The non-equality in treatment between the two Conferences is directly reflected in the Strength of Schedule. The most immediate indication of this unequal treatment is given by looking at how many times each team must face teams above .500 during the year.

So, let's take a look, at just the major contenders of the two conferences, in decreasing order of games with teams over .500, for the present season:

Los Angeles - 46
San Antonio - 44
Dallas - 44
Miami - 42
Oklahoma City - 41
Orlando - 39
Boston - 38
Chicago - 36

I repeat, it is a question of overall fairness. Here we have a favored Conference that plays cupcakes, while the Western Conference is fed a diet of hard tack!

crickets...lol

we dont like you, and until you learn how to spell, why would we entertain your B.S. ?

Truth hurts huh. Imagine going 20+ years without winning a conference championship in a conference best described as.......weak!

That's why it is called the LEASTERN Conference. Imagine what the celtics record would be right now if they had the LAKERS schedule.

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:


If Boston was in the west they could possibly threaten the 8th seed.

Possibly, although we saw what the Rockets did to them in both games, and they are not even top 8 in the West.

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:


True, I forgot that. Should we agree on 9-12 then?

Before you load the revolver and place it your head, calm down and let these following thoughts run through your mind.

The Celtics have lost 7 or their last 12 games.  Ok, I get it.  Pretty bad stuff.  The majority of these games have come to below average teams, and the Celtics have looked anything but playoff ready over that stretch.  Just to name a few problems over the past two weeks:

Rondo has had pinkie problems...


Krstic is in full blown panic mode and is playing like dog ****.. 


Jeff Green isn't playing enough..


Ray is gun shy and isn't shooting.. 


Garnett's legs are fading..


Troy Murphy is, well...Troy Murphy


Big Baby is shooting game tying three point shots in fourth quarters...


And Doc looks like he has been up all night taking care of newly adopted inner city kids...


Besides that, you can't really complain.  But here is where you can be optimistic Celtics fans.  Despite offensive struggles, the Celtics have held their opponents to under 90 points in 10 out of their last 12 games, Delonte West has been settling in nicely into the second unit, Paul Pierce is playing lights out, the Celtics are STILL only 2 games out of the top spot in the East, and no matter what anyone says (with or without Perkins) they have a better lineup entering the playoffs than they did last year.  Compare and contrast my friends.  Keep in mind that Marquise Daniels was benched during the entire 2010 playoffs and Rasheed didn't start playing well until the second round.

2009-2010                2010-2011

Ray Allen                 Ray Allen
Tony Allen               Troy Murphy
Marquise Daniels     Carlos Arroyo
Glen Davis               Glen Davis
Nate Robinson          Delonte West
Brian Scalibrine        Sasha Pavlocic
Kendrick Perkins      Nenad Krstic
Rasheed Wallace      Jermaine O'Neal
Michael Finley          Jeff Green
Sheldon Williams      Shaquille O'Neal
Paul Pierce               Paul Pierce
Kevin Garnett           Kevin Garnett
J.R. Giddens             Von Wafer
Rajon Rondo            Rajon Rondo


The proof is there.  The team this year has more experience, size, and weapons.  The starters of last years team simply ran out of gas because they were relied on for the entire playoffs.  Last year, the Celtics had zero bench.  Freaking Sheldon Williams and good for nothing Michael Finley were logging minutes during the NBA finals for crying out loud.  If everyone is healthy this year (especially the bigs and Rondo), the Celtics are plenty deep.

And think about this too.  The Celtics were 34-10 with Shaq in the lineup earlier this year.  They were 8-4 with Perkins in the lineup.  Rondo was averaging over 15 assists for the first two months of the season playng with Shaq.  When Perkins came back, Rondo's assists dropped to nearly 12 assists a game.  So lets just relax Celtics fans.  The same thing happened last year, but with a less talented, less experienced, and shallower, team.  There isn't any fire yet...  

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:


Thanks for your concern.

