The first night of the NBA 2K Players Tournament didn’t bring a whole lot of excitement. Fortunately, Sunday’s edition of the competition saw a pair of competitive games and an eye-popping blowout:
- #13 Rui Hachimura (playing as Lakers) beat #4 Donovan Mitchell (Nets), 74-71
- #5 Devin Booker (Bucks) beat #12 Michael Porter Jr. (Lakers), 85-75
- #6 Andre Drummond (Lakers) beat #11 DeMarcus Cousins (Nets), 101-49
- #8 Montrezl Harrell (Clippers) vs. #9 Domantas Sabonis (Pacers), 73-51
Just like last time, we have a few observations.
For starters, we learned that participants were only allowed to play as a specific team once throughout the tourney (the participants also apparently picked from eight teams that they could theoretically choose from throughout the tourney… this wasn’t entirely clear, but that’s the impression I got). In other words, Rui won’t be able to play as the Lakers again, but he can pick from one of the other seven teams he initially listed.
In that case, that makes this ‘team selection count’ somewhat relevant:
- Lakers: 4
- Bucks: 4
- Clippers: 2
- Nets: 2
- Pacers: 1
- Rockets: 1
- Heat: 1
- Raptors: 1
Clearly, the participants like playing as either LeBron James or Giannis Antetokounmpo, and we saw the Nets become a popular pick on Day 2.
We also finally saw some participants opt for their own, real-life team, and it happened in the same game! The Harrell (Clippers)/Sabonis (Pacers) matchup went about as expected, with the Indy All-Star benching himself following a rough first quarter. Meanwhile, Drummond seemed to hint that he might pull out the Cavaliers until he (intelligently) opted for the Lakers.
Were any of the specific team selections telling from a player-movement perspective?
We wish we could geek out over impending-free-agent Drummond opting for the Lakers, but it seems unlikely that he’d be a target for Los Angeles (it also seems unlikely that they’d be able to carve out the necessary cap space, anyway). The two rookies (Rui and MPJ) playing as LeBron wasn’t too surprising, nor was Harrell/Sabonis playing as themselves.
If there was one interesting selection, it came via Boogie. Cousins is currently a free agent, and he’ll presumably have his pick of teams once he’s back to full health. Could he head to Brooklyn to play alongside former teammate Kevin Durant? Probably not, but that speculation is all we have right now.
With the first round complete, we have our quarterfinals matchups:
- #2 Trae Young vs. #10 Deandre Ayton
- #5 Devin Booker vs. #13 Rui Hachimura
- #6 Andre Drummond vs. #14 Patrick Beverley
- #8 Montrezl Harrell vs. #16 Derrick Jones Jr.
The quarterfinals will air on ESPN2 on Tuesday evening.
