I know it's still early, but if I counted right, there have been 36 head-to-head matchups between Western and Eastern Conference teams this season, and West teams have won a whopping 25 of them. That's 25-11, 69.4% of the games, which is certainly a more extreme ratio than even seasons in the past. I'm sure that this crazy ratio won't keep up, but it still seems to me that the West-East imbalance, which got better last year, is getting worse again, maybe even worse than the "West is Best, East is Least" days.
Now the first thought that I had was maybe most of the interconference games so far have been played by some of the better West teams and worse East teams, but that doesn't seem to be true. Only 3 teams in the West have a losing record against the East: Lakers (0-1), Wolves (0-1), Grizz (1-2). Only 2 teams in the East have a winning record against the West: Cavs (1-0), Magic (2-0).
It seems to me there are so many playoff-quality teams in the West this year that a lot of fans will be greatly disappointed when their teams get squeezed out. After all, despite early struggles for some of the teams, it's hard to imagine the Spurs, Suns, Mavs, or Clippers (!) missing the playoffs at this point. The Jazz, Kings, Lakers, Hornets, Rockets, and Nuggets all see themselves as teams that should make the playoffs, and the Warriors, Sonics, Grizzlies, and maybe the Wolves are all teams very capable of making the postseason, I'd say fans of all these teams would be quite disappointed if they don't make the playoffs. That's scary.
Now the first thought that I had was maybe most of the interconference games so far have been played by some of the better West teams and worse East teams, but that doesn't seem to be true. Only 3 teams in the West have a losing record against the East: Lakers (0-1), Wolves (0-1), Grizz (1-2). Only 2 teams in the East have a winning record against the West: Cavs (1-0), Magic (2-0).
It seems to me there are so many playoff-quality teams in the West this year that a lot of fans will be greatly disappointed when their teams get squeezed out. After all, despite early struggles for some of the teams, it's hard to imagine the Spurs, Suns, Mavs, or Clippers (!) missing the playoffs at this point. The Jazz, Kings, Lakers, Hornets, Rockets, and Nuggets all see themselves as teams that should make the playoffs, and the Warriors, Sonics, Grizzlies, and maybe the Wolves are all teams very capable of making the postseason, I'd say fans of all these teams would be quite disappointed if they don't make the playoffs. That's scary.
