Now updated with ALL 1st round results.

I think a lot of people's picks got screwed in the Nuggets-Jazz series. Just an observation.

The 2nd round playoff predictions thread is now OPEN for picks.

The Scores

PtR Poo-Poo Predictions Platter

That's right, PPPPP or P-5, because jollyrogerwilco likes his fives 'round these parts.  This post was primarily inspired by TrueHoop's statgeek smackdown tournament. Fortunately, you don't need the statistical know-how or wizardry to make predictions - just a simple look at the match-up, a know-it-all, asshat attitude and you're good to go. If you have sophisticated computers at home that'd help you gain a significant edge, then by all means, go ahead, you nerd.

The Rules

Not much, really.  Just make the correct prediction per series, but you have have to specify in how many games will the series be won, like "Spurs in 6" or "Spurs in 5". Choosing the Spurs to win isn't enough, you have to be able to correctly predict in how many games will they be able to dispose of their opponent.

BlaseE's crazy genius mind proposed this type of scoring system (taken from the comments section):

Basically, you'll still get brownie points as long as your pick is as close to how many games a series will be decided. So even if you don't pick the correct winner, you'll still be rewarded if say, you correctly predicted the series to go a certain number of games.

Got that, grasshopper? Well, I suck at explaining so here's BlaseE's copy-pasted explanation in the comments section:

Let’s say someone picks Utah in 7, and Denver wins in 7. That person should get more points than someone who said Denver in 4.

I was thinking something like 10 points for a perfect pick, and 6 points -2 points for every game off.

So to go back to my example: If Denver wins in 7:

alamobro: 10 points
4Him: 4 points
Latin D: 6 points
Tim C: 6 points

Similarly, if portland wins in 6:
Bakkie009: 6 points
LatinD: 4 points
alamobro: 2 points
spursfan87: 0 points

The table only shows predictions for the first round. Spurs be damned or not, we'll continue with the same thing through the next few rounds and monitor the scores. New people are then welcome to join in for the next round.

The Prize

I got nothing. No prizes, nothing. Only bragging rights. And maybe a congratulatory FanPost.

The Brave Souls

We have 42 participants (sorry Kondor, you were just a bit late to the party) who braved criticism and are setting themselves up to eat crow when all's said and done. Okay, the eating crow part might've been a bit harsh. Still, this is going to be lots of fun. Here they are and their predictions:

The average predictions stand as follows:

Cleveland in 5

Orlando in 5

Atlanta in 5

Boston in 7

LA Lakers in 5

San Antonio in 6

Phoenix in 5

Denver in 7

That's it. We'll check back at the scores once the first round is over. BlaseE was kind enough to provide me an excel sheet where I can just fill up the series winners, so I should be able to update everything fairly easily.

The tournament is now locked and won't be accepting anymore entries.  Feel free to still post your own though, but we won't be including it in the official list and scoring.