2023-2024: Week 5 Player Reports

Game 1: Team Silver vs. Team Blue

-While this game was competitive through halftime, the rest of the game seems to be indicative of two teams headed in different directions. Silver kept pushing and Blue folded and didn’t fight back. We’re seeing none of the offensive firepower we expected out of the Justin/Ed combo and, quietly, the Carter/Richie pairing has stabilized and been very reliable on the current three-game win streak for Team Silver. They should continue to get open looks with all the attention Chris pulls, so in many ways, their team’s success hinges on their ability to stay engaged and productive. The question looming over Team Silver is can they sack up against the more physical teams in the league that just won’t surrender the same quality of open looks? Team Blue needs to swallow hard and take their current record personally. The thought that this team would be battling for a fucking playoff spot is a joke. They’re capable of much more, with or without any actual team depth (nice drafting Luke). Justin and Ed alone should be able to get them where they need to go, but first they have to want to make it happen. We’ll see.

Game 2: Team Green vs. Team Gold

-Old Robby K got off the snide and secured his first win of the season with him and Aderman finally both playing well at the same time. They were both scoring from all over the court and Gold put up very little resistance. Point God Freddy Salgado had the game of his life and if Gold’s defense can’t stop him, then they’ll be stuck at the bottom of the standings dung heap with the other low-effort squads. Scoring points is great. Winning games is better. But can Troy inspire any type of defensive grit in a basketball team? The answer is no.

Game 3: - Team Yellow vs. Team Pink

-Yellow was short-handed yet again, which resulted in too much of a handicap for them to overcome. For a 0-5 team, you still see glimpses of what they can be at times: an extremely talented lead scorer capable of being the best player on a championship team, a ton of size and experience, and a stable of capable shooters. You have to shake your head and wonder how this team got to 0-5. Some of the players on this squad would be prized by other teams struggling with roster stability. And yet, still 0-5. Sometimes the pieces just don’t fit. Should they throw in the towel already? Possibly. Probably. But the expanded regular season allows for a little extra time for them to figure their shit out. They will get Silver and Green to close out the first half of the season, which are both winnable games. If they secure those, they would be 2-5 heading into their rematch games and who knows? If some teams are riding high on a stairway to heaven while securing their wins, Team Pink is enjoying their roll in the mucky, ugly highway to hell. It was expected, but each week is an adventure while we navigate streaky shooting and awkward matchups. We currently stand at 4-1 and haven’t had any comfortable wins, which might be a good thing. It’s kept us on our toes as we continue to coalesce as a team. Huge test and huge opportunity in Week 6 against the undefeated Team Purple.

Game 4: - Team Purple vs. Team Orange

-After a hot start for Team Orange, Purple made some defensive adjustments and turned this one into an easy win. That might be the scariest part about Team Purple; not only do they have a good group of ballers who can attack in a variety of ways, they are also all competent basketball players that can use actual basketball strategy if they so choose. It sounds like they did so choose and it turned this game on its head. Orange is suffering through some injury issues that have left them extremely thin and ultra-reliant on the Rashad/Antwan duo. Teams will continue to load up on them and wins might be harder to come by. Regardless, they can still basically tread water until they have their full team back and should still be in contention for one of the top playoff seeds. They’ve already demonstrated that their full squad is a title contender, so the goal now will be to bridge the gap until they need to show it again.

Standings

Team	Captain	Win	Loss	Record	Win %	Streak	PS	PA	DIFF
PURPLE	STEVE DUDEK	5	0	5 - 0	1.000	W5	383	292	91
ORANGE	MATT VITALIANO	4	1	4 - 1	0.800	L1	381	330	51
PINK	MARK KOLL	4	1	4 - 1	0.800	W2	324	310	14
SILVER	MATT KOLL	3	2	3 - 2	0.600	W3	331	325	6
GOLD	DAVE TROY	2	3	2 - 3	0.400	L2	371	391	-20
BLUE	LUKE ASIMAKOPOULOS	1	4	1 - 4	0.200	L3	253	310	-57
GREEN	ROB KNAPCZYK	1	4	1 - 4	0.200	W1	335	355	-20
YELLOW	KYLE GARMES	0	5	0 - 5	0.000	L5	297	363	-66