With the Golden State Warriors (48-4), San Antonio Spurs (45-8) and Oklahoma City Thunder (40-14) all playing at an extremely high level, the NBA has three 40-win teams from the same conference at the All-Star break for the first time in league history, per NBA.com/Stats.
Long viewed as the better of the two conferences, the West actually hasn't been as dominant this season as in recent years, but it's undoubtedly been better than ever up at the top.
A .500 record is typically more than enough to earn a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, whereas the Western Conference has had at least one team miss out with a winning record in every season since 2006-07.