Cavs and Raptors are number 1 and 2, but from the 3rd seed to the 9th seed, there's only 4 games apart. Which means on day you can sit at 3rd seat, a week later you can miss the playoffs. How crazy is that? The East is the new West. Funny how some people were still saying the 'Leastern conference' at the beginning of the year.
the east is better as a whole and apart from the top 2 teams much more exciting than the West. And Toronto might reach the Cavs as well. Even teams well out of the playoffs are not easy games.
Reminds me: I should start a "The West is Crazy" thread. The West is going to have two 70 win teams and a 60 win team. That's crazy. The East really has no shot to beat any of them. Plus, West might have 9 teams over .500.
How does the fact that their 3rd seed through 9th seed are close make them better than the west? Their third seed is still equivalent to the west's 5th seed (Memphis) in terms of record.
I said it's crazy because the competition and playoff race is fierce. In the west, the third seed and the 9th seed have a 14 games difference.
Last year the West had like a 1 game difference between #2 and #6 at the end of the season. It isn't as wild as that was.
But you're mocking people for saying the West is better than the East (which is what "Leastern Conference" implies). The West is still better than the East. The West is 12 games up on the East in interconference records for this year. The West has beaten the East in interconference play in 13 of the past 14 seasons, and is on track to do it for a 14th time in the past 15 years. No team in the East has a prayer of beating SA or GSW in a 7 game series, whereas a fringe playoff team like the Rockets or Mavs have a puncher's chance against any playoff team in the East.
I find it epic that LeBron has a chance to go to the finals once again. How many times is that now? That's crazy. I'm excited to see Boston and Toronto play out East. I'll always have some love for KLow, Scola, PatPat... And, in Boston, Mr. Thomas is fun to watch. If the Celts play the Cavs somehow, I fully expect Kevin Love to return the favor to Olynik. I CANNOT stand him, and he ruined Kev's season. That's a no-no in all basketball circles.
Yup.. true finals is the western conf finals between the Spurs and Warriors. Removing the conferences you basically have the spurs and warriors in their own league. After that it's a bunch of good to mediocre teams across both conferences. Gone are the days where 1-6 in the West challenged the East's top 2 teams. With the Rockets, Mavs, Blazers, Griz and to a certain extent the Clippers declining, the West is no longer that much better than the East
yeah but this is still fairly crazy. extending all the way from 3rd to 10th is just an oddity in terms of such parity. and it hardly seems like there's any real separation either. it's not like one team is moving from the bottom of the pack to the top and about to separate or anyone is just falling out of the race. they seem to just consistently stay right there with each other. but the possible 2 70 win teams and a 60 win team is also amazing. it's not unheard of to have no 60 win teams so something like a 58 win team (okc won't actually get 60) managing to coexist with something like a 74 and 69 win team is pretty incredible.
at least now it's because the west has two teams winning 70 and not because the east barely has one team winning 50. lebron's last 6 teams have at least made it competitive, although cleveland is just a run of the mill title contender, not a juggernaut like the spurs and warriors.
What really matters is how many contenders each has. West has GSW, SA, OKC, LAC. East has Cleveland and the list ends right there. 3 through 9 being 4 games apart could mean that these teams are all good or that they're all equally crappy.
This thread is completely off base. The East has improved, no doubt, but the West is stronger. The win loss interconference record says it all: West 209, East 200. And the funny thing is that Philly and Brooklyn have 2/3rds and 1/2 of their wins against the West respectively (ie, they are padding the stats). Taking the top 8 teams in each conference, the record is: 136 West, 127 East. Again, the West is still the stronger conference.
The Rockets have allowed this to happen. The East got strong because our team decided to take a season off. It's on us.
Chicago, as the current #8 spot, is 13.5 GB from Cleveland. Houston, as the current #8 spot, is 28.5 GB from GS. Crazy.
Lets first say the East is not the new West. Standings certainly have some barometer, but to simply compare records is not accurate. The East has gotten better, but not that much better. What we can note is that wins and losses are being more evenly distributed across the league, sans SA and GS. Conversely, talent is not being noticeably consolidated nor distributed. What we can note is that teams who should be dominating more are not. Teams like Houston, Dallas, Clippers, Atlanta and Cleveland should be doing better. IMO, there seems to be way too much apathy in the league. There are only two teams playing competitively. The rest of the league is only showing up for a paycheck. Sometimes I wonder why I bother to follow the NBA anymore.
