The Association takes a look at the Spurs' track record against the league's best teams this season.
We went into the 2025-26 campaign thinking this would be another season in which the Western Conference was much better than the Eastern Conference. During the first three months, that was certainly the case.
Through Jan. 19, the West was 120-91 (.569) against the East, which would have been its second-best record in interconference games in the last 11 seasons. At that point, the West had five of the top six (and seven of the top nine) records in the league. The eighth-place Golden State Warriors had the same record as the fourth-place Toronto Raptors.
But things turned after that. Since Jan. 20, the East is 82-60 (.577) against the West. Over those 51 days, the East has had five of the top six (and seven of the top nine) records in the league.
Below is a deeper look into the relative strength of the Eastern and Western conferences.
1. East improvement
David Fizdale shouts out his hottest teams in this edition of Fiz's 5.
The West has been the dominant conference for 27 years now. Over that stretch, the East has had a winning record just three times. So, though it still has a losing record through Wednesday, this is the East’s fourth-best season in the last 27 years.
East’s best record vs. West, since 1999-00
| Season | GP | W | L | PCT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | 450 | 236 | 214 | .524 |
| 2008-09 | 450 | 231 | 219 | .513 |
| 2021-22 | 450 | 226 | 224 | .502 |
| 2025-26 | 353 | 173 | 180 | .490 |
| 2015-16 | 450 | 218 | 232 | .484 |
Through Mar. 11, 2026
The San Antonio Spurs are the most improved team in the league from last season, but Nos. 2-5 on that list come from the Eastern Conference …
Most improved teams, 2025-26
| 2024-25 | 2025-26 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | Diff. |
| San Antonio | 34 | 48 | .415 | 48 | 17 | .738 | +.324 |
| Charlotte | 19 | 63 | .232 | 34 | 33 | .507 | +.276 |
| Philadelphia | 24 | 58 | .293 | 35 | 30 | .538 | +.246 |
| Toronto | 30 | 52 | .366 | 36 | 29 | .554 | +.188 |
| Detroit | 44 | 38 | .537 | 46 | 18 | .719 | +.182 |
Through Mar. 11, 2026
As things stand through Wednesday, the eighth-place, 33-32 Clippers would be in 10th place in the East.
2. The best vs. the best
The top eight teams in the East are just 46-55 (.455) against the top eight teams in the West, through Wednesday. But that breaks down to…
- The Pistons, Celtics, Knicks, Cavs, Magic, Heat, and Sixers are 45-44 (.506) against the top eight teams in the West.
- The Toronto Raptors are 1-11 against the top eight teams in the West.
There are 10 teams (four in the East, six in the West) that have won at least 60% of their games to date. Those are our real contenders, though one or two of them are certainly subject to scrutiny regarding their ability to win three or four playoff series.
Those four East teams are 20-18 against those six West teams, and that record doesn’t include the Knicks’ win over the Spurs in the Emirates NBA Cup title game …
Top 4 in East vs. top 6 in West
| Team | W | L | PCT | Rem. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit | 5 | 3 | .625 | 4 |
| New York | 6 | 4 | .600 | 2 |
| Cleveland | 6 | 5 | .545 | 1 |
| Boston | 3 | 6 | .333 | 3 |
Rem. = Remaining games
Based on point differential, the Lakers are, by far, the weakest team in the West’s top six. And they’re also 1-5 against the East’s top four (the one win was against the Knicks on Sunday). The first-place Thunder, meanwhile, have played only half of their games against top four teams in the East, two against Cleveland and one each against Detroit and New York.
Top 6 in West vs. top 4 in East
| Team | W | L | PCT | Rem. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma City | 3 | 1 | .750 | 4 |
| San Antonio | 5 | 3 | .625 | 0 |
| Minnesota | 3 | 2 | .600 | 3 |
| Houston | 4 | 3 | .571 | 1 |
| Denver | 2 | 6 | .250 | 0 |
| L.A. Lakers | 1 | 5 | .167 | 2 |
The Nuggets went 1-4 against the top four in the East (the win was vs. Boston) with Nikola Jokić in the lineup and 1-2 (winning in Boston) without him.
For comparison: last season the four East teams that won at least 60% of their games were 19-21 against the five West teams that won at least 60% of their games, 1-7 vs. the Thunder and 18-14 against the Rockets, Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers.
3. Lopsided results
The Raptors have mostly struggled against the good teams, but they also lost in New Orleans on Wednesday and now have the league’s biggest differential between how well they’ve played within their own conference (27-16) and how well they’ve played against the other one (9-13).
If this were college basketball and only games within a team’s conference counted in the conference standings, the Raptors would be in fourth place in the East. Instead, they’re in seventh.
The Portland Trail Blazers are the Raptors of the West, currently 23-19 (seventh best) within the conference, but just 8-16 (only the Grizzlies and Kings have been worse among West teams) against the East.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are the Rockets, who are just 22-19 (eighth) within the West, but 18-6 (only the Spurs have been better) against the East.
4. What’s left
There are 99 interconference games left on the schedule, including 11 through the weekend.
The team with the most interconference games remaining is the Memphis Grizzlies, who are 5-15 against the East (with 10 games remaining) and have lost 25 of their last 33 games overall. The Nuggets have the fewest interconference games left, as they host the Sixers and Raptors next week.
But the Western Conference should still have the edge. The West will be the home team for 50 of those remaining 99 games and the better team (based on current records) for 53 of the 99. The Thunder are among the three teams — the Bulls and Bucks are the others — with nine games left against the opposite conference.
There are some big matchups among those 99 interconference games remaining, including 10 where one of the top four teams in the East faces one of the top six teams in the West.
The first of those is a matchup of the last two NBA champions, with the Celtics visiting the Thunder on Thursday (9:30 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
* * *
John Schuhmann has covered the NBA for more than 20 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Bluesky.
