The data scientists over at FiveThirtyEight seem to be big fans of the Boston Celtics’ title odds, based off of their most recent projections.
In their odds posted on Thursday, August 20th, FiveThirtyEight projects the Celtics to possess the NBA’s second-best odds to win it all in the 2020 NBA Finals.
You read that right, second-best to win it all.
FiveThirtyEight updates their projections after every day’s slate of games, using their RAPTOR player ratings system to divine who has the best odds to advance towards winning the 2020 NBA Championship.
The Celtics trail only the Los Angeles Clippers, who FiveThirtyEight grants a 34 % chance of making the NBA Finals, and a 23 % shot at winning it all.
Working on something for FiveThirtyEight's title projections, and noticed they are very quietly throwing shade at Rajon Rondo (presumably) — all the Tommy points to anyone who can see what I am talking about. pic.twitter.com/fGICyAv7cj
— Dr. Justin Quinn (@justinquinnn) August 20, 2020
Boston, on the other hand, has been deemed to have a 38 % shot at making the Finals in the less-competitive East Playoffs, but a 19 % chance at winning Banner 18.
They are trailed by the Los Angeles Lakers, who presumably saw their title odds take a hit with the loss to the Portland Trail Blazers (as an aside, note their full-strength rating goes down with the presumed return of former Celtic Rajon Rondo), and the Milwaukee Bucks don’t even make the top four after dropping their first game to the Orlando Magic.
There’s plenty of reasons to doubt these projections so early into the postseason, but it’s very interesting to see the odds experts at FiveThirtyEight ranking Boston so highly.
Let’s hope it doesn’t get to their heads, should they see it.
