Now, there are two beasts in East

Meanwhile in the East. . . .

For a change, there is one.

The decline of an entire conference has been the league’s most pressing -- and ignored -- issue, seeing as it has only two and the one kept squashing the other one, extinguishing all drama and leaving the NBA as extinct as the dodo bird in the key markets up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Happily for the NBA, the East is back, or at least the top of it.

The East has two real powers, for the first time since Michael Jordan left the Bulls in 1998, but it has two as good as anyone in the West (the Celtics are 25-5 against the West, the Pistons 21-8).

There’s a little drop after that . . . with No. 3 Orlando 13 games out of first entering the weekend.

It was 12 more games from Orlando to No. 8 Atlanta, where ownership dangled Coach Mike Woodson and General Manager Billy Knight while the Hawks pulled ahead of New Jersey, which was rebuilding and contending at the same time, and Chicago, which was falling apart and contending at the same time.

Meanwhile, only 6 1/2 games separated the West’s eight playoff teams.

The Celtics and Pistons are different versions of each other: veteran, defense-oriented teams with major attitudes.

For the first time, the Celtics are a national darling with all the pining, not just here and there, for a Celtics-Lakers matchup in the NBA Finals

That’s unfortunate for the Pistons, who never thought they got any respect but will never get less than they do this spring.

No one brings more attitude on the court than the Celtics, following the lead of Kevin Garnett, who has a chip on his shoulder the size of a redwood.

It’s a big reason they play so well in big games, as when Garnett outscored Detroit’s Rasheed Wallace, 31-23, in the March 5 victory that gave Boston their season series.

However, in a new wrinkle for the Celtics, off the court they’re modest.

Coach Doc Rivers says “We haven’t done anything yet” so often, he might now say it in the morning when his alarm clock goes off.

“Every game’s good for us,” said Rivers after beating the Pistons. “It’s been great for us this year for the fact that when we go on the road it’s a big game for the [home] teams. . . . Detroit is so used to that act. Every time they go somewhere, people want to beat them. Last year when we went places they were welcoming us.”

The Pistons have accomplished a lot, even if they don’t think anyone paid enough attention or remembered long enough.

So this situation is perfect.

With the Celtics soaring, the Pistons, who had become a time bomb with Wallace waiting for crunch time to turn on Coach Flip Saunders annually, had to keep their minds on business.

“Nobody knows we’re winning,” Chauncey Billups told Sports Illustrated at midseason. “All people know is that [Pau] Gasol went to L.A., Shaq [O’Neal] went to Phoenix and J-Kidd [Jason Kidd] went to Dallas.

“That’s all that people know is going on with the NBA. Which is cool. That’s perfect for us.”

How perfect is this?

After Wallace played with Boston’s Ray Allen on the victorious East squad in the All-Star game, Wallace thanked him for helping him get the winners’ share.

Then, Allen said, Wallace parted with, “Now you guys can all kiss where the sun don’t shine.”

Auburn Hills is where attitude doesn’t just happen, it lives, but even if you don’t want to hear the Pistons’ sad stories, they have been extraordinary.

If they’re not a great team, they have been one at times, such as in the 2004 Finals, when they stunned the Lakers, and the 2005-06 season, when they started 39-6.

Mostly, they’ve been tough and consistent, appearing in the last five Eastern finals.

If the Pistons don’t have a superstar -- a major problem at the elite level -- they have a lot of good players. They’re bonded so tightly, they still miss Ben Wallace, who had become a major diva by the time he left, and make a big deal about it when they play against him.

“The Detroit Pistons are at home 82 games a year,” Rivers said. “They’re professional. They’ve had the same starting lineup over and over. It’s Groundhog Day when they play. They show up and they play the exact same way.”

As for the rest of the East, why bother?

Orlando can beat anyone when enough of its three-point shots drop. But four wins against one of these teams? Not likely.

Cleveland’s LeBron James insists the Cavaliers know how to win in the playoffs, but they have apparently forgotten how to in the regular season.

How long the conferences stay balanced remains to be seen, with no rising young powers in the East such as the Lakers, New Orleans, Utah and Portland.

With Atlanta headed for the playoffs with a losing record and Golden State on a 49-win pace and headed home, Commissioner David Stern, who pooh-poohed seeding for years, says the league will actually study it.

Of course, for all those years there have been two overriding reasons to do it: 1) there was an imbalance, and 2) there was absolutely no downside.

What could it hurt? No one is getting cheated here. You win, you advance.

If middle-class East teams are upset, let them go out on a limb to get better every season, as West teams do.

In the meantime, enjoy your renaissance in the East while you’ve got one.

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mark.heisler@latimes.com