You know that the Bucks and Hawks are doing well (despite having quit watching the league many times!); so do I. You know that the Lakers are not doing well; so do I. The only problem is this misplaced concern about what OTHER people should be interested in.
The Lakers are headline news because they have a lot of interesting players, should be title contenders, but are not. This is unquestionably interesting, even if the actual games are horrible, disinterested blowouts for the most part. They have also won approx. half of all the available NBA championships to date, which has gained them a hell of a lot of fans and haters nationwide (in fact, globally).
The Bucks and Hawks, however unexpected their relative success, are still far from being contenders. Neither were the Pacers last year. Lots of League Passers have been pushing the Bucks as the most fun League Pass team this year - heard this on the Basketball Jones just yesterday, and pilonv1 has been pimping them for a while. And let's face it, it's still December. Only the hardcore are going to care at this point. You don't need to watch basketball all year to get the picture prior to the playoffs unless you actually enjoy it - you can just tune in after the All-Star break and still be totally set. With football, every game is an event. In basketball, there are no events until May really. If the Bucks are still going by then, the country will know about them. If not, why should they care, really?
If your point is that this is the fault of the League somehow, I put it to you that anyone in the world can now watch every Bucks or Hawks game, live or recorded, on damn near any device. They're holding up their end of the bargain. There are a gazillion bloggers and podcasters pointing out these teams too. If you are only going to watch the game of the night on Sportscenter, well, that's your prerogative. Basketball isn't THAT interesting that it is a national obligation to watch...