In Response to Conferemce inequality!:


what about that double dose of home games for the Lakers???

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:

The Clippers are nowhere near a .500 team.

Seems to me it was the other way around in the 80's.  Want to discount the 5 titles the lakers won in that decade?

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:


Lakers play in the weakest division in the Western conference, if not the league. Yeah, im sure games against Sac, Pho, Golden state, and the Clippers is so daunting for them!

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:

True. But since you were talking about fairness I thought I'd just throw this out...it is relevant for home court advantage and all that, don't you think?

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:

I was just speaking to the OP's point. But yes, the Lakers getting credited as a road team at Staples is a little misleading. That said, the Lakers only play "on the road" versus the Clips twice.

The top 4 teams in the East would be top 5 in the West
The lower 4 teams in the East wouldn't make the playoffs in the West!

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:


Bulls and the Heat would make the top 6 in the west...celts and the Magic lmao.

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:


That's what great about America.  You have your opinion, and I have the truth!

Laker, there is a fallacy in your argument.

To win it all, teams have to beat the best teams, not the worst teams. Team records, can lie. Your argument would hold more weight if you compared team winning records against the best teams in the NBA. There are lots of bottom dwellers in both conferences.

I think that you will find different results.

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:

Exactly Hedley....the Western Conference was a joke during the '80's.....I have repeatedly brought up the term "The Big Four"....that term referenced the Celtics, Sixers, and Bucks in the East and the Lakers in the West...do you know how many Laker fans have responded? ....NOT ONE!!....that means these fans are either too young to remember or choose not to....the Lakers had such an easy road to the Finals and came in fresh and ready to play...those teams in the East beat up on one another every year....even at the end of the decade as the Bucks faded the Pistons took their place...if not for the loss of Bias, Bird and McHale may have lasted longer....who knows whether we would have more titles..it is probable in my opinion.....throw in the loss of all star Reggie Lewis.....well, we all know what happened!

every team goes through its slumps, when miami and the lakers did all the celtic fans wrote them off, now that boston is going through a slump its the end of the world for this team. look how the lakers and heat are doing now. minus the miami loss at cleveland......

In Response to Re: Conferemce inequality!:


That argument is flawed because not only were the Lakers dominant in the west, they were good enough to win half the championships on offer for the decade. There were a number of good teams in the west but the fact is the Lakers were the team of the decade.


http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ycn-7958664

The current situation is more lop-sided because the west has dominated the championships since 2000, teams under .500 consistently make the east playoffs compared to say last year when OKC won 50 games and only got the 8th seed. The east is far weaker and I could quote numerous players and scribes who have openly stated this fact. This year the 8th seed in the east will again have a losing record as will possibly the 7th seed. Pathetic!!

The east has a cruisy ride, the west is best and that's perhaps one of the reasons they have dominated the championships this millenium.

In the Bird/Magic Era both teams were loaded......the Eastern Conference was tougher as evidenced by the term "The Big Four" which was invented by the media and generally accepted...sure the Lakers won 5 to the Celtics 3 (Philly swept the Lakers and the Pistons won one as I recall)

Fans of both teams are fond of saying....well if we had Bynum in '08....or, well if we had Perk last year....consider this:

In the first title of the Bird Era, Cedric Maxwell was the Finals MVP....in the first Bird/Magic championship encounter Maxwell was the hero of game 7....when they met the following year, Maxwell was injured and hardly played (he averaged 10 mpg throughout the entire payoffs that year and missed a lot of the Finals action)....Bird was MVP and shooting lights out until he reportedly got into a bar fight and injured his shooting hand....he was a shell of himself....Lakers finally beat the Celtics....next year we demolished the league (crushing the Lakers both times) and won another title.....unfortunately the Lakers lost to Houston so we did not get our revenge...and the following year? ....the Celtic squad resembled a mash unit and lost in six...I believe a healthy Celtic team would've won all three encounters....yep, pure speculation....