#SLOE: People's Basketball Sim League

Who is going to pull off a first round upset?
What about the matchup favors the lower seed?
Will it come down to matchups, or game planning?

Rules: 1 point if you give thoughtful answers, which I will award after the timer ends for responses. The timer ends for responses at the moment the corresponding week's Sim is run.

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Due: Due by the deadline for sim 12

Mike Lowry wrote: Wed Jul 02, 2025 10:45 pm Who is going to pull off a first round upset?
What about the matchup favors the lower seed?
Will it come down to matchups, or game planning?

Rules: 1 point if you give thoughtful answers, which I will award after the timer ends for responses. The timer ends for responses at the moment the corresponding week's Sim is run.

Note: Use approximately 5 sentences as your bare minimum for 1 point. If you write 3 long, complex sentences, you'll still get a point. If you write 5, 3 word sentences, you will not get a point. Don't @ me.

Due: Due by the deadline for sim 12

Kind of tough not knowing for sure what the playoff matchups look like, but for the sake of argument, let's assume for the moment that the current standings hold. In the East, the Cavaliers and the Nets match up as the 4/5 seeds and I could see the Nets pulling that series out. We know the Nets have won a title before, so they have the experience, and at least for now, they are healthy, which has been the big factor in their lack of recent success. Dawkins has shown he can go on a tear in the playoffs before, and I think in the playoffs, an upset usually comes from a star going supernova and Dawkins is the kind of star that can go supernova. It's hard to tell exactly what makes a star go supernova, but I tend to think it's more game planning than matchups, because in the past we've seen stars go nuts against scrubs but also against other stars - if you can go nuts against anyone, it can't be matchups.

I'm just gonna say some things that I said before, because they fit here:
Gonna shout out Seattle one mo gain.
They lost DJ for the rest of the regular season.
He'll be available for the first round, probably a full go around game 2.
I don't think they need him though.
They're going to get the Lake Show in the first round and I think they match up well.
They have the depth and balance to throw a bunch of bigger bodies at Magic and force the smaller guards to beat them from outside.
I honestly don't see many game plans that favor the Lakers, and it would take Seattle really getting away from their many strengths to lose the series.

Who is going to pull off a first round upset?
I think if any team (from the current standings) has a chance at upsetting the higher seed it would have to be the Nets. But it will not be easy for them being any means. The fact that the Nets didn't play that well on the road whie the Cavs did just means it's gonna be hard for the Nets to win a road game and switch the series up.

What about the matchup favors the lower seed?
It's still a big man game and I think the Nets have the advantage there. They have three bigs who could all be starters so that gives them extra depth when going up against the Cavs bigs. The other thing is that the Nets seem to feature their bigs more than the Cavs. And even then, the Nets also have two really good guards to slow down the Cavs wing players. I think the Cavs are probably the best matchup the Nets could hope for in the first round as a lower seed.

Will it come down to matchups, or game planning?
I think it will have to be more game planning. As I said, the Nets have the better bigs so the Cavs are going to have to find some way to sow them down and allow for their smaller guys to take over the game.

@WigNosy
@Mike Lowry
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+1 point