BallHype Blog

It’s not quite a revolution, but in the last week 118 people have seen the writing on the wall for their teams and updated their 2007 NBA Playoffs Pick’em brackets. Among them, they’ve made a total of 399 series picks changes. A couple of observations:

• Upsets took Ballhype users by surprise. The three teams with the most new picks are the Bulls (87 more picks), Warriors (70 more picks), and the Nets (68 picks). All three of these teams have either eliminated their higher-seeded opponent or seem likely to, so predicting these teams to win, particularly 8th seeded Warriors, is no longer the wishful thinking of a die-hard fan or a purely contrarian move.
• People are pragmatists when it comes to brackets. Despite the above point, very few people are jumping on the underdog bandwagon all the way to the Finals. More than two-thirds of the changes for the Bulls, Warriors, and Nets were made to the first round series. It’s likely that more people will make changes to later series outcomes as more games are played. Then again, the potential points for correct picks will decline as more information becomes available.
• The Suns have the Warriors to thank. Well, if these bracket picks actually swayed the outcome of the playoffs, they would. The Suns are now the favorite to win on Ballhype with 137 picks. Previously, it was the Mavericks. But in the last week, the Suns have picked up 23 more picks for the Conference Finals and 17 for the Finals, gained almost entirely at the expense of the Mavs. The Mavs are still the second-favorite team to win with 111 picks, but if the Warriors do advance to the next round, my guess is that most of those picks would go to the Suns, not the Warriors.

And finally, remember that the individual game picks for the NBA playoffs games will be used in the event of a tie for the Playoffs Pick’em contest. In case you don’t think tie is possible: this week’s Golden Picks Contest was won by louismg, but Joski was only 1/10th of a point behind.