[-King-]

West now 44-17 vs. East so far this season

Kurt Helin

Nov 25, 2013, 12:29 PM EST
10 Comments
Chicago Bulls v Los Angeles Clippers Getty Images

Remember before the season there were some pundits saying the Eastern Conference was finally catching up with the West in terms of depth of talent?

Um, not so much.

So far this young season, the West is 44-17 against the East (numbers updated from Jeff Caplan’s story at NBA.com). Or, look at it this way — on Monday afternoon there are 13 teams in the West that are .500 or better, in the East there are six. The East has an entire division — the Atlantic — that is under .500. Once again this season it is very possible the 8 seed in the East will be a below .500 team.

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While the elite of the East — Miami and Indiana — are certainly on the NBA’s top tier, the depth is not the same. Not even close.

A few more notes via Caplan:

* The West’s top three teams — Spurs (5-0), Trail Blazers (6-0) and Thunder (3-0) — are a combined 14-0 against the East (The Warriors, Nuggets and Lakers are a combined 6-0)
* The West’s bottom seven teams are 14-11 against the East and that includes Utah’s 0-4 mark.
* The Mavericks are 5-1 against the East and 9-5 overall
* The Timberwolves are 5-2 against the East and 8-7 overall.
* The 76ers are 6-9 overall and 1-4 against the West
* The Pistons are 4-8 overall and 1-5 against the West

We could go on and on here, but you get the point.

It makes it hard on teams like Memphis and Golden State, who lost key players (Andre Iguodala and Marc Gasol) indefinitely to injury. Those are likely still playoff teams, but in a packed West if those injuries cost them 4 or 5 wins they could quickly fall from a top 4 seed in the playoffs to the 7 seed, and suddenly the path through the postseason is much more difficult. Meanwhile out East the Bulls without Derrick Rose can realistically still be a top 4 seed.

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