THE BOX OUT PICK AND POPS 1. We were ready to add another name to the Rookie of the Year race, but Drew Gooden regressed with back-to-back sub-par efforts. For those keeping score at home, the final 2002-03 Yao vs. Amare matchup is Sunday in Houston. 2. What'll be tougher than picking a Most Valuable Player? Selecting a Coach of the Year. Quick, who's your choice ... See, it isn't easy, is it? QUOTE OF THE DAY “Right now, everyone is very self-absorbed in terms of himself, his play and his performance. When you become very self-absorbed, you don't think about team." —Isiah Thomas on what's ailing the Pacers. NUMBER OF THE DAY 30 The number of minutes of the Pacers' team meeting after their latest loss, an 81-71 home defeat to the Hornets on Tuesday. TRASH TALK You had your say. So here are the best comments: I just had to say a lil' somethin' about the East. In the Eastern Conference, it don't matter if you have home-court ... anybody can come out of the East. The No. 1 seed could lose to the No. 8 seed and so on. The key in the East is that the hottest team going into the playoffs will win out. It is like that every year in the East. Jermaine Coakley, Detroit, Mich. Hold off on your Eastern Confrence questions. The Pistons will answer them for you. They won't lose at home and they will get home-court advantage. Forget the Nets or Pacers -- they both HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE to beat the Pistons. They run the show now, watch it. Chris Zalewski, South Dakota Hey Joe, great point, but maybe you should tune into some NBA games before you write your next column. The Pistons are 23-6 at home and 17-17 on the road. No home-court advantage there? Please. Jonathan, New York Is it finally happening? The Pistons getting some sort of respect? I might have a heart attack. Yes, they did lose seven in a row, but they have come back strong and proved they can beat the best in the West. I am not saying this proves they can win a championship this year, but it proves that they are the best team in the East by far. And they do it clean, unlike some teams who have players that tackle other players. Sharif Nasr, Bay City, Mich. What happened to the Jason Kidd bandwagon? Why is everyone on Iverson's jock strap? One day everyone dogs him, the next day he's a hero. Most writers only give him props when his team is winning. He should get the MVP award every year. No other team relies on a player as much as the Sixers do on Iverson. And he's not even getting his props from USA Basketball. Not only should he be on that team but he should start. Tony Castillo, Atlanta, Ga.

It requires more good fortune than an unintentional tap of the ball by Vlade Divac and a fortuitous bounce to a wide-open Robert Horry. It's luckier than winning LeBron James.

It's known as backing into the playoffs, a process that requires countless calls going one's way and prayers being answered to save face from an embarrassing finish and save a season with that last postseason berth.

But can a slumping club back its way into home-court advantage? In the wild and wacky Eastern Conference, it's possible.

The East has been turned upside down by the ongoing post-All-Star-break funk of the top three teams (Pistons, Nets and Pacers) and the surging second halves of the 76ers, Hornets and Magic. In this unharmonic convergence toward the playoffs, would the right to play four times on your home floor in a seven-game series even matter? Not right now. Not with the bottom seeds playing better ball than the top seeds.

Let's take a closer look.

If the playoffs were to begin today, the Pistons, the team currently in line for home-court advantage through the East playoffs, would meet up with the Bucks, the current eighth seed. Detroit has lost three of four to Milwaukee, including three straight and an 89-87 home loss on Jan. 11. And that was before the Bucks were locked and loaded for a playoff push by trading for Gary Payton and Desmond Mason. Not much of a home-court edge there.

The Nets, currently second in the East, would face the Magic, currently seventh. The squads split the season series but Orlando won the last two -- 92-83 at home and 113-105 at the Meadowlands -- before and after making the big trade-deadline deal for power forward Drew Gooden and Gordan Giricek. Not much of an advantage there, either.

Next up: No. 3 Pacers against the No. 6 Hornets. With the way they've been playing, you might as well reverse the numbers. Tuesday's 81-71 road victory by New Orleans over Isiah Thomas' troubled troops -- amid boos by the restless natives at Conseco Fieldhouse -- says more about the result of a playoff encounter than Indiana's wins in the teams' first three meetings this season. Home-court edge: Neither.

That brings us to the 4 vs. 5 matchup, the 76ers against the Celtics. Guess who has taken two of three in the season series, including the teams' last meeting at the First Union Center? That's right, Boston.

As you've probably heard a TV analyst say a couple of hundred times or so, the better team will eventually prevail in a seven-game series. The problem with trying to apply that theorem to the East is first determining who's the better team.

Milwaukee and Orlando will likely remain at the bottom jockeying for the last two spots with Washington, but designating one of the top six as the team to beat come April 19 won't be easy. That team could very well be the Bucks, who could develop team chemistry with all of those point guards and shooters in time for a title run.

Who needs the home court throughout the playoffs the most? That's easy: the Pacers and Nets. Among the East's current playoff teams, Indiana has the worst road record at 13-21, and New Jersey is tied with Orlando for second-worst at 13-20.

Then again, Dikembe Mutombo should be healthy and rested to give the Nets a defensive presence in the post. Maybe the defending conference champ will start playing like one.

"They're all quality basketball teams," Celtics coach Jim O'Brien said before Wednesday's game with the Hornets. "It (winning homecourt) will be up to gaining momentum, staying healthy and executing everything you've been working on since training camp."

Under normal circumstances, yes. In the abnormal East, we shall see.

Joe Lago, the NBA editor for ESPN.com, writes the Morning Shootaround every Wednesday.