Friends in fast breaks,

Our first Survivor only lasted 9 weeks (sorry Commish, you and MedicalMatt's face-off was for show). Our second go, it lasted 13 weeks, including five weeks of double picks - That's 18 total picks, a literal doubling of the first time.

I'm not sure if we got better, bigger sample sizes made teams more predictable, or all of the above. But I'm darn proud of the progress, and I'm DEFINITELY excited for next year already.

Congratulations to our runner-up @Augie240 and our Champion @aphanson7! Remember that prizes go out after the SZN concludes after the Playoff Pick'em finishes.

MAKE YOUR WEEK 22 PICKS

• Walking Bucket Wilt OAD >>
• Pick deadline: 4pm PT Friday (3/31)

In a stunning turn since I last authored an update, the OAD standings are TOIGHT. There had been a decent gap between the leaders and the others, but that gap has shrunk and the crown is up for grabs! Who saved key players for the end? Who will find a diamond in the rough? What star belly flops our hopes? We have two weeks for it to shake out.

ONE AND DONE RECAP

Weekly Standings | Player Performance | Overall Standings

Backup Picks

• 21 of our pickable players didn't play this week and they were taken by 59 pickers
  • DeRozan (20 picks) and Lillard (12) led in picks with their surprise DNPs
• With such a big number of DNPs, we ended up with 14 double DNPs; please be sure to use the injury report link and "Check injury report" note we've added to the picking page

Results

• J. Embiid (46 points) crushed it as he continues his final MVP push
  • He was only taken by 6 of us, making it a huge value add for those pickers
• Other top scorers: A. Davis (37 pts, 20 picks), L. Doncic (34, 19), J. Tatum (34, 3), Z. Lavine (33, 28)
• We scored 25.2 points per pick
  • This is both hurt by our higher than usual double DNPs as well as some mediocre performances from K. Irving and K. Leonard
• Our biggest flop?
  • I'm giving a tie to the aforementioned Irving and Leonard
  • Irving, our top pick (29 picks) only notched 18
  • Leonard, fourth biggest pick (25 picks), managed 12
  • Leonards is a bit worse, but a top pick not breaking 20 is remarkably bad

Standings Check
We have prizes for Overall points, as well as most points scored over three different Intervals (Weeks 1-8, Weeks 9-16, and Weeks 17-23). There's something to play for all SZN!

Interval 3 (Weeks 17-23) Standings

• We've got a new leader, @rydstein
  • They've been on a tear, breaking 30+ points every week so far in Interval 3
• Only two weeks left, let's see who can go the distance!

Overall Standings

• Another big shuffle, with @Bigrv51 back on top
• The standings are closer than ever
• Remember, Overall prizes go all the way to 50th, and there are probably 100 people within reach of placing in these final two weeks. 

Team SZN Performance

• @StatCzar (Z. Lavine), @TheCommish (D. Booker), and @Merf (S. Gilgeous) all scored acceptably, while @TheGM got stuck with a sad G. Antetokounmpo performance (24 points)
• StatCzar is up to 52nd Overall
• Reminder: We play along for fun and pride, we can't win anything

THE WORM RECAP

Weekly Standings | Game Outcomes | Golden Spreadsheet

Results

• And as we all predicted, CHA was key to delivering a Champion
• They aren't winning much in the season, but they're delivering wins on The SZN
• DAL, on a terrible skid since the trade deadline, couldn't put away the Hospital Hornets
• This gave @aphanson7 the crown
• Great play to @Augie240 for the quality battle
• Commish continues his Survivor-end prediction run

Yours in hoops,
The GM