You are well aware that the NBA recently held its annual All-Star game in Atlanta for those basketball fans out there. The weekend festivities meant there would be a break in fantasy basketball, giving teams a five-day window to take a breath and figure out their strategies for the final push of the regular season.
4 Penn Plaza held the lead for the first time in weeks as the teams headed into the mini-break, a lead they never gave up and secured their first victory in five weeks. The win helped the struggling team retain their hold on the sixth seed, with the playoffs just three weeks away.
When someone looks back at the shorten 2020-21 fantasy basketball season, they are going to be quite puzzled that a team, 4 Penn Plaza, would have a record of 6-5 despite failing to meet their projections in just three of their 11 games.
For the sixth time in their last seven games (2-5), The Plaza failed to meet their computer projections and still pulled out a 109.30 victory over BBQ Chicken.
We came just 26.91 points under the projections, which is a step backwards compared to the 22.64 we came under last week. Our opponents also failed to reach their predictions by 128.94, which didn’t matter a lot since we were still the favourites by 7.27 points.
The last time 4 Penn Plaza held a multiple-day lead in a matchup, you have to go back to week five when they clean swept Ooga Booga. Since then, the team has only produced a winning score one just a single day of every matchup. That explains why the team lost five in a row.
We jumped out to a slim 8.90 lead on Monday that soon expanded to 87.30 by the end of Tuesday. BBQ Chicken countered on Wednesday to take a 78.40 lead, their only lead of the matchup. We rebounded on Thursday to regain the lead, one we held until the final buzzer.
It is safe to say that this past week’s matchup could have gone either way. We only opened up the deficit to triple digits on the final Friday, which meant that one good day and one bad day could have won it for either side.
We averaged 177.30 points a day and ran a close matchup lead of 88.04 a day.
If there is one consistency to look at through our up and down season, it is that we have remained the best team in the league when it comes to collecting rebounds and blocking shots. We have also closed the gap on the first-place team in regards to turnovers and have three weeks to overcome an eight-point deficit for the top spot.
Our trouble areas have been our Achilles heel all season. We have constantly ranked among the worse teams in points scored (8th) and assists (9th). The only other category we have been quite good at is steals, where we remain in 4th place.
When we analyze our matchup records, the numbers are don’t tell many lies. You can’t win many games when you are 2-9 in points scored and 3-8 in assists. Those numbers are a stark contrast compared to our rebounds (8-3), blocks (9-2), and turnovers (9-2).
It seems like forever ago that we broke down the standings, and not much has changed since then. Now three teams have clinched playoff berths, while the final three are still up for grabs.
Mamba Mentality, The Sauce Squad, and 4 Penn Plaza are currently in those spots; however, anything is possible in the final three weeks.
Meanwhile, it appears safe to say that Ooga Booga (0-11) and BBQ Chicken (1-10) won’t make the playoffs. Even if both teams won the remainder of their games, they would not have enough to catch the current sixth seed, who has six wins.
Thankfully we pulled out a victory in our matchup because it would have been a shame to have missed out on Elfred Payton’s 45.20 points. The New York Knicks player has been in and out of the lineup due to injury, so we sat him out on a night he ended up playing. You can call it poor roster management or something else, and we are just lucky this mishap didn’t cost us our first victory in a month.
During the two weeks of our week 11 matchup, we sure kept the commissioners’ office busy.
First, we had a four-player deal in place with Mamba Mentality vetoed with no explanation. We were trading away DeMar DeRozan (San Antonio) for three players, Eric Gordon (Houston), Dennis Smith Jr. (Detroit), and Kendrick Nunn (Miami).
Two days later, we accepted a trade that sent Dejounte Murray (San Antonio) to The Sauce Squad for Bobby Portis (Milwaukee) and Andrew Wiggins (Golden State). This trade brought Portis back to Penn Plaza for his second tour of duty.
Weekly Move Total: 0/5
Season Move Total: 15/50
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