...the west is loaded with strong teams, the lakers could probably make it to playoffs at best, too bad there not in the eastern conference, they would have a better chance of getting to the finals
its funny how people would always think of the East as THAT weak...i mean, its not as strong as the West, but its not a push-over conference either where any team in the West (lower seeded that is) will dominate if in fact that team is transferred to the East. In this case, the Lakers; the Lakers were 42-40 last season. They were 28-24 in the West. This means that they were 14-16 in the East. Percentage wise, the Lakers faired better in the West, and lost in the East. Although it shows that the Lakers won over "better" teams which are predominantly in the West, it's not automatic that they will win over the East. Remember Eastern and Western type of basketball are different. The Lakers, as it shows, had a tougher time playing East Coast type of ball, thus the losing Eastern games record...so please stop saying that any losing or lower seeded Western Conference team can dominate the Eastern Conference on any given day....I'm just saying... 
Its True. Maybe...
Pero kung Western team ka, mas gugustuhin mo matalo sa Eastern team rather than talunin ng co-western team db? Simply bec. cla ang kaagaw mo sa top8 play-offs seed. Kaya cgro in the case of Lakers, mas may effort pag kalaban mo west.
Everyone knows naman na mas malakas talaga ang West, ewan ko na lang next season. Remember the finals last season? 4-0 in favor of western team.
I do agree at a certain point that there might be more drive in competing against your own conference for seeding. But I don't think that the effort in winning over other teams in both conferences is different. No one wants to lose. If a team really wants a good seeding in the playoffs, then they will try to win as much games as they can regardless of which conference they will get it from, and have more games won than any team in their division, PERIOD. I don't think they even choose to lose to anyone. Losing is not an option for any of these players. You know as much as I do that even the teams that doesn't make it into the playoffs still tries to win their last games. That is how competitive these teams are. This holds true for the Kobe-led Lakers.
As for the East, the East is not a push-over conference as most people see it. Almost the entire history of the NBA, the West has always been seen as the better conference. But history will show too that the East is the better team winning more than half of NBA's championship and winning most of the All-Star games (35 out of 56 games). But that's history.
The NOW really shows the West's dominance over the East. I have mentioned that myself. However, I don't think that last year's Finals was any indication of how far the West is from the East. Can you really compare the Cavs to a HEALTHY Heat team and to a Piston team that has a clear and straight mind-set? I don't think so. I am not giving these two teams any excuse for not making it to the Finals. But the fact of the matter is, they are two of the top teams in the East who can give ANY team in the West a run for their money. I don't even think, as great as Lebron is, Cleveland is in the Top 3 in the East.
All I am saying is that although that West is more dominant than the East, it doesn't mean that the East is that far behind. I reiterate, it doesn't mean that any team in the West, especially the lower seeded teams, can dominate the East anytime. But then again, the only way to find out is to have all teams play against each other with equal amount of games, which will never happen...
