with the Heat's latest surge, the top 6 teams in the East have winning records and are at least 7 games over .500... only the 7th and 8th seeds in the East have losing records- NJ and ORL at 30-36, with IND close behind at 29-35... but if you look at the West, the 6th - 9th seeds are nothing to write home about- Lakers with a 34-32 record, Denver at 32-31, and the Clippers at a very Eastern-like 30-35, with GSW at 31-36 obviously the best of the west are much better than the best of the east, but it is a sign that the east is catching up... could Detroit or Miami make one final statement this year?
Remember the east's records are somewhat inflated b/c they play east teams more than the west play west teams. There used to be a website that had the winning percentage of the west versus the east. In 02-03 or 03-04, the west won against the east something like 70% of the time. I'm not sure what it is now, but it would be an important stat to look at when determining which conference really is better, regardless of records
Don't have the records for the whole league. Just look at the Rockets record: 21-19 against the West 20-6 against the East The only games left against a winning East team is Detroit. The East is catching up? Yeah, right.
Only takes one team and Detroit might be that one. They've done pretty well against the elite western teams and they have playoff experience in spades. If Miami gets healthy they can get it done too (as they showed last year). In general the west is better, but they don't really give trophies for having the best conference.
Especially since Dallas/ Phx/ S.A./ Utah/ Houston will beat each other up in the Western Semis and finals.
No, the West still has more depth and a higher number of 'quality' teams than the East. However, at the end of the day it doesn't really matter. The playoffs roll around and it comes down to the top 2 or 3 teams in each Conference. The top 2-3 teams in the East are nothing to scuff at, IMO (regardless of record): Pistons, Heat, Cavs. Personally, I think there are only five true 'powerhouses' in the NBA today, and they are Mavericks, Spurs, Suns, Pistons, and Heat. Everyone else is a notch or two below.
The east has the future of the NBA, teams like Chicago, Toronto, Cleveland are going to be powerhouses in the future, plus Oden/Durant are gonna end up likely in the east. There will be a shift, and it's going to happen in a couple of years.
the problem is we've been expecting this shift for years now. it's taking forever. and i'm not sure how much we can even expect a shift. dallas is pretty young, houston and utah are pretty young (at least yao and tmac), and nash and duncan should still have a few years left. and if kobe gets teamed up with anybody, the lakers are pretty young. not that all the east teams are old and they do have some toronto/chicago/dwight howard situations, but they're still so far away. the 3 powers of the west are still better than the 2 powers of the east. now with a crazy dwade performance like last year in games 3-6, the heat can jump the western powers, but w/o that i don't see it. i think detroit could certainly make a series of it but at the end i say SA/Pho/Dal would all beat them in about 6. conversely, i think any of the top 3 + us and utah could make a series of it with either miami or detroit while no one else in the east could make it a series with the top 3 western teams. even with top west teams losing to bottom-feeding eastern teams lately i think the west's winning percentage is still right up there with any of the past 5 or 6 years. it's just that the finals aren't a joke anymore like they were for about 5 years
The west is far better in my opinon. I think the Jazz and Rockets could both be #2 if they were in the East. Take into account the west beating up on each other. Although come playoff time, DET and MIA can compete with any team in the west. Other than that W L vs. west detroit 16-10 cle 18-9 wash 13-12 tor 12-16 chi 11-16 W L vs east dallas 20-3 phx 25-5 san 18-9 utah 18-11 hou 20-6 den 16-9
