NBA’s West is best

While I haven’t watched a ton of NBA action this season, I have noticed that the Western Conference is a lot more talented than the East. I can tell by watching some of the games, and the standings speak for itself.

The Eastern Conference Finals are going to feature the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat. No other teams have proven that they can consistently win in the East and compete with these two teams.

As of Feb. 2, the Eastern Conference has only six teams with .500 or better records.

If the regular season would have ended Feb. 2, Indiana would have locked up the top seed with a 36-10 record and Miami would be the two seed holding a 33-13 record, three games back from the Pacers. The Atlanta Hawks would be the third seed, and they are 11 games back from Indiana – nowhere near the Heat and the Pacers.

When looking at the Western Conference, the Oklahoma City Thunder carries the best record at 38-11.

However, there are plenty of worthy teams on their heels that can easily take over the top seed at some point during the season.

The next eight Western Conference teams with the best records are all within 10.5 games of the Thunder. Granted, 10.5 games are more than a handful, but compare that to the Eastern Conference in which Atlanta is the three seed but still 11 games back.

The Brooklyn Nets and the Charlotte Bobcats would make the playoffs in the East, and both teams have losing records. Compare that to the West, in which, if the regular season ended Feb. 2, all eight playoff-bound Western Conference teams would have a plus .500 record.

In fact, the Dallas Mavericks, a Western Conference team with a 27-21 record, would have missed out on the playoff excitement.

But, there is plenty of time for the bottom feeders of the East to improve their play, and perhaps, time for the Pacers and Heat to cool off a little.

Hopefully, the basketball play in the Eastern Conference improves, and when playoff time approaches, there are teams like the Hawks and the Toronto Raptors challenging the Pacers and Heat.

In the meantime, fans might want to pull up a chair when the Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are battling each other or the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors are fighting it out in the Pacific Division.

The parody in the West is fun to watch.

The Warriors, a seven seed as of Feb. 2, are just as dangerous as the Thunder, Spurs or Portland Trail Blazers. I wouldn’t feel comfortable if my favorite team was going up against Golden State in the first round of the playoffs. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson of the Warriors are probably the best pair of guards playing together in the NBA.

The Thunder have Kevin Durant, the Spurs are always flying under the radar because they aren’t a flashy team, and the Clippers dunk on everybody, just to name a few teams.

Since there isn’t an NBA team in the area to go watch, come on down to Christianson Gymnasium at NIC and watch a men’s or women’s basketball game.

The Western Conference is a lot like NIC’s conference – the Scenic West Athletic Conference – intense and competitive.