That’s the closest the two conferences have been in playoff-teams-only record in the entire span. The West is winning those games this season, too, but only by a narrow 24-22 margin.
The first is that they beat their supposed interconference equals in every season in the 30-team era, even 2008-09, when the East won overall, the West still won the majority of matchups between playoff teams. The top Western teams usually outperform their Eastern counterparts for two reasons. Looking forward, FiveThirtyEight’s projection system thinks nine teams will reach 50 wins this season, with five in the East and only four in the West. (By the way, Conference A is the East, B the West.)īy Basketball-Reference’s Simple Rating System, which uses strength of schedule and margin of victory to rate each team, the top 10 squads this season split evenly, with five in the East and five in the West. The best team in the East is just as good, record-wise, as the best team in the West. Whatever your guess, the real takeaway here is that there’s little differentiation between the two conferences at the top. Pop quiz: Which of the two conferences, based on the records of their top teams through Saturday, is the East, and which is the West?īest Records by Conference Place in Standings The East’s best teams are as dominant as the West’s best teams. However, increased interconference balance emerges even when looking at the top of the standings, both now and projecting for the rest of the season. Moreover, analyzing the entire conference isn’t a perfect method because the Knicks beating the Warriors, for instance, does not reflect conference strength in the way it’s typically considered, by its best teams. Much of the season still remains, with more than 300 interconference games to go, so there’s ample time for the West to regain its typical advantage. Through Saturday’s games, however, the 2019-20 East holds a 71-68 record against the West, signaling a possible switch for the first time in more than a decade. Dating back to 2004-05, when the then-Bobcats joined as an expansion franchise to give the NBA 30 teams, the West has defeated the East in interconference play every season except one (2008-09, a narrow Eastern win). The West, naturally, dominates this annual group competition.
#NBA EAST AND WEST FULL#
Every team plays every opposing team twice, so this statistic incorporates a conference’s full body of work.
The most basic measure of conference strength is record in interconference games. The East is winning more games against the West.
It remains to be seen whether this new dynamic lasts, but at least for now, four pieces of evidence suggest the long-lasting conference imbalance has faded. As the NBA adjusts to a new power landscape with Golden State in last place and newer contenders on the ascent, the East has closed the gap with the West from the top of the conference to the bottom. One night, of course, does not constitute a trend, especially with Kawhi Leonard and Luka Doncic not playing and leaving early with an injury, respectively-but Saturday was merely the latest point in a quarter-season full of Eastern surprises. And the Heat knocked off the Mavericks in overtime in a battle of third-place teams. The lowly Bulls beat the dominant Clippers for their first win against an above-.500 team all season. So a night like this past Saturday is something of a surprise. Season after season, the Western Conference outperforms the East-in individual talent, in depth of quality teams, in the 30 interconference games that each team plays every season. Any basketball fan who has even casually checked the standings since, oh, Michael Jordan left the Bulls knows the NBA’s strength tilts westward.
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