I put together this chart showing how the top tier of teams have fared against one another. I can't believe how difficult our division makes our schedule. almost 1/3rd of our schedule has been against top tier teams, while Miami and Indiana just coast in an easy division/conference. Thoughts: -The Western conference is BRUTAL. - Miami and OKC obviously the best teams in the NBA, not surprising since they have the two best players. - SA, HOU, IND, LAC in the next tier. - DAL, GSW, and POR are a tier below - Mem is a HUGE wildcard and I would dread facing them in the playoffs if I were OKC or SA.
Miami and Indiana both have winning records against the top teams. So while they don't play them as often, you can't just dismiss them by "Oh, they have good records only because they play in the East."
I hate the Spurs too, but they were a boneheaded Pop mistaken Tim Duncanless defensive rebound and missed Ray Allen 3 away from winning the title.
Yep, people sleeping on the Clipppers right now thinking it's the same team from last year, boy are you guys in for a surprise!
Can someone remove dallas and memphis? Got a feeling they are the one screwing up the data. And to a lesser extend, GS/portland.
West playoffs will be fun. I'd most love to watch: Spurs-Dallas OKC-Blazers Clippers-Warriors Houston-Memphis All still possible.
Good work OP. The only thing that should be removed about Memphis is all the games they played early without Marc Gasol. If you throw that in the mix Memphis becomes one of the top 4. The Spurs as well played without a healthy Splitter, which skewed their record significantly. I seriously doubt the Rockets could beat the Spurs, Thunder, clippers, or Heat right now. And I believe the Pacers and Griz would probably give us hell as well. We need to exploit small ball combinations and find hot shooters and we need to revisit Twin Towers and make it work for 10 minutes a game to have any chance to win a title this year.
How long has it been since the East the premier conference while the West was struggling to get by? 10 years?
Last Jordan years I guess? Not necessarily strįuggling to get by, but the East was deeper. However, it wasn't so bad just a few years ago, before Rose injuries. The East wasn't deep but at least they had 4 contenders. Since then Chicago were undone by injuries, Boston/Orlando got blown up, and Indiana is the only new contender, so now it's this mess.
