NBA’s changing dynamics illustrated in statistic released by league

Earth’s magnetic poles appear to be reversing … or maybe that is just the shifting balance of power in the National Basketball Association.

The league released a head-spinning statistic on Monday revealing that the Eastern Conference won the season series against the Western Conference (226 wins for the East versus 224 wins for the West) for the first time since the 2008-09 campaign. The NBA added that it was only the second time that the East had done so in the last 23 seasons.

The West has long been seen as the buffer conference, and many have even jokingly referred to their counterparts as the “Leastern Conference.” But this year (though the West had the single-best team in the 64-18 Phoenix Suns), the East had better overall depth. All 10 teams to qualify for the postseason winning at least 43 games. Conversely, the West had three postseason teams (the 42-40 L.A. Clippers, the 36-46 New Orleans Pelicans, and the 34-48 San Antonio Spurs) that failed to win that many.

Perhaps that is owed to the migration of talent from the West to the East. James Harden, Kevin Durant and DeMar DeRozan are some examples of stars who played in the West not long ago but now play in the East. Young East All-Stars like Trae Young, Darius Garland and LaMelo Ball have also ascended to lead their respective teams to playoff contention. Whatever the case though, the increased parity is a good thing for a league that has been accused in recent years, even by some of its greatest players ever, of having poor competitive balance.