It's All Stats

That new Fil-Am coach of Miami Heat said it right: it's all statistics. Before you say that the Celtics-Lakers Finals was all magic and nostalgia and parquet flooring and fate, John Hollinger as early as March said that Celtics has one foot in the finals and the Lakers has one small toe jammed on it. He had them 1 and 3 in his power rankings. Utah is 2nd while Detroit is 6th. Spurs is 8th so stop fretting about a Detroit-Spurs shouldabeen. It's less likely. This was later changed to Celtics 1st, Pistons 2nd, Lakers 3rd and Utah 4th. At the start of the playoffs, Celtics is 72 percent likely to make it to Finals while and 54 percent as champs. Lakers was 18 percent in the Finals and 7 percent to win it all. Utah was 31 percent Champs but the intangibles were again at work here. Although the Las Vegas oddsmakers (Market) were more on the money. Two months this was the comparison. They don't know the power of Le Bron:
Boston - 42% (Hollinger) / 24% (Market)
Detroit - 12% (Hollinger) / 12% (Market)
LA Lakers - 12% (Hollinger) / 15% (Market)
Utah - 6% (Hollinger) / 4% (Market)
Orlando - 6% (Hollinger) / 3% (Market)
Houston - 4% (Hollinger) / 4% (Market)
San Antonio - 4% (Hollinger) / 12% (Market)
New Orleans - 3% (Hollinger) / 5% (Market)
Dallas - 3% (Hollinger) / 4% (Market)
Phoenix - 3% (Hollinger) / 10% (Market)
Denver - 2% (Hollinger) / 1% (Market)
Golden State - 2% (Hollinger) / 1% (Market)
Cleveland - 0% (Hollinger) / 3% (Market)