ESPN "experts" picks for Heat/Celtics

[Redz]

I know these are the 'official' ESPN rankings, but people on ESPN are pretty high on the Celtics right now. I believe on ATH the other day, most all of them predicted the Celtics. I was afraid they were getting too much hype, so I am glad that most don't have them winning here :0)

yeh, the fan poll was something like 61% in favor of the Celts.

[LancerQ]

i will never respect hollinger's predictions

[Chelm]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

[kozlodoev]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

Holds serve? Our chance to win this was to take game 4 _and_ take game 5. We're not winning this thing in 7 games.

[BballTim]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

  If Hollinger predicted Wade injuring Rondo, kudos to him. Otherwise, that was a big enough change to the dynamic of the series to render any predictions of a Miami victory moot. Say I predicted the Celts would win and Wade had sustained that injury instead of Rondo. The Heat would have left his hospital room long enough to lose the series, but I wouldn't be claiming that the Celts win over the depleted Heat showed that Hollinger's prediction methods were flawed.

[Chelm]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

  If Hollinger predicted Wade injuring Rondo, kudos to him. Otherwise, that was a big enough change to the dynamic of the series to render any predictions of a Miami victory moot. Say I predicted the Celts would win and Wade had sustained that injury instead of Rondo. The Heat would have left his hospital room long enough to lose the series, but I wouldn't be claiming that the Celts win over the depleted Heat showed that Hollinger's prediction methods were flawed.

Point taken, but I don't think it's quite fair to totally ream a guy for his ridiculous predictions and not give him one iota of kudos if it turns out he's correct.  Injuries happen in basketball, and the fact that Rondo still put in 39 minutes (bad Doc maybe?) could be subversively predicted within the numbers he's using.  Who knows.

Maybe it's just because I'm an engineer, but I put a good amount of stock into statistics being indicative of a lot more than most here.  You can have heart in numbers as well.  KG always has.

That being said, I want every single team in the league right now to win the championship over the Heat.  I'm just very nervous they won't be stopped.

Side note, I tentatively picked the Cs in 7, but was not comfortable with the pick (I couldn't see them taking Miami out in 6, and I didn't want to believe they'd lose another game 7).

[BballTim]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

  If Hollinger predicted Wade injuring Rondo, kudos to him. Otherwise, that was a big enough change to the dynamic of the series to render any predictions of a Miami victory moot. Say I predicted the Celts would win and Wade had sustained that injury instead of Rondo. The Heat would have left his hospital room long enough to lose the series, but I wouldn't be claiming that the Celts win over the depleted Heat showed that Hollinger's prediction methods were flawed.

Point taken, but I don't think it's quite fair to totally ream a guy for his ridiculous predictions and not give him one iota of kudos if it turns out he's correct.  Injuries happen in basketball, and the fact that Rondo still put in 39 minutes (bad Doc maybe?) could be subversively predicted within the numbers he's using.  Who knows.

Maybe it's just because I'm an engineer, but I put a good amount of stock into statistics being indicative of a lot more than most here.  You can have heart in numbers as well.  KG always has.

  As an engineer, though, you'd have to recognize that Rondo's injury was probably a bigger variation than the difference between the two teams.

[Chelm]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

  If Hollinger predicted Wade injuring Rondo, kudos to him. Otherwise, that was a big enough change to the dynamic of the series to render any predictions of a Miami victory moot. Say I predicted the Celts would win and Wade had sustained that injury instead of Rondo. The Heat would have left his hospital room long enough to lose the series, but I wouldn't be claiming that the Celts win over the depleted Heat showed that Hollinger's prediction methods were flawed.

Point taken, but I don't think it's quite fair to totally ream a guy for his ridiculous predictions and not give him one iota of kudos if it turns out he's correct.  Injuries happen in basketball, and the fact that Rondo still put in 39 minutes (bad Doc maybe?) could be subversively predicted within the numbers he's using.  Who knows.

Maybe it's just because I'm an engineer, but I put a good amount of stock into statistics being indicative of a lot more than most here.  You can have heart in numbers as well.  KG always has.

  As an engineer, though, you'd have to recognize that Rondo's injury was probably a bigger variation than the difference between the two teams.

True, but Rondo wasn't injured in games 1 or 2, and the game he was most significantly impacted (THE game he was injured) we won.

[BballTim]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

  If Hollinger predicted Wade injuring Rondo, kudos to him. Otherwise, that was a big enough change to the dynamic of the series to render any predictions of a Miami victory moot. Say I predicted the Celts would win and Wade had sustained that injury instead of Rondo. The Heat would have left his hospital room long enough to lose the series, but I wouldn't be claiming that the Celts win over the depleted Heat showed that Hollinger's prediction methods were flawed.

