Will the Eastern Conference continue to out-play the West?
By Jacob Rosen
On Sunday, the Toronto Raptors beat the Los Angeles Clippers 91-80 at Staples Center. On the surface, the game had a handful of storylines. For the Raptors, it was a very positive road win in the continued absence of center Jonas Valanciunas. For the Clippers, it marked their fall under .500 to a 6-7 record on the young season.
But in addition to the micro-storylines between both teams, the game was a microcosm of what has been happening big picture-wise so far in 2015-16: The Eastern Conference has been shockingly out-playing the West. In 69 inter-conference matchups, the East currently has a 37-32 (.536) record. In the context of recent NBA history, that’s particularly notable.
Below is a chart of West games over .500 against the East, as tracked by NBA season days over the last four seasons. The NBA season has 170 days, regardless of when the season starts, so this was the easiest way to lay out the schedule in one consistent format.
As you can quickly tell, the East has not been this far over .500 against the West in this time period, let alone this late in the year. Through NBA season day No. 37, the West was 44-17 (.721) in 2013-14 and 45-19 (.703) in 2014-15.
Perhaps this impressive play from the East should be have been predictable? After an abysmal 2013-14 season and first five weeks of 2014-15 against the West, the East was relatively respectable the rest of the way last year.
Here's one positive 2014-15 Eastern Conference stat
— Jacob L. Rosen (@JacobLRosen) June 20, 2015
West v. East thru Dec. 2: .716 (68-27)
West v. East from Dec. 3: .549 (195-160)
The Diss’ Jacob Greenberg wrote about his feelings with the decline of the West’s non-Golden State Warriors powers on Sunday night. Certainly, entering the year, there were very high hopes for the Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Houston Rockets, New Orleans Pelicans, et al. None of those four 2014-15 Western Conference playoff teams are currently over .500. In fact, the oddly good Dallas Mavericks are the West’s current No. 3 seed at 9-5.
Out East, the No. 2 seed Miami Heat are 5-1 against the West. The No. 8 seed New York Knicks are 4-1. Even the impressively offensive-minded Charlotte Hornets have a 3-1 record against the West. It’s been an all-across-the-board showing from the NBA’s usually (L)Eastern Conference thus far.