Can the Celtics hang on in East?

The Boston Celtics are the defending Eastern Conference champions, and they've led the East most of this season - up until earlier this week, when Boston fell behind the hard-charging Chicago Bulls. The Celts got back to even with Chicago with a victory over Indiana Wednesday night, but the question has been raised: Is Boston, one of the oldest teams in the league, running out of gas?

The Celtics begin a three-game road trip Friday, stopping in Houston to play the Rockets (8:30 pm Eastern), then moving on to New Orleans to play the Hornets on Saturday (8 pm Eastern).

Elsewhere on a good Friday night slate of NBA action at oddsmaker.ag the Denver Nuggets, playing remarkably well since trading 'Melo and Chauncey, visit the Orlando Magic (7 pm Eastern); In what might be a preview of a first-round Eastern Conference playoff series the Bulls visit the Indiana Pacers (7 pm Eastern); the Miami Heat visit the Atlanta Hawks (7:30 pm Eastern); and in a Western Conference showdown the Dallas Mavericks host the West-leading San Antonio Spurs (8:30 Eastern).

Boston has lost three of its last five games, which is bad timing, because Chicago has won seven in a row. So through Wednesday's play the Celtics and Bulls sit tied atop the East with identical 48-18 records, three games clear of third-seeded Miami.

Houston, meanwhile, has won a couple of games in a row to crawl back over .500, but sits in last place in the Southwest Division. More importantly, though, the Rockets are in 10th place in the West standings, 2.5 games behind Memphis in the battle for the last playoff spot on that side of the bracket.

The Rockets pulled an upset back in January when they went into Boston and won 108-102 as 9-point underdogs. And as the two teams combined to shoot 52% from the field that night that game played OVER its posted total of 198.

San Antonio leads Dallas by 6.5 games in the West, with just a month to go in the regular season. So the Mavs are quickly running out of time to catch the Spurs. Dallas is also tied with the Lakers for the two spot in the West, so that battle continues.

San Antonio is 2-1 vs. the Mavs this season, but Dallas F Dirk Nowitzki missed both games his team lost because of a knee injury.

Also Saturday the Heat host the Nuggets (7:30 Eastern); in a matchup of eight seeds the Pacers visit the Grizzlies (8 Eastern); and in a clash between seven seeds the Portland Trail Blazers host the Philadelphia 76ers (10 Eastern).

As of Thursday morning the Celtics and Spurs are co-favorites on Oddsmaker's updated NBA championship betting board at +150, followed by, among others, the Bulls at +400, the Mavs at +800, the Magic at +1,200, the Blazers at +6,000, the Nuggets at +7,000, the Hawks at +8,000, the Hornets at +9,000, the Grizzlies at +12,000, the Sixers at +12,500, the Pacers at +20,000, and the Rockets at +25,000.