C's feels disrespected they're "counted out" by TV analysts as 1 seed

[GreenWarrior]

everything good about this team is stuff you can get away with in the reg. season, not in the playoffs.

all they have to do is prove that wrong and they won't be counted out or disrespected.

[SCeltic34]

Glad the "experts" are down on the C's. Nothing makes me more nervous than when those hacks pick us.

Anyone else remember all the experts lining up behind the Lakers before the Finals in '08?

Obviously this isn't the same situation, but I always feel better when the experts pick against the C's.

Precisely.  Most things ESPN are trash, from their team "power rankings", top #500 player rankings, rookie ladders, playoff predictions etc.  I'm surprised that people still pay attention to them because they're consistently wrong.  Even if ESPN picked the C's to sweep the series, I wouldn't respect that opinion.  Their "experts" hold no sway in anything.

Celtics in 5.  6 games max.

[the TRUTH]

Glad the "experts" are down on the C's. Nothing makes me more nervous than when those hacks pick us.

Anyone else remember all the experts lining up behind the Lakers before the Finals in '08?

Obviously this isn't the same situation, but I always feel better when the experts pick against the C's.

Great point about '08. That was such a strange situation, because most experts considered us one of the top contenders in the league entering the playoffs. But by the time the NBA Finals rolled around, most experts thought we had no chance. In fact, I'll never forget watching Around the Horn shortly before the Finals began and hearing Jim Armstrong (a reporter that's no longer on that show) say that the Celtics-Lakers series was the biggest mismatch in NBA Finals history in favor of the Lakers.

He was obviously wrong, but just think about the ignorance of that statement. There had been plenty of mismatches in the history of the NBA Finals, but there was no way this would be one of them. Yeah, we'd struggled in the Hawks series, but we overcame horrendous officiating to beat the Cavs in 7, and then took it to another gear in the last 4 games of the Pistons series. And we just so happened to win 66 games in the regular season and had three hall of famers in their prime in our starting lineup. And just the year before, the Cavs had been easily swept by the Spurs, so it wasn't like Armstrong had to look too far in the past to find a true Finals mismatch.

[the TRUTH]

Glad the "experts" are down on the C's. Nothing makes me more nervous than when those hacks pick us.

Anyone else remember all the experts lining up behind the Lakers before the Finals in '08?

Obviously this isn't the same situation, but I always feel better when the experts pick against the C's.

Precisely.  Most things ESPN are trash, from their team "power rankings", top #500 player rankings, rookie ladders, playoff predictions etc.  I'm surprised that people still pay attention to them because they're consistently wrong.  Even if ESPN picked the C's to sweep the series, I wouldn't respect that opinion.  Their "experts" hold no sway in anything.

Celtics in 5.  6 games max.

Completely agree with you. Same thing in the other major sports as well. I think ESPN just caters to the casual fan that doesn't really care (or can't tell) if their experts have no clue. ESPN figures the hardcore fans will watch no matter what, so all they care about is having people on air that can reel in the casual fan.