East contenders play hot potato with last playoff spots

	The Pacers' inability to nail down a playoff spot has left everyone in Indiana scratching their heads over the team's lackluster play. D. Lippitt/Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images
	MAILBAG Marty Burns will periodically answer questions from SI.com users in his mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:
	POLL Which team will be left out of the Eastern Conference playoffs? Chicago Bulls Milwaukee Bucks Indiana Pacers Philadelphia 76ers  View Results

Sixers guard Allen Iverson sat down in front of his locker stall and carefully wrapped a towel around his neck and shoulders before meeting the media Saturday night after his team's victory at Chicago.

"It's fun just knowing that we['ve] still got a chance to get in the playoffs," said Iverson, who was either trying to keep warm or attempting to hide his chest and neck tattoos from the TV cameras. "When you're a basketball player, or a competitor, that's what you want.... If you had a wish, you wouldn't want it to come down to this situation, but it's the way it is."

Too bad the NBA can't throw a towel over this Eastern Conference playoff race.

Between the Sixers, the Bulls, the Bucks and the Pacers, the bottom half of the playoff bracket is starting to take on a rather grotesque appearance.

The Sixers (36-41) have lost 13 of 19.

The Pacers (37-40) have lost seven of nine.

The Bucks (37-40) have lost four in a row, and five of six.

Even the Bulls (35-41), the "hot" team in the group, are only 6-6 in their last 12 games.

It's beginning to look as though three Eastern teams -- maybe four, if the Wizards stumble -- could make the playoffs with losing records. Not since 1985-86, when six sub-.500 teams reached the postseason (New Jersey, Washington, Chicago, Sacramento, San Antonio and Portland), has the NBA had a more lackluster playoff crop, according to the Elias Stats Bureau. One has to go back to 1996-97 to find the last time three losing teams made the playoffs (Minnesota, Phoenix, L.A. Clippers).

"We are embarrassing ourselves each and every night," Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal said after his team's 25-point loss Sunday. "There are talkers and there are doers. All we are is a talking team. I don't know if we are tanking the season or if we just don't want to go to the playoffs, but we're getting murdered every night on the defensive end."

If O'Neal thought his Pacers team was bad, he should have seen the Bulls on Saturday night. In its biggest game of the season, with a full house at the United Center and a chance to all but lock up the No. 8 spot, Chicago got run out of its own gym. The Bulls managed to score just 75 points (including 16 points and 12 points, respectively, in the second and third quarters) and shot a season-low 32.6 percent against a Sixers defense that came in ranked No. 26 in the league. Philadelphia, playing without Chris Webber, shot just 39 percent -- and still won the game.