ESPN gets called out after every single 'expert' picks playoff series wrong
If the New Orleans Pelicans have a chip on their shoulder, they have come by it honestly.
Few pundits picked the Pelicans to beat the third-seeded Portland Trail Blazers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, and exactly zero “experts” from ESPN picked New Orleans to win.
The Pelicans responded by not only beating the Trail Blazers, but sweeping them in four games to advance to the second round, where they will almost certainly face the defending champion Golden State Warriors.
And don’t think the Pelicans weren’t motivated by the fact that all of ESPN’s analysts picked Portland.
The team posted a reminder of that fact to Twitter on Saturday after the Pelicans completed the sweep with a 131-123 win.
“All 22 @ESPN NBA analysts picked the #Pelicans to lose the series. All 22. Every. Single. One,” they wrote.
Anthony Davis led the Pelicans with 47 points, while Jrue Holiday added 41 points. Rajon Rondo had seven points and 16 assists, including this impressive alley-oop:
“This entire team, this entire season, what this team has been doing … it’s amazing,” Davis said after the game, according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune. “A lot of people counted us out.”
“Anthony (Davis) said it best, they were sleeping on us,” Holiday said. “Everybody counted us out.”
The Pelicans now await the winner of the Warriors-Spurs series. The Warriors are up 3-0 against the undermanned and overmatched Spurs, and the series could end Sunday in San Antonio with a sweep.
The Warriors went 3-1 against the Pelicans this year, but lost 126-120 the last time the two teams met on April 7. Golden State played that game without Steph Curry.
The Warriors shouldn’t sleep on the Pelicans either, as they have will difficulty containing Davis. New Orleans will pose a much stiffer challenge than the injury-depleted Spurs.
Hopefully, the “experts” at ESPN will sit up and take notice.
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