3rd Best Player in the NBA. 5th best team in NBA last Year with 4th best having significant drop off. 5-1 record against likely playoff teams. Very tough schedule so far.
clippers gotta prove they can win in the playoffs still. to me they're still just a good regular season team. not considered a great team to me yet
the strongest teams are currently in the east in the Pacers, Heat and yes the currently underachieving Bulls (even though the Bulls have just 3 losses like the Heat). the best team out of the West are the old as dirt Spurs and even worse than last year that was worse than the previous year Thunder. the Grizzlies, Warriors and Clippers are a slight notch below a healthy Spurs and Thunder. if the Rockets can fix the whole twin tower and point guard situation (as well as play some better team defense), they can be better than even OKC or San Antonio. that's how bad the West has dropped. despite having a plethora of strong teams, there is not one that could really beat the Heat or Pacers in a seven game series right now. the New York teams are just truly underachieving right now, but they should have a similar record as the Grizzlies, Warriors and Clippers by the end of the season.
Heat are pretty lucky they get to play the worst East teams twice as much as West teams. Wear and tear isn't as bad compared to Western Contenders. 1st round playoffs are almost always a cakewalk compared to Western Conf. 1st round matchups.
I think that would be a fair argument if the share amount of games was the same. In this case, the Heat have been to the finals 3 years in a row. They've played 15-20 more games over these years than the other contenders. That's on top of LeBron's FIBA commitments. For perspective, no team has been to 4 finals in a row since Magic/Bird prime, so that's nearly 30 years. It's taxing not just physically, but mentally too. As a side note, this wear and tear is the main reason why I didn't think the Heat would repeat this year. I don't even care how they look right now, or how the Pacers or another team looks right now. These things change multiple times each year. At the start of last season, Memphis looked unbeatable. Then they looked very beatable. Then they looked fantastic again. Then they were swept by the Spurs. Current performance isn't a great indicator of what will happen later on. But the share load of games on the Heat and on LeBron in particular makes them getting out of the conference a herculean task, I think.
Every single team in the Atlantic Division is below .500 right now. The Sixers are 4th in the Least with a losing record of 5-6. The Rockets are 5th in the West with a winning record of 7-4. Difference between the two conferences is just ridiculous right now. So before we give teams like the Pacers too many accolades let's remember that their schedules have been GARBAGE compared to any team in the West.
Complete BS. Tough schedule but all their gms have been home. Terrible losses to the Lakers and Wade-less Heat. Shouldve lost to OKC (Ibaka ejected in the first half)
I keep waiting for this to level out, but it never does. 15 years now, i used to think it was just a few great players shifted out west, but that entire generation has completely passed and the west is still on another level depth wise. Since Jordan retired, starting with the year that awful Knicks team made it to the finals the east has been a disaster. Not to say there haven't been a few genuinely great teams, but the conference as a whole continues to be JV.
Wade was in that game and he was the reason the Clippers loss. Clippers owned the Rockets twice in a row so there is that.
So they weren't 5th last year? The Nuggets are good this year. You agree their schedule is tough. Only half their games are at home so far. The only thing that is slightly debatable is whether Paul is third, 4th, or 5th best.
Well in the next ten years the East will be better looking at all the younger up and coming teams there are
I'd like to take a moment to indulge in a little schadenfreude at the Knicks, James Dolan, and Melo who are 3-6 and have lost 5 straight at MSG. These guys were talking all this smack about how good they'd be. But when you let a petulant owner and petulant star to run personnel decisions, this is what you get. JR Smith, Felton, and Melo all trashed Lin's contract and now JR's FG% is 23% and Felton's at 37%. Melo's now complaining about how little help he has around him, but this is on him for putting personnel decisions in his hand. They have two roster spots eaten up by JR Smith alone and they can't add a real center to fill in for Chandler. If this goes on, Melo will quit on the Knicks and leave during free agency.
Chandler is their best player. With him, they are probably the 4-5th best team in the East. Without him, they are just another East team.
The East currently has only 3 teams with winning records. On the other hand, the west only has 3 teams with losing records. It's kind of annoying that the east (heat/pacers) not only have an easier road to the finals, but they're pretty much guaranteed home court advantage against the west in the finals, because they play in the weaker conference.
The Eastern Conference is hilariousss!! Atlanta 3rd, Charlotte 4th and the sixers 8th. If this continues till the end of the year, the Eastern playoffs will be a joy to watch
