From 16 teams, the NBA Playoffs have whittled down the field to just four proud franchises vying for the Larry O’Brien Trophy. The Indiana Pacers, who were predicted by many experts in our Round 2 picks and predictions article to be eased out by the Washington Wizards, successfully made it to the Eastern Conference finals, opposite the Miami Heat.
Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Thunder completed the NBA’s final four by winning a hard-fought series with the LA Clippers. Priced as +180 underdogs to win the series against the San Antonio Spurs, the Thunder still received the backing of some of the experts in our experts’ predictions and picks for the NBA conference finals.
[sc:NBAArticles ]Who Will Survive the NBA Conference Finals?
Despite Roy Hibbert’s much improved performance in the second round, the writers at ESPN apparently thinks that the Pacers are just too shaky at this point to gain their trusts. In the poll, all 17 experts from Bristol voted that the Heat would once again lay out Indiana in the conference finals. Although the Pacers remain a very tough test for Miami, they will only fully be if they could get themselves together, which they have had difficulty of doing on a consistent basis over the last three months.
ESPN
*Number of votes in parentheses
| Experts | Picks and Predictions |
| Henry Abbott, J.A. Adande, Kevin Arnovitz, Chris Broussard, Bradford Doolittle, Amin Elhassan, Chad Ford, Israel Gutierrez, Tom Haberstroh, Benjamin Morris, Kevin Pelton, Ramona Shelburne, Marc Stein, Ethan Strauss, David Thorpe, MichaelWallace, Brian Windhorst | Heat in 5 (3) |
| Heat in 6 (12) | |
| Heat in 7 (2) | |
| Spurs in 6 (4) | |
| Spurs in 7 (9) | |
| Thunder in 6 (3) |
Over at the Spurs-Thunder series, majority of the ESPN writers sided with the Spurs. Of the 16 experts who were asked, 13 picked the Spurs to block Oklahoma City‘s path back to the NBA finals. The Spurs just have a bench (39.5 PPG in these Playoffs) too deep for the Thunder to match. Even more telling for the series will be the absence of Serge Ibaka, who was declared to miss the rest of the season after suffering a calf injury. It can only be deduced that San Antonio’s big men will take full advantage of the glaring hole in the post left by Ibaka.[sc:NBA240banner ]
But the absence of Ibaka barely means anything to the trio of Israel Gutierrez, Benjamin Morris, and Brian Windhorst, who all went against the flow and penciled in the Thunder to upset San Antonio in six games. With or without Ibaka, they assume that Oklahoma will still be fine, thinking that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook (combine for 58 PPG in these Playoffs) will be too much for the Spurs to handle.
Sports Illustrated
*Expected number of games of each series in parentheses
| Experts | Picks and Predictions |
|---|---|
| Lee Jenkins | Pacers (7) |
| Ben Golliver | Heat (5), Spurs (6) |
| Rob Mahoney | Heat (6) |
| Matt Dollinger | Pacers (7), Thunder (6) |
| Chad Johnson | (Heat 6) |
The hoops experts at Sports Illustrated are not as cynical of the Pacers as the folks at ESPN are. The votes were split in half between the four writers with Lee Jenkins and Matt Dollinger favoring Indiana, while Ben Golliver and Rob Mahoney have Miami edging the Pacers in five and six games, respectively.
Dollinger refused to give up on the Pacers, having seen Hibbert’s reemergence against the Washington Wizards. After averaging a horrific 4.6 PPG in the Pacers’ first eight games in these Playoffs, including three contests wherein he scored zero points, Hibbert appeared to have turned the corner. He is now averaging 15.5 PPG in his Indiana’s last six games – he had 19 points and nine boards in Game 1 versus Miami. All of a sudden, Hibbert is back to being the biggest threat to the Heat’s ascension to the NBA throne. Echoing Dollinger’s sentiments is Lee Jenkins, who added that the Pacers offer a “troublesome match-up” to Miami.
For the other series, Ben Golliver likes the chances of San Antonio against the Thunder. He has the Spurs closing out the series in six games, owing to the fact that the Thunder’s loss of Ibaka is too severe for Oklahoma City to weather San Antonio. Dollinger, on the other hand, pointed out to Tony Parker’s susceptible hamstring to be a bigger difference in the series. He selected Oklahoma City to stop the Spurs in six games.
CBS
*Expected number of games of each series in parentheses
| Experts | Picks and Predictions |
|---|---|
| Lee Jenkins | Heat (5), Spurs (6) |
| Ben Golliver | Heat (6), Spurs (6) |
| Rob Mahoney | Heat (6), Spurs (6) |
| Matt Dollinger | Heat (6), Thunder (6) |
After the Heat lost to Indiana in Game 1, Kenn Berger of CBS sports needs the defending champions to win four straight for his prediction to come true. He predicted Miami to win the series in Game 5. His other four colleagues all have identical picks of Miami in six games. It’s apparent that all of them are no longer buying the hype (if there’s any left) of Indiana. They would rather go with the Heat, who have shown poise, while playing championship basketball throughout the postseason.
All CBS sports writers are in the same page as far as predicting how many games the Spurs-Thunder series will take, which is six. Among them, only James Herbert bravely forecasted that the Thunder would send San Antonio packing. In his article, he admits that missing Ibaka definitely changes the complexion of the series, but the Thunder could still win if they could dictate the tempo of the games.
Top Bet
Although the Pacers won in Game 1, it did not come as a surprise for us here at Top Bet. We expected the Pacers to give the Heat the level of challenge not afforded to them by the Charlotte Bobcats and Brooklyn Nets. We deemed this series to go the full seven games, with Miami advancing to the NBA finals. You can read our comprehensive preview of that series here.
In the other series, we are seeing the continued offensive brilliance of Durant and Westbrook. However, the Spurs will match the Thunder firepower for firepower by using their huge advantage on bench production. In our in-depth preview of this series, we predicted the Spurs to outlast Oklahoma City in six games.
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