I don't know how good a measure this is of the strength of the conferences, but in head-to-head match ups between the top eight in the east and the top nine in the west, the west leads 47-41 going in to tonight's games. So the playoff teams in the west have a winning record against the playoff teams in the east.
It was Lakers vs. Celtics after all. Who wants to watch San Antonio, Dallas, New Jersey, Indiana, etc. I actually had to watch the Spurs vs. Pistons. That was a good series. I watched Spurs vs. Cavs, because I wanted to see if LeBron could repeat what he did against the Pistons.
Last season there was a lot of hype that the West was so much deeper that the east. So then what the hell happened during the playoffs? West was a blowout, there was not a single close matchup. The east was a lot more exciting though with the hawks even taking the celtics to 7 games. If our conference is so competitive, it should show up in the playoffs. That has not been the case.
First, you said the good teams in the West "pad" their records by beating the bottom teams. Than you use the East vs. West records to prove that the East is stronger. Has it occurred to you that the East got to play those crappy bottom teams to "pad" their winning records against the West? Like the other poster pointed out, the records between the top half of the West against the top half of the East is still in the West favor. Nobody is denying the East has closed the gap a lot this season. But to say that you have proved that they are better than the West is just not true. The best you can say is that they are about equal overall.
1-8 in the west is a constant dogfight. the top 3 teams in the east right now will probably be the same teams come playoff time. In the west, the seeding of all 8 teams are subject to change every given night. You take the bottom 5 teams in the east and match them up with the bottom 5 teams in the west, 7 game series, and maybe 1 team out of the east will win.
Lets see... Spurs, Jazz, Rockets, Nuggets, Suns.... How many teams in the East do you think could confidently beat them in a 7 game series, both sides healthy. Celts - Yep Magic - 50/50. could go either way Cavs - You have to be a big king james believer, and I'm not sure thats even enough All other teams in the east - rofl. Take the blinders off man....
Well, the hawks did benefit from the fact that the Celtics so called best player is an ass who plays his best in meaningless regular season games.
I realize I'm repeating what's already been said, but... If season ended today: West's 9th is 1/2 a game back of East's 4th. East's 7th and 8th have losing records. Overall, East has a higher win average than West, but median West is better. My mind tells me West, because 12 of the 15 Eastern teams are so average/crap, but the top 3 have been so good that it does tip the the scale. I initially voted West before looking at all records in excel, I'd like to change it to 'about the same/lean East'. We'll see how it plays out, this is just my vote based right now. + the Traveler is going to win the title.
You can't just look at and compare records, when the season is done, but ESPECIALLY in the middle of the year. Eastern teams play other Eastern teams more than the play Western teams, and vice versa. That is, there is an unbalanced schedule. That said, I don't think head to head is a perfect indicator, either, as it could ignore the distribution of quality teams in each conference and how that can impact the Wins-Losses. One could easily argue that the reason the East's 4-8 seeds don't have as good a record as the West's, this year, is because the 9th - 14th teams in that conference are better than the West's 9th - 14th teams (which, RECORD-wise, appears true, with the exception of Utah)...so the East, which plays each other more than the West, gets beat up more on each other. One could also present counter arguments to that, though. Personally, I think the East has caught up a whole lot, and if one conference or the other is better, it isn't by much anymore.
