Is the West as dominant as people imply?

[cdbleb]

In my opinion the East isnt as bad as people let on. Heres some numbers for you starting with the two best teams in the West (LA and SA):

The West has 6 teams who are sub .350 and LA has already played those teams 16x plus they have another 5 in the remainder of their schedule for a total of 21 games (Or 26% of their total schedule...1/4 of their season against terrible teams). San Antonio has already played those teams 14x with another 8 in the remainder of their schedule (Pretty much the same LA). So the two best teams in the West get to play 6 out of the 7 worst teams in the league (Based on record) one out of every 4 games on average. In the West a team is either good or terrible, whereas in the East teams are pretty evenly matched outside of the top 3. From the #4 team to the #14 team in the East there is a 13 game separation, in the West there is a 12.5 game separation between 9th and 10th.

LAs record vs the East is 17-6 or 74% (And 4 of those wins are against Boston and Cleveland so they are 13-6 against the rest of the "crappy" East dropping it to 62%), against the West they are 33-7 or 83%...San Antonio is 16-10 against the East or 62%, against the West they are 27-10 or 73%.

Even look at the worst teams from each conference...Sacramento is 14-26 (35%) against the West and 0-24 (0%) against the East. Washington is 8-15 (35%) against the West and 7-34 (17%)against the East. The two top teams in the West have a harder time with the teams in the East overall and the two worst teams in the league both have an easier time against the West overall.

Now Im not saying that the East is better Im just saying that the whole "Dominant West / Crappy East" bs is getting old. 3 of the top 4 teams in the league = East, Defending Champs = East, Longest win streak = West (Utah), Longest losing streak = West (Minn.), best home record = East (Cle), Best Road record = East (Bos), Best record against teams own conference = West (LA), Worst record against opposing Conference = West (Sac). Overall the West probably is slightly better but its not by a large margin like some people insinuate.

(All numbers current up to the morning of March 11th)

[bdreason]

The East has some good teams, but the top 8 teams in the West are better than the top 8 teams in the East, period.

[cdbleb]

period.

Nothing to back that up huh?

[amfirst]

The East only has 3 good teams: Celts, Cavs, & Magics. The rest is trash.

[cdbleb]

The East only has 3 good teams: Celts, Cavs, & Magics. The rest is trash.

Then why is LA and San Antonio (The two best teams in the West) having a harder time against the East (Especially LA when facing teams outside of Boston and Cleveland)?

[bdreason]

West

Lakers
Spurs
Rockets
Jazz
Hornets
Blazers
Nuggets
Mavericks

East

Cavs
Celtics
Magic
Hawks
Heat
Pistons
76ers
Bucks



Pick your 8. I think it's obvious. Outside of the top 3, the East leaves little to be desired... and I don't even like the Magic as a playoff team personally.

[hito da god]

Nothing to back that up huh?

all you have to look at is the current playoff seeding. no sub-.500 team is making the playoffs out west; there are two teams at or below .500 in the current playoff picture out east. the eighth seed out west would be a four seed out east. see where i'm going with this? the west's top nine teams is much deeper than that of the east's. there are better 'crappy' teams in the eastern conference, but nowhere near as much competition from the 2-9 seeds as there is in the west.

[cdbleb]

all you have to look at is the current playoff seeding. no sub-.500 team is making the playoffs out west; there are two teams at or below .500 in the current playoff picture out east. the eighth seed out west would be a four seed out east. see where i'm going with this? the west's top nine teams is much deeper that of the east. the east has better 'crappy' teams, but nowhere near as much competition from the 2-9 seeds as there is in the west.

Youre looking strictly at their records...Did you take into account that those teams that are over .500 also play the sub .350 teams 20+ times this year? The East only has one team in that category.

[hito da god]

Youre looking strictly at their records...Did you take into account that those teams that are over .500 also play the sub .350 teams 20+ times this year? The East only has one team in that category.

you're also neglecting the fact that these teams play those top nine teams a high number of times also... i'm almost positive that they play those teams MORE times than they play the sub-.350 teams, so it all evens out.

[cdbleb]

so it all evens out.

It doesnt even out though, the two best teams in the West have better win %s against the WEST.

[B-Easy]

"The top 8 in West is better than the top 8 in the East"
"The East top 3 is better than the West top 3"
"The 9th seed in the West is better than 9th in the East."

People go back and forth with this....The logical thing to do is judge from top to bottom, i would like to see an updated record of East vs. West.

[211269]

It doesnt even out though, the two best teams in the West have better win %s against the WEST.

Ummmm, thats because they play west teams more than east teams genius. You are only looking at win totals, not games played

[tian820]

What are the conference OVERALL records against each other? That's basically all you need to look at. Or at least post what the top 8 teams' records against each conference. That would show more. No one really cares about the bottoms of each conference in terms of how good the conference is anyways. In the end it's all about talent and in the West what I notice every season is that there are more "All Star snubs", which doesn't mean much, but I do believe it means there's more talent in the Western Conference.

I do think the East has closed the gap at the top of the conference, but you can't tell me that the 4-8 teams in the East compare that well with the 4-8 teams in the West. If you're gonna argue the East has 3 of the top 4 teams in the NBA, arguably the next 6-7 best teams in the league are from the West

[hito da god]

It doesnt even out though, the two best teams in the West have better win %s against the WEST.

how about waiting until the end of the season before using win % as an argument?

the lakers, for example, play eight of their last 18 games against eastern conference teams [including a six game road trip]. you mean to tell me their win % won't increase by the time the season ends?

[cdbleb]

Ummmm, thats because they play west teams more than east teams genius. You are only looking at win totals, not games played

So that explains why 6 of LAs 13 losses are against the East, its because they play the West more often...Wow I gotta hand it to you you really proved a point with that one...GENIUS!