via Wikipedia
We all know the Eastern Conference has been weaker this season than it usually is. Every night, a few games out in the west coast will make us excited about a future playoff matchup like last night’s back-and-forth between the Clippers and Timberwolves. Meanwhile, it seems like the Bobcats and the Bucks are playing against each other every night out east. Please, let Indiana and Miami be at full strength come May!
It doesn’t help when the matchups in non-conference play have been historically lopsided this season, though last week finally provided some relief for the East. It was the first time since November 4 to November 10 that they went over .500 against the West. Here’s a week by week breakdown:
| Week | Weekly West wins-East wins | West-East wins through listed week | Winning % through listed week |
| October 29 to November 3 | 7-2 | 7-2 | 77.8% |
| November 4 to November 10 | 7-8 | 14-10 | 58.3% |
| November 11 to November 17 | 17-6 | 31-16 | 66.0% |
| November 18 to November 24 | 13-1 | 44-17 | 72.1% |
| November 25 to December 1 | 13-6 | 57-23 | 71.3% |
| December 2 to December 8 | 10-8 | 67-31 | 67.0% |
| December 9 to December 15 | 16-2 | 83-33 | 71.6 |
| December 16 to December 22 | 8-10 | 91-43 | 67.9 |
As you can see, the West started laying the smackdown on Week 3. That’s pretty much when the jokes about the East started to surface. It only got worse as the West went 26-7 over the following two weeks against its “toothless Eastern cousin”, as netw3rk dubbed them. Last night, they needed Toronto to beat Kevin Durant and Oklahoma City AT OKLAHOMA CITY, WHERE THE THUNDER WERE UNDEFEATED, just to finish over .500 against the West. Somehow, Toronto came through.
Who knows what the All-Star Game will be like? Hopefully five years from now we won’t look back on a Jamaal Magloire or Mo Williams kind of all-star, but is Jordan Crawford that bad of a fit alongside LeBron James and Paul George?
Maybe the conference won’t be so bad by mid-February. Up until last week, it couldn’t have been much worse.
Weeks in this post were defined as Monday through Sunday, instead of Sunday through Saturday.
Tagged: All-Star Game, Eastern Conference, Jordan Crawford, LeBron James, NBA, toothless cousins
Chicken Noodle Hoop 
[…] For more posts about the East-West battles, check this out. […]
[…] weeks ago, I wrote about the Eastern Conference finally finishing a week above .500 in non-conference […]
[…] How does this season stack up to last year after two weeks? The 2014 West was 14-10 through November 10 but caught fire during weeks 3 through 7, going 69-23 through that stretch with an overall record of 83-33. That’s right about when these weirdo posts started. […]