Warriors Twitter keeps receipts. You’ve been warned, ESPN.
NBA opening night is here and a panel of 18 experts from the Worldwide Leader shared their season predictions for 2022-23. Despite winning the title and retaining their core from last year, the Warriors were only picked by two experts to win the championship.
Here’s a full list of the picks from ESPN:
Jerry Bembry: Bucks over Clippers in 6
Tim Bontemps: Bucks over Clippers in 6
Jamal Collier: Bucks over Clippers in 7
Nick DePaula: Bucks over Warriors in 6
Nick Friedell: Bucks over Warriors in 7
Kirk Goldsberry: Bucks over Warriors in 7
Israel Gutierrez: Heat over Nuggets in 7
Tim Legler: Warriors over Bucks in 6
Andrew Lopez: Bucks over Clippers in 6
Tim MacMahon: Bucks over Warriors in 6
Bobby Marks: Clippers over 76ers in 6
Dave McMenamin: Clippers over Milwaukee in 6
Kevin Pelton: Bucks over Clippers in 6
Jorge Sedano: Bucks over Warriors in 7
Ramona Shelburne: Bucks over Grizzlies in 6
André Snellings: Bucks over Warriors in 7
Marc J. Spears: Warriors over Nets in 6
Ohm Youngmisuk: Clippers over Bucks in 7
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Final tally: Bucks 12, Clippers 3, Warriors 2, Heat 1.
ESPN is clearly big on Giannis and the Bucks this season, as they garnered 12 out of 18 votes to win it all.
This is merely opening night fodder to drum up interest for the season. Picking the title-winner this far out is like a crapshoot. In last year’s ESPN NBA expert predictions, none of them picked the Warriors to win the title and only one of them had them reaching the Finals. The Nets were the favorite with eight out of 16 votes, and we saw how that ended up.
Steph Curry is the self-proclaimed Petty King. He loves silencing the doubters, so maybe this will be a little more fuel for him to win ring No. 5.
