, and Suns are by acclimation the three best teams in basketball. Further down, the Rockets and Jazz are no slouches either; in fact, unheralded Utah has a better record than anyone in the East.

But the West also remains better at the bottom. Five teams in the East — Philadelphia, Atlanta, Charlotte, Milwaukee, and Boston — are no-hopers when it comes to the playoffs. By comparison, only the Grizzlies in the West have a record as bad as any of those five Eastern squads.

So why do I dare to declare the East ascendant? Two reasons. First of all, the middle is roughly equal to that of the West. From teams six through 10 in each conference, there’s virtually no difference in quality — a big surprise considering the disparity between the two conferences at the start of the year. Toronto, for instance, has a better record than either the Lakers or the Nuggets, while a muddle of sub-.500 teams are competing for the final playoff slots in each conference.

But the biggest reason for fans of Eastern basketball to come out of the woodwork is the fact that its powerhouse teams are showing a pulse again. Detroit, Miami, Cleveland, and Chicago were supposed to be 50-win juggernauts that would help balance out some of the disparity between the two leagues. But they failed to live up to the hype in the early going. As a result, all year we’ve assumed that the NBA Finals this June would be a cakewalk reminiscent of the Lakers’ four-game demolition of the Nets in 2002.

However, times have changed since the All-Star break. The East’s elite were only a few games over .500 for much of the season, but of late they ‘ve started cooking. Cleveland, for instance, has won eight straight games after a lackluster first half to the season, while the Chicago Bulls have won 10 of 14 since the break thanks to improved contributions from two newcomers — veteran center Ben Wallace and rookie forward Tyrus Thomas.

Although the play of those two clubs has been impressive, it’s the other two teams that have really raised eyebrows around the league. Detroit won 64 games a year ago and made the Finals in the two seasons prior, so certainly no one was presuming that the Pistons would go away quietly. But after a 21–16 start, a lot of observers began to wonder if Detroit, minus the Chicago-bound Wallace, had lost some of its mojo.

Just around that time, Detroit general manager Joe Dumars decided to roll the dice on the acquisition of forward Chris Webber, who had been bought out by the Sixers. It couldn’t possibly have worked out better. It’s easy to forget now, but acquiring Webber at any price was hardly viewed as a homerun at the time. Watching him limp through the early season on a terrible Sixers team, he was seen as damaged goods — not to mention an incredible defensive liability.

But Dumars focused on the things Webber still could do: pass the ball from the high post, score around the basket, and generally facilitate the offense for Detroit’s other scorers. On a team that lacked a great passer, he became an important piece of the machine. Better yet, his defensive liabilities were less exposed in Detroit’s defensive scheme, which makes heavy use of zone defenses that allow Webber and his wounded knee to stay in one spot. And in an added plus, Webber’s leg seemed to benefit from a month of inactivity before joining the Pistons — he’s looking as spry as he has in years.

As a result, Detroit is 21–7 since picking up the veteran forward (and salary-wise he cost them peanuts — just the veteran’s minimum). The rejuvenated Pistons showed just how far they’ve come this week in consecutive games against two Western elite teams, Phoenix and Dallas. The Pistons blew the Suns out of their own building on Friday, winning 105–83 despite losing All-Star guard Chauncey Billups to injury in the first half. Then they took Dallas to the wire on Sunday, again without Billups, before falling 92–88.

If Detroit’s been impressive, Miami has been downright scary. When we last visited the defending world champions we were leaving them for dead by the side of the road, as an injury to Dwyane Wade threatened to derail their already precarious playoff hopes for good.

Instead, Miami took the opportunity to save its season. With center Shaquille O’Neal returning to the lineup at the same time Wade checked out, the Heat have gone10–4 since the injury. O’Neal’s return obviously was one factor, but as with the Pistons it was a scrap-heap pickup that provided added juice. The addition of swingman Eddie Jones, who like Webber was a castoff from one of the league’s dregs (Memphis), gave the Heat a perimeter defender and 3-point shot-maker who could partly fill the void left by Wade’s absence.

That helped, and Miami’s defensive improvement did the rest. Included in the recent streak was a nine-game stretch where they held seven opponents to 86 points or less. Ironically, it happened even though the plodding O’Neal replaced defensive ace Alonzo Mourning in the starting lineup. But the rest of the Heat dialed it up under the newly returned Pat Riley, and Miami finally resembles the team that gritted out a championship a year ago.

What this means for the big picture is that the Western Conference champion shouldn’t immediately begin planning a parade route. As the Heat showed last year and the Pistons proved three years ago, a team that gets hot at the right time can be just as dangerous in the postseason as a club with a much more impressive overall record.

So consider it good news for the league. Nothing is more depressing than having an anticlimactic matchup like the Lakers-Nets after one of the best series of all-time (the epic Lakers-Kings conference finals in 2002). Led by the resurgence of the Pistons and the Heat, the East is giving us reasonable hope that it won’t be the case. Instead, we can have a repeat of the competitive, hard-fought Finals we were treated to the past two seasons. If the price is losing a few good yuks at the East’s expense, I’m more than willing to pay it.

jhollinger@nysun.com