NBA fan's Facebook "prediction" close to reality

Reuters (file photo)

By Dugout Philippines

MANILA--Someone could be a Golden State Warriors win on Tuesday (Philippine Time) away from correctly forecasting how the 2016 NBA season would shape up.

Photographer Pepe Fernandez posted a pre-Christmas "prediction" on his Facebook account seeing the Warriors winning it all again.

Curiously, all his pre-finals "forecasts" came true.

Golden State set the new NBA record in regular season wins with their 73rd victory right in the final day of the eliminations.

The team faced off with Houston in the Round of 16, eventually winning the playoff first round encounter in five games.

He also had the Portland Trail Blazers matching up with the Los Angeles Clippers in another conference quarterfinal clash with the Blazers beating the shorthanded Clippers, who were without Chris Paul due to a hand injury as Fernandez correctly predicted, in six.

He also got Golden State beating Portland in the league quarterfinals right, and so was getting the Oklahoma City-San Antonio second round series. Golden State and Oklahoma City were eventually the West Finalists.

Curiously, the Thunder raced to a 3-1 semis lead only for the Warriors to make the comeback to set up a finals rematch with the Cleveland Cavaliers, just as what Fernandez thought.

The first two games of the NBA Finals were blowout wins by Golden State, with Game 2 ended with a 33-point rout, again as per what the photographer believed. Cleveland took Game 3 by exactly 30 points, again making Fernandez's guess right.

Game 4 was arguably the closest game of the series, but the Warriors pulled away at the death to return to Oakland with a 3-1 lead again as per Fernandez's prediction.

The said Facebook post by Fernandez has gone viral on Monday, reaching around 3,000 shares and 3,000 reactions as of posting.

However, it's a result of a simple tweak to a Facebook post he did last December, making the entire forecast a hoax.

The Warriors can end the series in Game 5 at the Oracle Arena on Tuesday at 9 a.m. (Philippine Time).

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