So hey bros. I wanted a solid record of all the times I've destroyed the WAU Athletics (AKA Rory Hickey) (AKA my personal punching bag) in NBA 2k11. After fucking around for a while with assorted games, we decided to start playing 7 game series. I'll try to recap what's happened so far and reconstruct the scores through our trash talk on Twitter!
SERIES 1: GS WARRIORS VS. NY KNICKS
So, in this inaugural series, Rory decided that he wanted to play as "Carmelobot", and I picked the Warriors because I thought they'd fit my fast-paced style of play. New York got home court advantage, and in Game 1, they came out strong. My Warriors lost Steph Curry in the game's third minute and nearly overcame it with a strong effort from Acie Law (!). It was in this game that I realized exactly how thin the Warriors' bench is. As in: they don't really have a true center. I played most of the series swapping out Ekpe Udoh for Louis Amundsen at the 5. To his credit, Amundson actually played really well throughout the series, but still. Probably the #1 hurdle I had to overcome in this series. Anyway. After getting edged out in Game 1, Melobot and his Knicks blew me out in Game 2. I tried to rely on Curry's return to the court a bit too much, and paid dearly for it. Down 0-2 in the series, the Warriors returned to San Francisco PRETTY DEMORALIZED.
I don't remember much about Game 3, other than the fact that I rolled over the Knicks pretty easily. It was apparently a 93-80 win, which is nice to know! Going into Game 4, my gameplan was to contain Melo, while Rory was clearly starting to second guess his lineups. This game saw him decide that Landry Fields was some sort of antichrist, and that both Bill Walker and Derrick Brown, of all people, deserved to start the rest of the series. In other words: Game 4 made Rory lose his fucking mind. And rightfully so! The Warriors held Anthony to just 18 points and 2 rebounds, and demolished the Knicks 106-84. More notable? Steph Curry scored 55 points, with 10 assists. After missing Game 1, he was averaging 37 points per game in Games 2-4.
Game 5 was... well, it was interesting. The series was tied at 2, and since we agreed on a 2-3-2 schedule format, Game 5 was in San Francisco. Turns out there's not much of a home court advantage, as his Walker-Brown tandem helped beat my Warriors and put us down in the series 2-3. Whatever, shit happens I guess. Anyway, we returned to New York for Game 6! It was potentially the most exciting game of the series. The Knicks had us down 11 at halftime of an elimination game... on the road. Not a fun place to be, I guess. UNLESS YOU'RE MONTA ELLIS. Yeah, so he sort of willed the Warriors to a victory almost singlehandedly, taking over in the second half. It ended up being an 82-70 win, forcing what PROMISED TO BE a dramatic Game 7.
And dramatic it was! Apparently NBA 2K11: The Game is programmed to make things come full-circle, as Steph Curry went down in the 6th minute of Game 7 and did not return. This time, though, without Acie Law (a mid-series roster update removed him from my team for some reason), we only had Jeremy Lin as a true point guard. IT MATTERED NOT. Lin sort of dominated (I think he had 18 points, can't really remember exactly), and Ellis helped the Warriors squeak out a thriller. We won the series with a 105-98 Game 7 victory, probably silencing Fake Madison Square Garden in the process.
SERIES FINAL: GS (NATE) BEATS NYK (RORY) 4-3
SERIES 2: OKC THUNDER VS. DAL MAVERICKS
We actually started this series way back in April. I don't remember the rationale, other than Rory claiming Dallas was "his team", and something about how DeShawn Stevenson gets buckets. Honestly, though, this series was sort of depressing, so I'll be quick. My Thunder crushed his Mavericks in the first two games. Game 1 was 92-67, and Game 2 was 89-70. We had about a month between Games 2 and 3, and we did Games 3 and 4 in-person on one screen. I don't remember a ton about Game 3, other than that it was the first game of the series in Dallas. I don't have the score handy, but the Thunder won by 43. It... it was a sad game. Game 4 was another Thunder victory, and we swept Rory's Mavs. I just want to note one other thing: I'm not sure if it was Game 3 or Game 4, but Rory was outscored in one of those 4th quarters 28-4. His other 4th quarter of those two wasn't much better. HEY RORY: CLOSE OUT YOUR GAMES?
