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As always, the Western Conference is deemed the stronger of the two NBA conferences this year, but what would happen if the two were shuffled around? Let Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban explain..

CUBAN: CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT COULD HELP NBA

Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has come up with a way to level up the NBA’s playing field.

A conference realignment that would see a total of eight teams switch conferences, including his own Dallas side.

Via ESPNDallas:

Cuban suggests a conference realignment that would result in a total of eight teams, including the Mavs, switching conferences.

In Cuban’s plan, the Mavs, San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and New Orleans Pelicans would move to the Eastern Conference. The Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons and Milwaukee Bucks would move to the West.

“It’s not like it’d be the first time we’ve ever realigned,” Cuban said. “It’s happened many times before, so there’s precedent and I just think it shakes things up and makes things interesting.”

[…]

Commissioner Adam Silver has been receptive to ideas that would address the issue of the West being a significantly deeper, stronger conference than the East. One idea that has been floated is to have a 16-team playoff bracket that does not take conferences into consideration.

Cuban has not discussed his idea, which he hatched during a media interview Wednesday, with the commissioner or anyone else in the NBA.

“I did the trial close right here,” Cuban said as he worked out on his stair-stepper and talked to reporters before Wednesday’s home game against the New York Knicks. “Then it’ll turn into headline porn and then we’ll see the response.”

FREAKY FRIDAY IN BOSTON

Most teams in U.S. sports do share their arenas. The most notable for the basketball fan is the Lakers and Clippers, who of course share the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

In Boston, the Celtics share the Boston Garden with the NHL ice hockey side the Boston Bruins, and they have a steady working relationship. If the two sides play at home on the same day, the Bruins have the afternoon slot, and the Celtics grab the evening.

Not tonight though.

Via Boston Globe:

Traditionally, both teams play at TD Garden on this day, with the Bruins occupying the afternoon slot and the Celtics taking the night game.

Not this year.

The Celtics will host the Chicago Bulls at 1 p.m., and the Bruins will host the Winnipeg Jets at 7, a switch that was prompted by the NHL’s decision to move the Rangers-Flyers game to 1 p.m. for a national television slot on NBC.

The NHL did not want the Bruins playing in an afternoon window opposite Rangers-Flyers, so the Bruins, who own the Garden, asked the Celtics to switch.

The Celtics and Bruins have a good relationship in terms of accommodating their respective schedules at the Garden. The Celtics generally don’t play home games Thursdays and Saturdays, while the Bruins tend to avoid Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays.

LAKERS HOLD A ‘STATE OF THE UNION’ MEETING

The Lakers coaching staff and board are now concerned that the rest of the NBA’s Western Conference will distance itself from the famous team in purple and gold … standings wise.

After Wednesday’s 99-93 loss to the high-flying Memphis Grizzlies, Lakers coach Byron Scott and GM Mitch Kupchak held a ‘State of the Union’ meeting afterwards.

Via LA Daily News:

Lakers coach Byron Scott had what he called a “state of the union meeting” recently with general manager Mitch Kupchak, but declined to go into detail on what came out of those discussions. […] “We just had a meeting about the team in general,” Scott said. “We talked about doing that every 15-20 games.”

How do the Lakers fill an injury-depleted roster that currently features only 11 active players? […] “It’s enough depth to get us through games,” Scott said. “But our last couple of days our biggest problem has been having 10 guys that we can practice so we can get some work done that we need to do on both ends of the court. From that aspect, it might be a little bit more feasible for us to add a guy. Mitch and I will talk about it.”

As he walked to his seat at Staples Center, he was asked whether the Lakers could still make the playoffs. […] “You know, anything can happen,” Kupchak said. “We’re going to try to win every game. Certainly, we’ve dug a hole for ourselves and it’s going to take a while to climb out. The West, I believe, has 10 teams over .500 right now. But stuff happens.”