The end of the NBA regular season is still five weeks away and the playoffs may not end until mid-July, but it does not take Peter Vescey to predict which conference will prevail in the Finals this year. As it has done every season since Michael Jordan re-retired in 1998, the West will win again.
The miracle New York Knicks came up empty against the dominant San Antonio Spurs in '99; the high-energy Indiana Pacers managed just two victories against the LA Lakers in '00; an extremely talented Philadelphia 76ers squad could only eke out a single win versus the Lakers in '01. With this year's Eastern conference dawdling in mediocrity, there is no question that a team from the West will be pinning up a championship banner in '02.
The numbers speak for themselves. As of Sunday, the West has four teams that can already boast of 40-win seasons; the East, zero. Even more telling is that six Western teams currently have .600-plus winning percentages; only the New Jersey Nets can make that claim in the East. The team clinging to the eighth playoff spot in the West is the Utah Jazz, whose respectable 34-27 record would be good enough for a fourth seed in the East.
Looking at the East-West head-to-head matchups, the difference between the two conferences becomes even more glaring. Only one Eastern team, the Nets, has achieved a winning record against Western foes; in fact, the top eight Eastern squads have a ghastly 33-74 combined record against the top eight Western clubs, and an 87-101 record versus the West overall. It is not surprising that the eight playoff-bound Western teams have a convincing 138-61 combined record against the East.
This blatant inadequacy on the part of the Eastern conference is not a result of untalented players - Allen Iverson, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Glenn Robinson and Paul Pierce are not all that inferior to Kobe Bryant, Chris Webber, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal, and Tim Duncan. However, the teams that currently find themselves atop the Eastern standings are in foreign territory. For a decade, these clubs struggled to succeed against MJ and the Chicago Bulls, Patrick and the Knicks, Reggie and the Pacers, and Alonzo and the Heat. Now, the Bulls are an average Junior College team, the Knicks are battling to keep their place in the league, and the Pacers and Heat are just hoping to get a spot in the playoffs.
All of the premier Eastern teams, New Jersey, Detroit, Boston, and Milwaukee, have looked incredibly assailable at times this year, in large part due to their inexperience at the helm of the league. While the changing of the guard has finally allowed them to make runs at division championships, it has also left them extremely vulnerable to the wrath of a young, but powerful Western conference. A number of these teams have the potential to develop into formidable and intimidating clubs, and this year's playoffs will undoubtedly help them do so - but not in time to win the 2002 Finals. That honor will once again go to the West.
While a number of Eastern teams do have a reasonable chance to represent the East in this year's finals, the Knicks are not among them. With a Bulls-esque 23-37 record and no indications of improvement, the Knicks will fail to make the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. Since coach Jeff Van Gundy abruptly resigned in November, the team has struggled miserably under Don Chaney and has regularly been booed at their home court, Madison Square Garden.
Although losing center Marcus Camby to a season-ending hip injury did not help the Knicks' cause, their problems are deeper than injuries. Despite having a league-high, over-the-cap payroll of $85 million, the team lacks both depth and talent. Latrell Sprewell and Allan Houston are both 0potent scorers, but have greatly underachieved this year and lack any semblance of a supporting cast. This dearth of talent is preventing the Knicks from trading for capable players, and their inflated payroll will prevent them from signing any significant free agents this coming offseason.
Despite these problems, last week Knicks' management chose to extend coach Don Chaney's contract for another season. Chaney, who won the NBA's Coach of the Year Award in 1991 with the Houston Rockets, has had no success this season in creating a winning formula. His relaxed coaching style was new to a team that had grown accustomed to the aggressive, ankle-grabbing tactics of his predecessor Van Gundy, and his .317 winning percentage as a Knicks' coach is the worst in franchise history. Nevertheless, club president Scott Layden is confident that Chaney can lead the Knicks out of the Eastern conference cellar and back into the playoffs.
@s:East is least
