The pathetic Eastern Conference

[Joe Mama]

I'm not sure the disparity between the eastern and western conferences has ever been greater. If the season ended today none of the Eastern Conference teams would even have home court advantage in the Western Conference. Detroit, New Jersey, Indiana, and Philadelphia would be fighting with Portland, Minnesota, and the Lakers for the final four playoff spots in the Western Conference. Of course that's not even considering that those Eastern Conference teams played twice as many games against teams in their own weak conference.

15-13 is the best record any of the EC playoff teams (NJ) have against the WC. Every WC playoff team has a much better record against the EC. Utah is the worst at 17-13 against the East.

This phenomenon has been talked about extensively over the last few years, but this year it looks worse to me. I honestly believe that if each team in the NBA played every other team an equal amount of times and they took the top 16 teams for the playoffs only Denver, the L.A. Clippers, and probably Memphis would be missing from the West.

Is there anything that can be done to fix this? It sure doesn't look like anything is going to happen soon. In fact it's probably going to get a little worse when New Orleans moves into the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference gets an expansion team.

Joe Mama

 

[arthurracoon]

I think Memphis would have a good shot at the playoffs if they were in the east.

 

[JS22]

I think they need to just get rid of east/west. Just create two divisions and your problem is solved.

 

[seattle_sunsfan]

The NBA is hurting itself by keeping things this way. The NBA Finals, which by all rites should be one of the most exciting things in all of sport turns out to be anti-climatic every year because the west is sooo much better than the east. The Western Conf. Finals has lately been way more fun to watch than the Finals.

This year I think every round of the playoffs in east and west will be really competetive except for the Finals. I can't remember a year where so many 5th through 8th seeds in the west were so good!

 

[elindholm]

Just thought I'd add this stat:

In interconference play this season, the West went 250-170. That's a .595 win rate. If an average West team got to play all of their games against the East, they'd be expected to go 49-33.

That's ugly.