The Starters: you wonder if any of these dudes have shot a basketball at a hoop before...
Mercy Sundance (W) @ Vlade Doddi (L) 8.5 - 1.5
Vlade begged but there was no Mercy as the Sundance monstered Vlade Doddi, leaving only 3% and steals as scraps. Mercy Sundance has four players scoring over 20 points and were championed by possible New Megastar Anthony Davis, who jocked a 20-11-1-4-2 powerline. New Vlade Victor Faverani was a huge disappointment and drag on the team with four (!) games of 3-4-1-0-0 work. Al Jefferson did not suit up for Mercy despite being placed in the starting lineup and will not be in the starting lineup next week under the DDBAD guidelines.
XXX Convict (W) @ Scoobydank (L) 8.0 - 2.0
The Convicts let a monster out of prison themselves, sweeping the big three categories in a comfortable win over Scoobydank. It wasn't automatic - Scooby was only 0.1 down on assists and .35 down on rebounds - but Bradley Beal's pronouncement of dominance (27-5-3-4t) shut the door on this one. One JJ - Redick (20-4-3) - has a been one of the league's savviest surprises, but Scoobydank simply needs more from a guard slot than the other JJ - Barea (7-3-3) - can appear to provide.
Shake N Jake (W) @ Fat drunk and stupid! (L) 9.0 - 1.0
Third monstering in a row on these recaps here as Shake shook FDaS! every which way as the team only let the three point duo go in a 9-1 win. SnJ led the league in rebounding easily this week powered by a megabounders Kevin Love and Deandre Jordan (14 and 15 per game, respectively). The team even shook off doubts about their passing ability with eight assists from Kevin Durant and five from Tim Duncan. No one or two players can really be blamed for the stupid's loss, and there were no really bad performances, but nothing aside from OJ Mayo's scoring (28 ppg) were popped out as great, either.
Smoking Is Cool (W) @ Studebakers (L) 5.5 - 4.5
Russell Westbrook's early return from injury could not turn the fortunes of the Studebakers as they fall to 0-2 by a quite slim margin to Smoking Is Cool. The game could have easily been turned by as few as one or two rebounds (a 0.04 edge for Smoking) or a few assists (0.12 difference). Evan Turner is making doubters look dubious with a 24-9-3-53% statline. The Studebakers had quality line after quality line, but raw Andre Drummond showed his inconsistency with a week-losing performance (5-6-0-2-1). One wonders if we might see MKG in the lineup over Andre to provide a bit more stable chemistry...
The Unnamed (L) @ Rock-afire Explosion (W) 3.0 - 7.0
The Unnamed fought a good fight, but were monstered after a close assists battle as Rock-afire moved to 2-0. Chris Paul's 13 assists average over four games was huge, but it wasn't enough as the team fell by 0.37 in the passing cat. One could look at Andrei Kirilenko's 6-4-1-0-1 in limited minutes as a key weakness. Paul George is laughing at all skeptical teams that could have had him keeping his emerging superstar status in play with a 25-8-4-0-2-3t line. Mega.
GHill Filas (W) @ St. Paul Skanks (L) 6.0 - 4.0
The GHill Filas held off an advancing Skanks in another extremely close matchup. 0.05 assists and 0.07 rebounds were the thinnest of red lines holding back the Skanks as relatively subdued weeks from Steph Curry (15-4-8-0-3-2t) and Pau Gasol (8-11-3-1) left the Filas exposed. Tyson Chandler's game one injury that left contributing only 2-2-1-1 was a big drag as well. But St Paul simply could not take advantage of all of that despite four players over 20 ppg and changes may be needed: Tyreke Evans (8-5-2), for one, might not be long for the starting lineup.
