If we're focused on last year, this thread is absurd. The East had a couple really good teams, but squat for depth. Last year the 8th slot in the East had a 37-45 record and the 8th slot in the West had a 50-32 record. Golden State didn't even make the playoffs despite having a 48-34 record -- in the East, they would've been in the 4th slot. Anyone want to bet on whether which conference had the better overall record head to head?
When the blazers were terrible, I rooted for the West. Now, I root for the Eastern teams to beat the teams ahead of us.
The Cavs beat us without Pau, and Bynum present for just one game. Both were quite close games. http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=jamesle01&p2=bryanko01 Kobe was not outplayed to this magnitude.
alright, I got bored. The 8 eastern conference playoff teams record vs the West last year was; Boston 25-5 Detroit 22-8 Cleveland 17-13 Toronto 12-18 Orlando 14-16 Philly 15-15 Washington 14-16 Atlanta 13-17 Total Record: 132- 108 The Western confernce playoffs teams record vs the East last year was; LAL 20-10 NOH 22-8 Utah 21-9 SAS 23-7 Pheonix 24-6 Houston 22-8 Dallas 18-12 Denver 19-11 Total Record 169 - 71 So there is quite a difference. The interesting thing will be to see how different those records are at the end of this year. That will dictate if the East is catching up or not.
