For 27 years the Western Conference has owned the NBA’s interconference record. The East has finished above .500 against the West just three times since 1999. The 2025-26 season was supposed to be another chapter in that dynasty. For three months it was. Then it wasn’t.
Through Jan. 19, the West was 120-91 (.569) against the East — on pace for its second-best interconference mark in 11 seasons. Seven of the league’s top nine records belonged to Western teams. The eighth-place Warriors matched the fourth-place Raptors in the standings. The gap looked familiar.
Since Jan. 20, the East has gone 82-60 (.577) against the West. Over that 51-day stretch, five of the top six and seven of the top nine records flipped to Eastern teams. The overall interconference record through Mar. 11 sits at 173-180 (.490) in the West’s favor — the East’s fourth-best showing in 27 years, and still climbing with 99 interconference games remaining.
Here is where the narrative and the data start to argue.
The top of the East is genuinely formidable. Detroit sits first at 60-22, a .732 clip that would have been unthinkable for this franchise two years ago. Boston (56-26), New York (53-29), and Cleveland (52-30) round out a top four that is a combined 20-18 against the West’s six 60%-win teams. That record does not include the Knicks’ Emirates NBA Cup final win over San Antonio.
But the West’s elite still holds the higher ceiling. Oklahoma City is 64-18. San Antonio, powered by the league’s most improved roster, is 62-20 — a .324 winning-percentage jump from last season, the largest in the NBA. The Thunder and Spurs alone are a combined 8-4 against the East’s top four.
Where the East has gained real ground is depth. Philadelphia jumped from 24 wins to 45, a .246 improvement. Charlotte went from 19 to 34. Toronto from 30 to 46. Detroit’s own rise from 44 to 60 wins ranks fifth league-wide in year-over-year improvement. The East now has eight teams at or above .549 — the Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Cavaliers, Raptors, Hawks, 76ers, and Magic all clinched playoff spots.
The West’s bottom, meanwhile, has cratered. Five Western teams — Pelicans, Mavericks, Grizzlies, Kings, and Jazz — are all below .320. The 42-40 Clippers, eighth in the West, would sit tenth in the East. Memphis is 5-15 against the East with 10 interconference games left and has lost 25 of its last 33 overall.
Strip out Toronto and the picture sharpens. The Raptors are 1-11 against the West’s top eight, dragging the East’s elite-vs-elite record down to 46-55. Remove them and the other seven East playoff teams are 45-44 — essentially even. Toronto is 27-16 within its own conference and 9-13 against the other, the largest such differential in the league.
The schedule still favors the West down the stretch. Western teams are home for 50 of the 99 remaining interconference games and hold the better record in 53 of them. Oklahoma City, the class of the league at 64-18, has only played half its games against the East’s top four and still has four such matchups left.
The East has not overtaken the West. But for the first time in a long time, the argument requires more than a glance at the standings. It requires the math.
Sources
- NBA.com — East vs. West: Overall 2025-26 Season (John Schuhmann)
- StatMuse — Western Conference vs. Eastern Conference Records, 2025-26
- FOX Sports — 2025-26 NBA Conference Standings