Good defense in the East? Riiiight... Here's an amusing fact: the poorest SIX teams in shotblocking are all in the Eastern conference. The lack of quality big men has doomed the east to inferiority in almost all categories. Even the good eastern teams are donuts. The Lakers, Spurs, Kings, Trailblazers, and Mavs could all annihilate the Eastern challenger... simply because of interior skill and/or depth issues.
imo, no team in the east could get past the: lakers mavs kings spurs and probably not the: trailblazers t-wolves if philadelphia were healthy i'd put them in the top group though.
I guess I'm alone Personally, except for a COUPLE players, I think that the Mavs and Kings defense is a joke, and in a seven game series, there is the possibility that they can be taken out by an eastern team. I know I'll also be alone on this one, but I don't think the Spurs are this "powerhouse" that the majority of NBA fans and analysts make them to be. I'm with Phil Jackson on the issue of the Spurs, the year they won should have an "*". Good team, just not the Lakers.....which nobody is. Which is what I guess I'm trying to say. Just me I guess. And I know it's kind of stupid to bring up, but why did the western teams get rolled through during last year's playoffs by a healthy Lakers, while Philly was the only team to make 3 1/2 of the games interesting while in the process winning one? Again, I'm not trying to say the east is the better conference, but except for the Lakers, I honestly can't see how the other western teams would just roll through the handful of better eastern teams. Other than the Lakers, no team can say they have 2 of the top 5 players in the League........not even 2 of the top 10.
What? The Rockets blamed the whole season on injuries? Since when? From quotes I have read from Rudy and Steve, that is not the case at all. They've both expressed problems with the way the Rockets played this season. But yes, injuries were the biggest reason the Rockets had such a bad year. If you actually expected the Rockets to have a much better record this season with all the injuries, then we should probably just all stop arguing with you right now. Should the Rockets have done a little better? Sure, but I'd say the maximum number of wins that team could have put together this year is about 32-33. Disagree if you must, but come on, we had the shallowest team in the league. And you forgot to mention the Rockets record against the east during the much more healthy 2000-2001 season. 25 - 5!!!! I mean if that isn't the tell-all then I don't know what it is. The Rockets would have easily made the playoffs in the east last season. Not only that, they would have had home-court advantage in the 1st round with between 60 and 50 wins. And come on guys, even if Philadelphia were the healthiest team in the world, they still wouldn't have made the playoffs in the western conference this season. Give me a break. I can't rememember if I did this for this season or last season, but of the 420 games where a western conference team played an eastern conference team the west won 232 times and the east won 188.
i completly agree with you DCkid. If anyone believs that the West isn't much much much better than the East than there are 2 posibilities. 1 He hasn't seen basketbal since Jordan retired for the second time. 2 he is blind. Any playoff team in the west would be a top 3 in the east, even the best teams in the west might not have got to the playoffs in the west. and Philly is very overrated. they lost even when they were healthy of Boston. They where lukky last year, and got killed by the lakers. The team that wins the west will be champion.
No one is arguing the fact that the east is a weaker conference. My point is that the Rockets would have stunk in the East too. Injuries were a major factor, but Rudy did a TERRIBLE job of adjusting to the new rules, and clamping down on his young players and BENCHING them when they made stupid mistakes. This next year is a pivotal year for Rudy and the Rockets. DaDakota
