The Western Conference already looks like titans in 2006-07. The Eastern Conference teams are left for dead. Take a look at the Atlantic Division. The best team is 5-8 – Boston Celtics. Will the Eastern teams rise up and compete this season?
The Western Conference is full of hot teams. Look who’s playing really well right now: Utah Jazz, Denver Nuggets, LA Lakers, Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, and even the New Orleans Hornets have a winning record.
So who’s hot in the Eastern Conference? It would be the Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, Orlando Magic and, oh, that’s it. In fact, the Pacers have babbled this past week, so you might call them lukewarm.
The most popular team in the NBA is the Dallas Mavericks. After stumbling through the first four games of the season, they fired it up and posted 10 straight wins as of this writing.
The two worst teams are the New York Knicks at 5-11 and the Memphis Grizzlies at 4-10. I would tell you that the Knicks are the worst. Despite having won just one more game than the Grizzlies, the Knicks have been horrible at home. They have lost 6 of their 7 home games.
The San Antonio Spurs are quickly winning the road warriors title. They have won 7 of their 8 away games and are looking great at first. They are 11-4 and 7-3 in their last 10 games. The Spurs need to play a little better at home, 4-3 so far.
Let’s close with the Eastern Conference. They seem capable when they play against each other, but when most of these teams play against teams from the West, the story is different. New Jersey shot from the door at 5-3, but then they lost 6 in a row and now sit at 5-9.
Last season, the West looked much better, but the East stole the show when the Miami Heat took the crown. We could see a rematch from last season.