If you had visited the 4 Penn Plaza dressing room between weeks one and five, there was a lot of excitement. The guys probably laughed and dance, as their first season in the league started with a perfect 5-0 record.
As week nine came to a close, the locker room is pretty quiet. Players and management are looking for their game again, focused on collecting a win than celebrating past glory.
Penn Plaza was finally knocked out of the third seed after dropping their fourth straight contest and now cling to the final playoff berth in the sixth spot.
4 Penn Plaza was on fire out of the gate, winning their first five games, despite only exceeding their projections in two of those wins. They got lucky that their opponents were not meeting their projections either, but week nine was the fifth straight game that failed to meet the computer predictions. Out of the seven matchups they failed to meet or exceed their numbers, week nine proved to be their best effort, as they came in just 66.94 under.
No matter how many points Penn Plaza would have scored, they were 462.25 point underdogs against Mamba Mentality. The computers at Yahoo fantasy were much nicer to us than we played because we lost by way more (581.00 points) than they initially thought.
This most recent loss was the first time we failed to 1000 points in a matchup and ended up as the worse defeat in our short history.
On the opening day of the matchup, Penn Plaza holds a daily record of 6-3. We also spent the first five weekends undefeated on both Saturday and Sunday. Since our first loss in week six, we have only held the lead on three consecutive Mondays and have failed to regain a daily lead on any day after that.
There’s not much to brag about this past week, but we did hold a slim 29.50 lead after Monday. The tide came in and wiped the slate clean after Tuesday, as Mamba Mentality saw the matchup swing in their favour, thanks to a difference of 119.30 points.
As the matchup progressed through the week, our deficit only got deeper and deeper. The matchup difference seemed manageable until Friday when Mamba witnessed the score jump up 260.00 points in their favour. From there, they only piled on the points and ended up with a convincing 1424.00-843.00 win.
Ultimately we lost because you can’t win a matchup by only scoring an average of 120.43 points a day. When you don’t score, and your opponent continues to fill the basket, it is easy to see an average daily deficit run up to 269.00.
Even though the team is deep into a four-game losing streak, our overall statistics have stayed neutral. We remain the top team in the league in regards to rebounds and blocks. No matter who we employ, we can’t make any headway in turnovers, where we remain the second-best team for the eighth straight week.
Since we scored the least amount of points in week nine, we dropped a spot and now have the eighth-most points. Our team assists also took a hit as we are now the second worse team in the league. The steals we had this past week also lowered us to the third overall spot after hanging around the second seed for most of the season.
It took nine weeks into the season, but there was finally a significant shuffle in the standings. Our most recent loss cost us three spots, as we dropped down to the final playoff spot, sixth overall.
Caldwell-Pope Mobile was in fourth for the entire season, and they moved into our old spot, third overall, while Mamba Mentality used their victory over us to move into the fourth hole.
The Sauce Squad also leapfrogged us and took over fifth overall since they have scored 364.00 more points than us.
BBQ Chicken finally collected a win in week nine, leaving their cellar mates Ooga Booga as the only team without a victory. Meanwhile, Ka’Wine & Dine finally defeated the top-seeded Damn KD, handing them their first loss of the season.
 166.90 points |
 14.30 points |
Thaddeus Young (Chicago) has only been on the team for half of the season and already has two best player awards. The power forward scored 134.60 points in week nine thanks to 52 points, 33 rebounds, 18 assists, four steals, four blocks, and eight turnovers.
Justin Jackson (Oklahoma City) was a free agent signing in the middle of the matchup and the forward underperformed with just 14.30 points. He collected 12 points, four rebounds, four assists, one block, and six turnovers.
After learning that one of our players would be out long-term with an injury, we could move him to the IR, which opened up a spot for us to recruit and sign Justin Jackson (Oklahoma). We needed points, and unfortunately, Jackson didn’t live up to expectations.
Cody Zeller (Charolette) was another player who just wasn’t getting the job done, so he was sent to the waiver wire. He was joined shortly after by his teammate Devonte’ Graham, who wasn’t scheduled to return to the lineup anytime soon.
We recruited Elfrid Payton (New York) for a second tour of duty in Graham’s place. Little did we know that he’s battling a hamstring injury and didn’t get much playing time in.
Weekly Move Total: 2/5
Season Move Total: 15/50
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