top 5 East verses top 5 West

[wiley]

The top 5 teams in the West have a total of 170 wins.  The top 5 teams in the East have a total of 163 wins.  The Cavs may start a bunch of little win streaks.

Not bad if you're a fan of the East not looking so ridiculous next to the West.  Of course the top teams in the East beat up on the lesser East teams a lot which accounts for some of the parity, but teams like Toronto and Washington and now Cleveland aren't easy wins for the top of the West. 

Will this trend of the East catching up continue or will there be another wave of Western dominance around the corner?

[LatterDayCelticsfan]

Aren't the Bulls the 3rd best road team in the NBA? They've racked up a bunch of big road wins against big Western Conference clubs.

[manl_lui]

I think the West is still more dominant than the East, if you compare the bottom teams of both East and West, the West definitely has harder games to play within their conference vs the East.

[D.o.s.]

Are the Hawks still being underrated here?

[jambr380]

I never thought the top teams in the west were obviously superior than the east's top teams, they just have several more really good teams. The very bottom teams in both conferences are equally horrible.

[wiley]

Are the Hawks still being underrated here?

Considering the demise of Indiana (and Charlotte's failure to take the next step), I think the Hawks are responsible for keeping the East respectable this year.  2cnd place goes to Chicago and 3rd place and climbing is Cleveland.  Washington and Toronto are playing their parts well which was expected.

At the moment I'd say the Hawks or Cavs go to the finals with an outside shot to Chicago.

[sofutomygaha]

Who did they have to beat to earn those records?

[wiley]

Who did they have to beat to earn those records?

I touched on that in the OP.  I think this year is different than last.  There have been more "top" East teams beating the West's playoff set.  I haven't argued in this thread that the East and West are equal.  I'm saying that this year the East has surprised with its depth, with 5 very good teams instead of 2 or 3.  And that it's possible this trend will continue next year and onward so that in a few years there is not such a significant imbalance.

[e4sym0de]

I don´t see any trend of the east catching up. While the east maybe has 5 decent teams, afterwards it just gets horrible. If you look at the teams currently ranked 6-10 i think it is very obvious. Milwauke/Miami/Charlotte/Brooklyn/Detroit....none of them would have a chance to make the playoffs in the west while Dallas/San Antonio/Phoenix/NewOrleans/OKC would all easily make the playoffs in the east.