Point taken, but I don't think it's quite fair to totally ream a guy for his ridiculous predictions and not give him one iota of kudos if it turns out he's correct.  Injuries happen in basketball, and the fact that Rondo still put in 39 minutes (bad Doc maybe?) could be subversively predicted within the numbers he's using.  Who knows.

Maybe it's just because I'm an engineer, but I put a good amount of stock into statistics being indicative of a lot more than most here.  You can have heart in numbers as well.  KG always has.

  As an engineer, though, you'd have to recognize that Rondo's injury was probably a bigger variation than the difference between the two teams.

True, but Rondo wasn't injured in games 1 or 2, and the game he was most significantly impacted (THE game he was injured) we won.

  No, he was most significantly impacted in game 4 when we lost.

[Chelm]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

  If Hollinger predicted Wade injuring Rondo, kudos to him. Otherwise, that was a big enough change to the dynamic of the series to render any predictions of a Miami victory moot. Say I predicted the Celts would win and Wade had sustained that injury instead of Rondo. The Heat would have left his hospital room long enough to lose the series, but I wouldn't be claiming that the Celts win over the depleted Heat showed that Hollinger's prediction methods were flawed.

Point taken, but I don't think it's quite fair to totally ream a guy for his ridiculous predictions and not give him one iota of kudos if it turns out he's correct.  Injuries happen in basketball, and the fact that Rondo still put in 39 minutes (bad Doc maybe?) could be subversively predicted within the numbers he's using.  Who knows.

Maybe it's just because I'm an engineer, but I put a good amount of stock into statistics being indicative of a lot more than most here.  You can have heart in numbers as well.  KG always has.

  As an engineer, though, you'd have to recognize that Rondo's injury was probably a bigger variation than the difference between the two teams.

True, but Rondo wasn't injured in games 1 or 2, and the game he was most significantly impacted (THE game he was injured) we won.

  No, he was most significantly impacted in game 4 when we lost.

His stats don't seem significantly different between games 1 and 4.

[LB3533]

Hollinger nor any other ESPN expert could have predicted the Heat's dynamic duo of Lebron and Wade would play like All World this series.

Lebron might have had one bad game through 4 so far.

Ray, KG and a healthy Rondo have had only 1 great game so far. The other 3 games they have been mediocre to abysmal.

PP has been our best player and our most consistently productive...yet not of his games were on the level of Wade or Lebron.

Going into this series...we have had 3 clear cut advantages...at PF, PG and C.

Center position doesn't mean a heck of a lot, but JO has outplayed Big Z....the combination of Anthony for Miami and Big Baby for C's make this position a push. So we wasted JO's good contributions.

The PG position we have won...even with a hurt Rondo. It's too bad we didn't dominate this position, had Rondo been healthy we just might have.

At the PF spot: it may be in fact a push...if you just count offense. But because we include defense, KG still wins...but again, we did not dominate this position and we should have.

If you compare regular season against Miami, our two wings: PP and Ray Allen outplayed Wade and Lebron

That ain't happening here in the playoffs.

That ain't close to happening.

Wade's production alone rivals the accumulated stats of RA & PP....quite scary.

[BballTim]

*If* Miami holds serve in game 5, how does that affect your view of statistics vs intangibles, or Hollinger's statistical prediction methods in general?

  If Hollinger predicted Wade injuring Rondo, kudos to him. Otherwise, that was a big enough change to the dynamic of the series to render any predictions of a Miami victory moot. Say I predicted the Celts would win and Wade had sustained that injury instead of Rondo. The Heat would have left his hospital room long enough to lose the series, but I wouldn't be claiming that the Celts win over the depleted Heat showed that Hollinger's prediction methods were flawed.

Point taken, but I don't think it's quite fair to totally ream a guy for his ridiculous predictions and not give him one iota of kudos if it turns out he's correct.  Injuries happen in basketball, and the fact that Rondo still put in 39 minutes (bad Doc maybe?) could be subversively predicted within the numbers he's using.  Who knows.

Maybe it's just because I'm an engineer, but I put a good amount of stock into statistics being indicative of a lot more than most here.  You can have heart in numbers as well.  KG always has.

  As an engineer, though, you'd have to recognize that Rondo's injury was probably a bigger variation than the difference between the two teams.

True, but Rondo wasn't injured in games 1 or 2, and the game he was most significantly impacted (THE game he was injured) we won.

  No, he was most significantly impacted in game 4 when we lost.

His stats don't seem significantly different between games 1 and 4.

  Haha. I had no idea when you said "I put a good amount of stock into statistics" you meant to an overwhelming extent.