The second round in the Smackdown

Has the second round of the playoffs started yet? It's like somebody sneezed and three of the NBA's powerhouse teams of 2009-2010 -- the Jazz, Spurs and Hawks -- have all just been eliminated. Now there's just the annual Celtic thrill ride left before the Very Serious Business of the conference finals. It's all a little dizzying. Meanwhile, it's not so disorienting, apparently for the people in the TrueHoop Stat Geek Smackdown. With eight contestants, and four series, that's 32 second-round picks they made. So far almost everybody picked the right winners in every case. The exceptions: My mom had the Jazz. And Stephen Ilardi, Haralabos Voulgaris and Neil Paine had the Spurs. Nobody predicted any of these sweeps, however. So, as we sit here on Tuesday, John Hollinger remains in the lead, now with 59 points. Kevin Pelton is a mere three points back. Barring something really bizarre, the others in contention are reigning champ David Berri and Jeff Ma, who ...