Not when the Knicks are the defending Eastern Conference champions.

They were the defending Eastern Conference champions, and were favored to win it all last year.

The Liberty, the Eastern Conference champion, does not have any players on the national team.

Well, the defending two-time Eastern Conference champions are in a hole.

Getting past them may be even tougher than eliminating the defending Eastern Conference champions.

"We're the Eastern Conference champions; you've got to do what you can do to dethrone us."

Detroit, the defending Eastern Conference champion, won the first two games.

They seemed to feed off the crowd early on and certainly weren't intimidated by the Eastern Conference champions jumping out to an 11-0 lead.

The questions, they knew, simply followed their expectations as defending Eastern Conference champions.

Effort wasn't the problem last night for the dethroned, two-time Eastern Conference champions.