The West is Still Better than the East

In this year’s fine NBA season the Western Conference is still the powerhouse of the league. It’s not like that’s ever changed since like the last ten years, but this year is definitely one of most notable.

In the East you have five sub-500 teams fighting for an eighth seed in Milwaukee, New Jersey, Chicago, Indiana, Charlotte in order from best to worst, with the best, Milwaukee, sporting a 29-35 record.

Meanwhile in the wild West the Suns and the Mavericks are shifting between the eighth and ninth spots every few games or so. Currently, the Suns are in ninth and they have a 34-26 record. That’s better than the eighth seed in the East, Milwaukee, and also would tie them with Atlanta for the fourth seed and homecourt advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.

It’s a little different when you get to the higher seeds though. The two seed in the West, the San Antonio Spurs are 40-19. If they were in the east, that too would be no better than the fourth seed in the East. Orlando, who is 44-16 and third in the east, would be second in the west.

Although not surprising, it’s still interesting.