Author Topic: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA  (Read 32598 times)

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Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #75 on: June 01, 2008, 01:07:47 PM »

Offline GoldenThroat

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As a Lakers fan, here is my observation regarding the ESPN experts and the Celtics:

If they were forced to make a prediction just before the first game of the NBA playoff between the Lakers and Celtics, I believe majority of them will pick the Celtics.

But the Celtics really had a very disappointing playoff run. I believe almost every experts pick the Celtics to beat the Hawks and Cav easily. But both teams push the Celtics to 7 games.

Against the Pistons, they play well enough to beat them in six games and finally won in the other teams' floor. However, I would say it is as expected.

So they are wrong twice (not totally wrong, at least Celtics won at the end), and meet expectation once.

On the other side, Lakers won easily against the Nuggets, meet expectation against Jazz and won easily against the Spurs. So the Lakers beat expectation twice and meet expectation once.

So, how do you (Celtic fans) expected them to pick?

However, as a Lakers fan, I still cannot say which team is really better until they play. Even though Celtics did not perform up to expectation in the playoff, they still beat Lakers twice last year. But the poor performance of the Celtics in the playoff give me hope.

Cheer....

Making the NBA Finals is never a disappointing playoff run. Ever. And while they struggled a bit in the first two rounds, Atlanta was a young, hungry, athletic team, and while we had a tough time against them on the road, we destroyed them at home every time. The Cleveland Cavaliers are an improved version of the team that was the Eastern Conference Champions last year and have arguably the best player in the league leading them, so it's hard to say that beating them in 7 games is a disappointment. They're a very, very good team.

And we won two games on Detroit's home court, including the clincher. It boggles my mind that people can consider this playoff run to this point a disappointment.

While I agree that any time you make the Finals (and can still win the championship, no less) can't be considered "disappointing", neither the Hawks nor the Cavs are playoff teams in the Western Conference, and you struggled with both teams. While you crushed ATL in Game 7, the final Cavalier game was in doubt until almost the very end. It may not be "disappointing", but it did raise a few questions.

I also believe that coaching matchups are amplified in the playoffs, and Phil Jackson is in an entirely different league than Saunders, Brown, & Woodson. I was actually glad that you guys clinched in Game 6, because it gave Jackson & staff more time to prepare specifically for the Celtics. I think that's an advantage for the Lakers. 

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #76 on: June 01, 2008, 01:32:42 PM »

Offline scout

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Anyone old enough to remember the 60's? Every single year the national media would pick L.A. to beat the Celtics for the championship. Bill Russell was no match for the greatest player ever. Years would go by with both teams sinking to the bottom as  players retired. Then, in the early 70's, a promo appeared for a sports segment on a national tv progam: 'Their Back'. If you lived in the New England area you naturally thought that the show would be about the Celtics, since they were the ones who racked up all the titles and had a left-handed red headed center who was dominating ...........noooooooooooo, of course they were talking about L.A. The Celtics would go on and win the championship that year. So was I surprised to see two articles this last week which proclaimed Kupcheck should have been the executive of the year, and 'Is this Phil's best coaching job'. Now, we see the Celtics are the underdogs. Sounds just about right.

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #77 on: June 01, 2008, 01:44:03 PM »

Offline BudweiserCeltic

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Legler changed his pick to the Celtics in 7.

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #78 on: June 01, 2008, 02:16:35 PM »

Offline Brickowski

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Anyone old enough to remember the 60's? Every single year the national media would pick L.A. to beat the Celtics for the championship. Bill Russell was no match for the greatest player ever. Years would go by with both teams sinking to the bottom as  players retired. Then, in the early 70's, a promo appeared for a sports segment on a national tv progam: 'Their Back'. If you lived in the New England area you naturally thought that the show would be about the Celtics, since they were the ones who racked up all the titles and had a left-handed red headed center who was dominating ...........noooooooooooo, of course they were talking about L.A. The Celtics would go on and win the championship that year. So was I surprised to see two articles this last week which proclaimed Kupcheck should have been the executive of the year, and 'Is this Phil's best coaching job'. Now, we see the Celtics are the underdogs. Sounds just about right.

In the 60s, the Lakers had star power (Baylor, West and later Chamberlain) but the Celtics always had the depth. For starters, just consider a backcourt of Cousy and Sharman, with Sam and K.C. Jones coming off the bench. The national media didn't recognize how good the Jones boys were until after Cousy retired. Tom Sanders was also extremely underrated, and then there were guys like Willie Naulls and Larry Siegfried who would start for almost any other team.

There were also several series in which Russell simply willed the team to victory. His intensity was unbelievable: 30-35 rebounds was a routine performance for him.  It remains to be seen whether Garnett can will this team to victory in the same way.


Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #79 on: June 01, 2008, 02:17:26 PM »

Offline tb727

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Legler changed his pick to the Celtics in 7.

Didn't they have 8 "experts" to start?  And now it looks like they expanded it to 10.

Also I listened to Chris Brousard on 1050 ESPN radio last night- and he talked about how he's on the fence.  He then basically spoke for 5 minutes about why he thought the Celtics would win it- their toughness, ability to control tempo- and never wound up mentioning why he actually picked the Lakers...
Jay Wingspan Bilas

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #80 on: June 01, 2008, 02:26:40 PM »

Offline BudweiserCeltic

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Legler changed his pick to the Celtics in 7.

Didn't they have 8 "experts" to start?  And now it looks like they expanded it to 10.

Also I listened to Chris Brousard on 1050 ESPN radio last night- and he talked about how he's on the fence.  He then basically spoke for 5 minutes about why he thought the Celtics would win it- their toughness, ability to control tempo- and never wound up mentioning why he actually picked the Lakers...

I was thinking that he was an addition myself, but since I couldn't really check how many experts there were initially I went with the "he changed his pick" route.  But yeah, Chris Broussard seems to be on the fence as you say... if you listen to him he talks like the Celtics are the superior team but he chose the Lakers anyways (without really explaining himself), and said he might even change his pick before Thursday. I listened to him on ESPN News myself.

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #81 on: June 01, 2008, 02:28:17 PM »

Offline LarryRules

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Everyone seems to be worried about how the Celtics will matchup vs. the Lakers...

The better question is: How will the Lakers guard the C's? 

I like to focus on positives!!!

GO CELTICS!!!!!! ;D

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #82 on: June 01, 2008, 02:29:00 PM »

Offline WedmanIsMyHero

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Howard Bryant, Mike Lupica, and Bob Ryan (no surprise there) all picked the Celtics on Sports Reporters this morning.

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #83 on: June 01, 2008, 03:28:52 PM »

Offline GoldenThroat

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If you look at the track record of a lot of these guys, I'm not sure that their predictions have much insight or value to them.

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #84 on: June 01, 2008, 03:36:32 PM »

Offline cdif911

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they should poll a group of neutral 7 year olds (say from Quebec) and see who's more accurate when all is said and done - my money would be on the 7 year olds
When you love life, life loves you right back


Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #85 on: June 01, 2008, 03:44:49 PM »

Offline droopdog7

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One way or the other, it seems Legler changed his mind.  I heard him on the radio yesterday and he picked LA.  I guess he is covering both sides.

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #86 on: June 01, 2008, 03:51:35 PM »

Offline GoldenThroat

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they should poll a group of neutral 7 year olds (say from Quebec) and see who's more accurate when all is said and done - my money would be on the 7 year olds

Hahahaha, classic. And true.

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #87 on: June 01, 2008, 04:09:43 PM »

Offline mpfitz34

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We should be underdogs.  They're playing brilliant basketball right now, they'll have the best player on the floor, and a vastly superior coach.  Plus we have a myriad of matchup issues on the defensive end of the floor.  The hall of fame coach and the transcendent player don't typically lose in the finals (but hey, the did in 04).

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #88 on: June 01, 2008, 04:22:56 PM »

Offline droopdog7

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We should be underdogs.  They're playing brilliant basketball right now, they'll have the best player on the floor, and a vastly superior coach.  Plus we have a myriad of matchup issues on the defensive end of the floor.  The hall of fame coach and the transcendent player don't typically lose in the finals (but hey, the did in 04).
Exactly what match-up problems do we have?  Perkins would do fine on Gasol and KG would have his way with Lamar.  And speaking of matchups, who is going to guard KG?  Lamar or Gasol have no chance at all.  And what about PP?  Kobe?  Okay, what about Allen then.  And even if Kobe guard PP, Pierce has always done well. 

That is what gets me about all of the predictions.  It is as if they are only playing on one of the court and that Bos will not go on offense.

Re: No National Media Love / Experts Picking LA
« Reply #89 on: June 01, 2008, 04:30:56 PM »

Offline Vermont Green

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I am not surprised that the "experts" are picking the Lakers more than the Celtics.  They have been cruising through the playoff and we struggled with Atlanta and Cleveland.  I think that the ATL series was a warning flag but that is ancient history now.  Cle and Det are probably both better than any team that the Lakers played.  It is tough to call the match-ups because they are such a different team than they were when we played during the season.  In the end, the Lakers are much more one-dimensional than the Celtics (similar to Cle).  That one dimension is really good but over a series of games, you can make it really hard on that one dimension.  The Celtics have more options as to how they can attack the Lakers and can be dangerous a couple of different ways.  There are some things that are going to play out that nobody can know before a couple of games.  The Celtics will do better than the "experts" think though.