That number has been as shockingly low as 36.9% in 2013/14 and 39.6% in 2019/20 NBA PLAYOFFS The last time that the combined might of the Eastern Conference teams bettered the Western over a regular season was 2008/09 when they won 51.3% of their games. That number climbed a little to around 44% for the second half of the 2010s In the last 23 seasons, the teams in the Western Conference have had more combined wins across each season than the teams in the Eastern.įor five straight seasons at the start of the last decade, Eastern Conference teams won no more than 42.2% of the games they played against Western Conference teams. Voila! You have yourself a regular NBA season. Once away.Īll of this means that each team plays 41 times at their home stadium and 41 times away. They play each of the 15 teams in the opposite Conference twice. Teams do meet opponents from the other Conference, just not as often for logistical purposes. That gives each team a total of 16 inter-divisional games.Įach team will also play an opposing team from the same Conference 3 or 4 times per season. Let’s look at the mechanics of the league.Įach team plays the other teams in its Division 4 times. As you will see when we discuss qualification for the NBA Playoffs, it would not be fair to have a greater number of teams from one Conference over the other. It should be fairly obvious as to why there needs to be an equal number of teams in each Conference. However, the balance is actually much more evenly distributed if we push the range back to around 40 years.īut do the NBA Playoffs and Finals give a true representation of the overall talent of each Conference? MORE OF THAT LATER In fact, over the last 20 years, Western teams have won 13 of the 20 available NBA Championships. That gives us our total number of teams.įor years the Western Conference has been stronger and more competitive than the Eastern Conference overall. There are 3 Divisions in each Conference. If we take a look at the Divisions in each Conference we see that each Division has 5 teams. WESTERN CONFERENCE DIVISIONS: Pacific DivisionĮASTERN CONFERENCE DIVISIONS: Atlantic Division
The smallest groups of teams are the Divisions. If that city is not in the same geographical region then some reorganizing has to be done to maintain the balance of 15 teams in each Conference.Įach Conference is separated into 3 smaller groups. Sometimes a team franchise is sold and physically moves to a different city. There is also one team in Canada, the Toronto Raptors. Quality and winning records aside, the only real differences between the two Conferences are the geographical region of the United States they happen to fall under. So, the solution is to break the country into smaller chunks for the majority of NBA games.įirstly, the country is separated into 2 larger chunks that only really come together in the NBA Finals. That’s fine if your country is the size of a Texan ranch like the UK. It is simply impractical, unfair, and ecologically irresponsible to have one giant league where every team plays each other and we end up with a winner. Before we delve into the discussion about which side of the USA is better at basketball, let’s just break down a few things for any newcomers.
0 kommentar(er)