SERIES FINAL: OKC (NATE) BEATS DAL (RORY) 4-0
SERIES 3: LA CLIPPERS VS. MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES
Well, if the Mavericks are "Rory's team", then the Clippers are probably mine. We picked these teams after he decided he wanted to be the Grizzlies, and I told him that he was incredibly annoying when he played with them. (For the record: He says the phrase "nitty-gritty" approximately eleventy badillions times per game when he plays with Memphis. And makes nearly as many bad puns about Mayo. It's... it's entertaining sometimes, I'll give him that.) He responded by telling me that I was just as annoying with the Clippers, and ratings-wise, they're pretty evenly matched. We would give LA home-court advantage for some reason in this series.
Game 1 (at home, no less) was frustrating. We went up considerably early on, shooting something like 55% at the half, and leading by 15 at one point. I got a little over-confident, and stopped taking high-percentage shots. The Grizzlies pulled it close, took the lead, and didn't look back. The difference here was Mike Conley. He had 2 points on 0-10 shooting in the first half, and somehow went batshit crazy in the second half. I don't remember his exact line, but it was probably something like 10-12 in that half. I will say, though, that we nearly were able to force overtime. Down 77-71 with about 10 seconds left, Eric Bledsoe hit a ballsy three, and we fouled on the inbound with 1.7 seconds left. Rory somehow missed both free throws, and Chris Kaman rebounded and immediately called for a TO. We had 1.1 seconds left and the ball upcourt, but somehow the best shot I could get was a contested 25 footer with Eric Gordon. Final score of Game 1, 77-74.
Game 2 was somehow not that different. Again, we shot > 50% in the first half, and kicked some considerable ass, with a high lead in the teens. Again, the Grizzlies pulled it close. This time, though, we managed to hold on. I'm not sure what the final score was, though I remember I led 81-71 late. It was a double digit win, I think. The difference between here and Game 1 was that we tried to utilize Chris Kaman more. He was an afterthought in Game 1, but was a dominating presence in the post for Game 2. Anyway, we split the two games in LA, taking the series to Memphis for Game 3.
For Game 3, I decided that we were going to take a different approach altogether, and that the key to the game was to take advantage of my team's jump shooting abilities (hell, even Brian Cook can knock down shots on this team). Unfortunately, I tried to force this a bit, and moved away from taking what Rory's Grizzlies were giving me. It led to a frustrating 1st quarter, where I was outscored 25-16 and shot 4/15. It could've been worse, too-- I was bailed out with 8 free throws, making all of them. The turnaround in the 2nd quarter was mind-boggling. I have seen some pretty one-sided quarters in my play with Rory (in both of our favors), but this one ranked pretty high. I shot 13/16 and held him to 3/15, with a 28-6 scoring advantage in the quarter. I went into the half up 44-31 and feeling pretty pleased. The second half was mostly unremarkable. There were some nice plays for both sides (highlighted by an incredible block by Al-Farouq Aminu, who mostly sucked shit in this game). Blake Griffin was pretty easily the Game 3 MVP, with a 27-10-2-3-3 line. He led the Clippers to an 84-74 win in Memphis, and a 2-1 series lead.
Game 4 started similarly to Game 3, with the Clippers starting out slow and heating up in the 2nd. We led 37-30 at the half, but that lead quickly evaporated in the 3rd quarter, and it was 56-53 after 3. The 4th quarter... it was sort of absurd. We shot 16/21, outrebounded the Grizzlies 14-2, and generally kicked the living shit out of Memphis. The Grizzlies were outscored in the quarter 37-17, and my Clippers took a commanding 3-1 series lead. Mo Williams earned Game 4 MVP honors with a 15-12 effort, and Blake Griffin added 23 points and 7 rebounds. To Game 5!
SERIES IN-PROGRESS: LAC (NATE) LEADS MEM (RORY) 2-1
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