Ya ya ya, keep listing facts to support your argument. You know for a fact that the NBA is won by match ups. The ONLY way, other than Ginobili's stupid play, Dallas beat San Antonio last year was because of the match up problems... Nowitzki's height, Devin Harris's speed... and the mavs overall athletic superiority. Either way, dont tell me San Antonio would not have beat the Heat had they been in the finals instead of the Mavs. Anyway, now that last year's hiccup is over, the Spurs are back on track. Cleveland is good. The best they can hope for is to become a team like last year's Kings. Again, its match ups... Bowen is not effective against guys who are physically bigger than him... so, lebron is going to pose quite a problem... a lot more problematic than bonzi and ron ron were last year in round 1.. about the east being watered down... common dawg, take the teams that made the playoffs and other than 2 or 3, the rest are sub 500 teams in the west... it is a FACT that the west has better players, better teams and as a result tougher competition... u talk about the past 3 years... what about all those years after mj left???? lets see, lakers (3 times), the spurs (3 times)... detroit once and heat once... 6 - 2 in favor of the west...