Friends in fast breaks,

No jokes about it, a LOT of big names didn't (or barely) played this weekend. It's always the most chaotic. Our only blessing is that we blew through a lot of the top players early on - When you're picking from outside the top 40, you've got more options that might still play good minutes!

We'll wrap up our regular season pools, and then turn our attention to the playoffs. A note to all our placers: Prizes are paid out at the conclusion of all SZN pools for a sport - So for NBA, that's after the NBA Finals conclude (when we finish our two Playoffs pools). Keep an eye out for an email from TheGM when we get there.

BUT FIRST - Let's hand out some 👑!

REMINDER: Our playoff pools start with the Play-In! The Playoffs Pick'em and NBA Finals Props are both available to join, even for new players if you want to refer a friend. When the NBA crowns their champion this year, we could be crowning you too!

RESULTS SUMMARY

Points One-And-Done

C. Thomas had another crazy week with 41 points, and at this point I think we've got to drop the "streaky" descriptor - He's averaged 27 PPG since March, with only two outings below 20 points. If he's given 20 shots a game, he's putting numbers on the board.

L. James, the "washed" King, scored 37. Crazy stat I heard: LeBron average 25/7/8 in year 20. No one else has averaged that after year 10. The man is amazing!

So our best possible weekly performance was 78 points. We got SO close, with two players (@ElMaestroLobo and @Lanjman) putting up a super strong 76 point finale via their C. Thomas / J. Murray combo. 

T. Herro was our top pick (56 picks), and we probably wish he'd stayed on the bench - He only scored 17 points. That's the same amount scored as our top pick last week, the "wisdom of the crowd" has had a rough couple weeks here.

We did bounce back a bit, scoring 21.1 points per pick. Throw a trendline on our weekly averages, and it's a nice little downward line. Not the strongest R^2, but we clearly had 5 good weeks at the start and have just slowly deteriorated as the roster dwindled. I admire us making it to the end!

For DNPs, a huge 20 pickable players from our roster didn't play, just ridiculous (not even counting those out with major injuries). We had 92 picks on these players, causing 29 Double DNPs, resulting in zero points. Absolutely abysmal. Improvements we made during the season seemed to help with DNPs mildly, but the best offense is a good defense and using the injury report as a shield is key.

Overall Standings Check In - @ihalpern kept the lead and takes the 👑 with 1,246 points! That averages out to 27.1 points per pick, just unreal! back into first, with 1,221 points. Congrats to them and all others who made the podium!

Interval 3 Check In - @spencermai kept the lead and wins with 467 points. 

Squads Check In - Basket-Balling with Nigel wins with 3,531 points.

Survivor #1

@DOCTORDER took the crown in our tiebreaker pickoff, with @Ndnowak1429 taking second. Congrats to both our competitors!

Overall Standings Check In - @DOCTORDER wins!

Squads Check In - DFS Sweatshop takes the crown with 42 wins.

All 30 One-And-Done

We barely beat our season low from Week 23 by getting a 45.3% win rate. Tragic. 

Our Overall Standings winner is straight DRAMA - @NEELERSBTB1 had been in the lead most of the SZN. In these last two weeks they stumbled, going 1/4. That left them exposed.

@aphanson7, @epchabot , @Schreindogg, and @Ndnowak1429 closed the gap by getting 2, 3, or 4 correct in the final two weeks. We ended up with a 5 person tie at the top!

TIEBREAKER TIME - For All 30, the tiebreaker is best picking performance with the WORST teams (according to end of season standings). Starting with the worst (DET, ranked 30th), did you get it right? If not, you're out of the tiebreaker. If yes, then we check rank 29 (WAS). Rinse and repeat.

Despite a near generational fumble, @NEELERSBTB1 kept the crown because they were RIGHT with their picks on the 4 worst teams in the league (DET, WAS, CHA, POR). That's straight up incredible, and deserving of a 👑!

Overall Standings Check In - @NEELERSBTB1 takes the crown via tiebreakers.

Squads Check In - Basket-Balling with Nigel wins with 73 wins. 

Survivor #2

@jamescattrysse5 and @Davidb113 entered the tiebreaker pickoff in a HARD week. They disagreed on the outcomes of 5 games. @jamescattrysse5 got 3 of the 5 disagreements correct, earning them the title.

Overall Standings Check In - @jamescattrysse5 takes the 👑!

Squads Check In - Basket-Balling with Nigel wins with 44 total wins.

Weekly Pick'em

We were back to "average" this week with a 63% win rate, despite all the insanity. That averages out to 9.5 correct picks out of 15 games.

Our biggest miss was DET @ DAL, where only 3.5% picked DET to win. Shout out to those pickers,along with the SAS over DEN and UTA over LAC people!

There was a 10-way tie at 12/15 this week. They all only missed the DET/SAS/UTA combo, but that was good enough and there's no shame - a win is a win! They'll split the weekly prize! Congrats to @BTFU, @Jattridge, @Merf, @Merlinmei383, @Trebs, @Venez68, @brycestuck, @davidjosephaguilar, @jlleitch97, and @zeeman73!

Overall Standings Check In - @ETB2090 kept their lead and snag the 👑 with 144 wins. That's a 70.9% win rate, impressive stuff.

Squads Check In - Air Ballers Anonymous takes the victory with 402 total wins.

Week 12 Wins Battle

Oh you didn't think we forgot, did you? I've been updating the results every month or so to take a peek. Needless to say, there's not a lot of good color commentary to provide watching team win totals count up slowly.

The NBA was "predictable" after the All Star Break, we had 7 players get 14/15 pairings correct. First, a round of applause to all of them!

That means more TIEBREAKERS - For Wins Battle, the tie breakers is based on the literal order of the matchups (earlier matchups are between better teams). If you miss it, you're out. If you're right, we keep going.

@phquawl nailed the first 11 matchups, finally losing on TOR (against ATL). 

Overall Standings Check In - Congrats to @phquawl with 14/15 right  and the tiebreaker win to take the 👑!

Squads Check In - Air Ballers Anonymous takes the victory with 40 correct matchups.

Week 2 Bonus Wins Battle

A much simpler outcome here, helped by both picking much earlier AND having a smaller player base. Love when things are simple!

Overall Standings Check In - Congrats to @Mfatman4385 with 12/15 right, a totally respectable outcome for the 👑!

Squads Check In - DFS Sweatshop and WITS Legends split the win with 24 correct matchups each.

Yours in Roundball Rock,
The GM