Raptors, Bulls, Bobcats, Heat: Feasting on the West

It was not long ago that another NBA Western Conference love-in was happening in the media.

The pitiful bottom half of the Eastern Conference playoff teams compared to the six Western Conference clubs fighting it out for the last three playoff spots are playing well over .500 while those teams in the East don’t look so good.

But as usual, some in the media didn’t look all that hard at what had really been happening.

Those bottom four playoff teams in the East have been absolutely feasting on the West for the last month! 

The Raptors, Bulls, Bobcats, and Heat went a combined 21-7 against the West in January.

The recovering Chicago Bulls have just finished a seven game western road trip by winning their last five games in a row beating up on the: Suns; Rockets; Spurs; Thunder; and Hornets.  Take that all those gloating about the superiority of the West’s playoff race.

The Charlotte Bobcats who Achilles heal this season has been games on the road just won three of four in the West beating the: Suns, Warriors, and Kings.  Earlier this month, the Bobcats feasted on the West at home taking down the: Grizzlies, Rockets, Spurs, Suns, and, Kings.

Miami, the early favorite among the East’s lower seeds, has slipped a bit, but they’ve stayed in the race by beating up on the West.  The Heat has beaten the: Suns, Warriors, Rockets, and Kings in January.  The Heat’s slip has come at the hands of the Bobcats (twice), Raptors, and mostly recently, Milwaukee.

The resurgent Raptors have saved their best performances in January to beat the best of the West.  The Lakers, Mavericks, and Spurs have all fallen to Toronto in January.

At the end of January, the 26-22 Raptors sat alone in the East’s fifth place, a game up on Charlotte and one and a half up on Chicago.  And each team has 22 losses.  The recently fifth place Miami Heat have slipped to eighth with 23 losses and are one and a half games back.

The race for playoff position in the East has suddenly gotten very interesting and those Western Conference teams the media was so in love with are now only one loss ahead with 21 losses each, Houston just earning its 22nd loss.

The East vs. West, Who’s Better, Who’s Best argument may continue, but the new beasts of the East have re-leveled the playing field with their counterparts from the West for now.  

Let the feasting continue!