Friends in fast breaks,

I'm not even close to 100% after unfortunate life events, but I welcome the distraction sports brings. I've been taking care of my family, and compiling stats and reviewing the games is a welcome subject change. A huge thank you to those who shared well wishes - Kindness from the SZN fam was an unexpected and refreshing little gift.

MAKE YOUR WEEK 12 PICKS

• Walking Bucket Wilt OAD >>
• The Worm Survivor >>
• Pick deadline: 4pm PT Friday (1/13)

We posted amazingly poor results this week. I choose to believe it was in solidarity with my terrible week and you won't convince me otherwise. We had our worst outing in OAD and a huge collapse in Survivor. Let's dig through the wreckage.

ONE AND DONE RECAP

Weekly Standings | Player Performance | Overall Standings

Backup Picks

• 18 of our pickable players didn't play, and 11 of those got at least 1 pick
• In total, 69 picks were on those DNPs, with Emiid's surprise DNP having 19 picks
• We unfortunately had 13 double DNPs that receive zero points this week, apologies to the unlucky pickers
• Reminder - the Injury report is now linked near the top of the picking page, it can't fix last minute DNPs, but it's a very quick and basic line of defense!

Results

• 8 of our picked players scored 30+ points this week, delivering 103 of us quality results
• Our top performer, Z. Lavine, dropped 41 points
  • AND NOT ONE OF US PICKED HIM
  • This is our third whiff on snagging the week's top scorer, following T. Maxey (44 pts, Week 1) and A. Davis (44, Week 6)
• We BARELY captured our second top scorer, T. Rozier (39 pts) with one brilliant picker seeing the potential
• Past that, L. Doncic (34 pts), J. Tatum (34), D. Fox (34), K. Durant (33), T. Young (32), J. Randle (32), and S. Gilgeous (30) were serviceable
• We averaged a terrible 23.0 points per pick (new low!)
  • The "average" picked player scored 18.6 points (new low!)
  • I like setting records, but not like this...
• Our worst flop this week almost certainly goes to G. Antetokounmpo (9 points, 29 picks)
  • MIL apparently decided to have a "rest game," playing 14 players and all of them playing at least 9 minutes, obnoxious
• Honorable mention for flop goes to A. Edwards, who posted a pathetic 5 points for 9 pickers
• Other poor weekly performances: K. Johnson (8 pts, 3 picks), J. Holiday (12, 1), D. DeRozan (12, 10)

Standings Check
We have prizes for Overall points, as well as most points scored over three different Intervals (First 8 weeks, middle 8 weeks, and final 7 weeks). There's something to play for all SZN!

Interval 2 (Weeks 9-16) Standings

• After two weeks of insane performances, this week was a pitcher of cold water
• @BroncoCharlie is the only member from the previous Top 5 to stick around, a big reshuffling
• There's plenty more time in the Interval to shake things up, with five weeks remaining

Overall Standings

• This weeks flop had a less dramatic impact on the Overall, with our previous Top 5 all still within the Top 10
• No incredibly intersting picks this week, with some Brown/Tatum picks, and SGA, and a Doncic
• The down week crushed our 30+ points per pick number, down to 54 from 73 last week

Team SZN Performance

• I (@TheGM) jumped on S. Gilgeous for 30 points. @TheCommish got a good 34 out of J. Tatum and @Merf also got 34 from L. Doncic. @StatCzar was caught in the G. Antetokounmpo catastrophe for 9 points.
• Overall, @StatCzar has our best placement at 77th
• Reminder: We play along for fun and pride, we can't win anything

THE WORM RECAP

Weekly Standings | Game Outcomes | Golden Spreadsheet

Results

• We entered the week with 179 players and exited with 60, a 33.5% survival rate
  • All that pride I felt last week? Yeah that's gone
• The biggest damage came from MIL (vs CHA), costing us 61 players
  • Did CHA come out literally on fire in Q1? Yes
  • 51 points in a quarter, especially against a top-tier defense, is incredibly impressive
  • But MIL does happen to have a multi-MVP winner who can FORCE his way to the basket, especially against CHA's weak backcourt
  • If they wanted the win, they could take it
  • It's clear MIL was in coast mode, spreading minutes around heavily and playing almost their entire bench for plenty of the game
• GSW (vs ORL) lost us 24 pickers
  • Despite having Wiggins and Green back in the lineup, GSW just didn't look good
  • Especially J. Poole, who posted a terrible 5 for 17 on FGs
  • P. Banchero and F. Wagner continue to look like a future terror, with efficient 25 and 24 point performances respectively
• Then we dropped 15 pickers on PHI (vs CHI)
  • PHI looked like they had a decent handle on things for most of the first half
  • CHI went on a 28-11 run to finish the second quarter and bring it back to even
  • Then in the 3rd they pushed their lead to an insurmountable point behind 19 points from Z. Lavine and 16 from P. Williams, a crazy tandem scoring explosion

Team SZN Performance

• Team SZN almost completely collapsed, with TheCommish losing on SAC and TheGM losing on MIL. Merf stayed strong on a BOS victory
• Reminder: we play along for fun and pride, we can't win anything

VC'S KNEES RECAP

Weekly Standings | Game Outcomes | Golden Spreadsheet

Results

• Reminder: @medicalmatt224 is our champion! He and Commish are just playing for pride at this point
• Both players picked MIL (vs CHA) and lost, ending the playful exhibition

Team SZN Performance

• @TheCommish lost on MIL. 
• Reminder: we play along for fun and pride, we can't win anything

Yours in hoops,
The GM