I know this "east conference is weak!" thing annoys some of y'all, but I happened upon a stat that shocked me this evening. I figured that the discrepancy between east and west had evened out a bit over the last few years with the emergence of Miami and Chicago, among other things. I figured it was still a weaker conference overall because they have more bottom feeders in the east. But hey, at least all their top 8 teams all have winning records, right? It infuriated me over the last decade how the Rockets would finish with a winning record, and miss the playoffs, while one or two jank-ass teams in the east would get into the playoff with losing records. I figured those days might be over. Just now I was checking out the "expanded standings" on ESPN: http://espn.go.com/nba/standings/_/type/expanded Take a look at record vs .500 and above. Rockets rank decently on that; we are 14-16 vs teams .500 and above. Only five teams in the west are better. Then I took a look at the east. And my jaw dropped. Only two teams in the east have a winning record vs above-.500 teams. Miami and NY. That's it. NY is a whopping 12-11. That... that just ain't right.
