Hollinger

[ChainSmokingLikeDino]

Here's the glitch in Hollinger's thinking:  he clearly doesn't think the "switch" exists, and after watching this Celtics team, it's clear that it does.

You can't evaluate this matchup based upon regular season numbers.  If you do, you're a fool at this point.

If the stats only approach (which he doesn't do really, but he leans heavily on them)  leads to a much better prediction than the scout heavy argument, can't we see the Celts team as an outlier?

Anyone that leans on stats as a predictor will always be a FAIL.

Why so?  Lots of seasons the most statistically dominant team wins.  In our 2008 title run, we were a statistically dominant team, and the smart money should have been on us.  However, people made the "scout heavy" argument, and went with the Lakers.  How did that work out?

TP Roy. The age old "I believe my eyes, not stats" refutation, based on hunches and intuition ("age old" in basketball being, what, 5-10 years or so? Roughly that time that alternative statistical analysis has started to be taken seriously, by some, in basketball).

It seems there is always a misunderstanding of a) what newly derived statistics in basketball are doing and b) how they are used. In baseball this still plays out but I think we have seen a much wider acceptance of the critiques of "old thinking" and newer statistical models. Basketball seems about 10 years behind the baseball timeline with the Morey's of the world still being dismissed outright by many. Perhaps the NBA needs its own "Moneyball" book  to provide a narrative that is easily grasped (but even in baseball that book is widely misunderstood in what it is actually saying).

a reading tip: firejoemorgan.com Check it out.

[PosImpos]

Here's the glitch in Hollinger's thinking:  he clearly doesn't think the "switch" exists, and after watching this Celtics team, it's clear that it does.

You can't evaluate this matchup based upon regular season numbers.  If you do, you're a fool at this point.

Yeah, the guy clings to his statistics even when they're a sinking ship.

[dark_lord]

Did the C's really flip the switch or did we just get healthier and started playing to our normal potential where as previously or earlier on, we were just under performing?

i say both.  the "switch" i agree with on the defensive end.

[tenn_smoothie]

i have been an espn-insider for four years now - mostly for the college football, but also for the nba ............ and i have read the espn-nba site much more this season.

my question is .......... why does Hollinger almost always badmouth the Celts. it's without fail - it's like the guy is some childhood laker or sixer or knick fan - he never seems to have a good thing to say for them. even in their big win sunday, he talked about orlando "allowing themselves" to get in a 20-point hole, a lead so big that "even the Celtics couldn't blow it."

and of course, the cleveland series was all about the cavs and lebron under-performing, just like his take on sundays game 1.


this guy has a definite agenda.

[BudweiserCeltic]

Hollinger simply doesn't understand how to use the "age" variable. His computer returns "Does Not Compute".

[jdpapa3]

Did the C's really flip the switch or did we just get healthier and started playing to our normal potential where as previously or earlier on, we were just under performing?

i say both.  the "switch" i agree with on the defensive end.

And rebounding. We were a middle of the pack defensive rebounding team, but have been 2nd best out of anybody in the playoffs.