After the first five weeks of the season, 4 Penn Plaza were undefeated and easily the third-best team in the league. The pundits will stay their opponents were weak, and that Plaza’s real test would begin in week six against Caldwell-Pope Mobile. To be considered truly elite and one of the top dogs, they would have to bring the fight against the league’s top teams Free KD and Ka’Wine & Dine.
4 Penn Plaza got knocked down in their week six matchup and have yet to pick themselves off the floor, where they are now deeply entrenched in a three-game losing streak. During the same time frame, opponents have caught up and are now breathing heavily down their necks with the season on the line.
Ka’Wine & Dine opened the season with straight victories yet managed to rebound after their first loss of the season in week seven. They launched a new winning streak after mopping up the lowly 4 Penn Plaza, who suffered their worse loss of the 1733.40-1304.90.
It was supposed to be a blood bath from the opening tip-off, and by the end of the day on Thursday, the matchup was all but over. The scores didn’t get any prettier as the weekend rolled around, despite Ka’Wine & Dine failing to reach their original projections by 73.84 points. In the end, it really didn’t matter as they won the matchup by 428.50 points.
We failed to reach our projections for the sixth time this season, coming up 200.37 points short. Our opponent’s 1733.40 points are the most we’ve given up in a matchup, eclipsing the previous high of 1704.80 from The Sauce Squad in week three.
This matchup opened with great promise, despite the initial projections. We jumped ahead 302.10-260.00 on Monday, which ran our first-day record to 4-3 on the season. The score then swung 110 points in our opponent’s favour after Tuesday night, giving them a 488.40-420.50 lead, one they would never relinquish again.
They reached 746.20 points (+257.80) on Wednesday, 972.20 (+226) after Thursday and 1317.70 (345.50) on Friday. Their lowest scoring day of the week was Saturday (144.30), but it didn’t matter because another 271.40 points on Sunday sealed the deal.
When you break down the daily numbers, our best day was Friday (320.60) and Monday (302.10). We only crack 200 points on Sunday and 100 on Tuesday and Wednesday. Two days of scoring less than 100 points were a killer and helped our inability to gain any momentum after the opening night.
If there were any positives to take away from a three-game losing streak in the middle of the season, it is the fact that our team statistics have not changed in four weeks.
After eight weeks, we remain the number one team in rebounds (eight weeks in a row) and blocks (six weeks). We dropped to the seventh spot in points scored in week four, where we have been ever since. In week five, we became the eighth-best team with assists, a spot that hasn’t changed in four weeks. Steals and turnovers are our second best categories (2nd overall), the same place we found ourselves in five-week and haven’t budged yet.
The only change in the standings occurred between The Sauce Squad and Mamba Mentality as they swapped positions.
Mamba Mentality entered a three-way tie for third place along with Caldwell-Pope Mobile and us. Today, we hold the tiebreaker with more points score, even though Mobile already beat us and Mentality is our week nine opponent.
There could be a major shake-up in the standings after week nine, as the top two teams go head to head. After next week, there will only be five games left to determine who is going to the dance and who is going home early.
 166.90 points |
 14.30 points |
Dejounte Murray (San Antonio) came out of nowhere to take home his first best player award of the season. The guard secured the second-highest point total of the season thanks to 77 points, 32 rebounds, 17 assists, 11 steals, and seven turnovers.
Devonte’ Graham (Charolette) became the first player on the team to win the best player award (week four) and then win a worse player award (week eight). He found himself in this awkward position thanks to a lingering injury that limited his playing time this past week, where he only collected five points, four rebounds, and three assists.
During the first few weeks of the regular season, we barely tinkered with the roster. When we started to lose, we hit the panic button and shuffled players in and out daily. Chasing those lightning-in-bottle players for a game or two resulted in crazy adjustments and three straight losses.
We decided that we would go back to our original plan to only substitute based on injury or abysmal play. When the season started, we had a strategy and, with all these roster moves, abandoned it for a quick victory that never came.
In week seven, we dropped Milwaukee Bucks guard Donte DiVincenzo, someone we originally drafted because of his ability to steal the ball. It was a tough decision, so when he cleared waivers the following week, we could bring him back into the fold.
Weekly Move Total: 1/5
Season Move Total: 12/50
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