RotoWire – Juan Pablo Aravena

Wednesday’s matchup between 76ers GC and Knicks Gaming featured two teams desperate for a win in an effort to move up the standings. For Knicks Gaming, a 6-6 record entering their only Week 9 bout put them firmly in the middle of the pack for a higher seeding, but a 1-2 record over the last three weeks represented some fairly critical chinks in the team’s respective armor.

In contrast, two of the 76ers’ three season wins have come over the last two weeks, although each of their four contests have went the distance. This Week 9 matchup would prove no different, with the 76ers ultimately claiming another three-game series victory with a dominating Game 3 finish.
Game 1 saw the 76ers continue their recent run of good play, built around the unexpected brilliance of point guard Radiant. While the team raced out to a 42-33 halftime lead, the star point guard unsurprisingly had his way in the first half, posting 16 points, but the bigger story was Radiant’s passing, which seemed to set the tone, and pace, of the 76ers GC offense. The prime recipient of the methodical style was Scretty, who went a perfect 5-of-5 from deep in the first half, including a stretch of three consecutive three’s in the final three minutes of the second quarter which extended the Game 1 advantage.

Knicks Gaming would rally back to open the second half, trimming the deficit almost immediately to just a single point, but that’s as close as 76ers GC would let them get. For the ensuing quarter and a half, Radiant and company would wobble between outright runs of dominance, including two separate 6-0 stretches, as well as persistent, momentum-killing buckets, largely off of rebounds from center BreadwinnerLA. Knicks Gaming point guard, Duck, did score 34 points and even managed to active his Takeover in the third, but was held to just two points in the final frame while shooting guard OriginalMalik tried unsuccessfully to lead his team back with 12 of his 25 points coming in the fourth quarter. Radiant’s 37 points were essentially spaced out throughout the game, mixed in with 3-point shooting from Scretty and Steez, who combined to miss just one of their 10 deep-ball attempts in the 81-73 Game 1 win.

The script essentially flipped in Game 2, this time featuring a bevy of healthy leads for Knicks Gaming. First quarter saw an 18-6 run by Knicks Gaming in the opening four minutes, only for 76ers GC to finish the quarter trailing by just three. The Knicks would put the pressure on again in the second, posting a blistering 14-7 run in the ensuing four minutes of period two, only for the 76ers to chip away at the deficit again, trailing by just seven. The seesaw battled continued in the second half with 76ers GC ultimately getting within one point on two separate occasions, only for the Knicks to respond and persevere. Two wide open missed 3-points midway through the fourth ultimately stalled 76ers GC’s latest and final comeback attempt, with a smattering of baskets from both sides essentially stalling out the game to the tune of a 79-74 Game 2 win for the Knicks.

Unlike Game 1, it was a total team effort for Knicks Gaming in the second contest, as Duck and OriginalMalik helped in the aforementioned first and second quarter runs (23 points combined in the first 10 minutes) while center CantGuardRob would put the game away in the fourth, utilizing his Takeover badge to post 10 points in the first three minutes of the final stanza. Rob’s 16-point, 15-rebound double-double was critical to his team’s success, particularly coupled with Duck’s 32 points and 13 assists. Radiant tried his best for 76ers GC, scoring a game-high 41 points, but a bit of lackadaisical defense coupled with inconsistent shooting from the rest of his team would ultimately push the series to a deciding Game 3.

There would be no back and forth in Game 3, as Radiant would essentially lock up a series win by the second quarter. 29 of the team’s 47 first-half points came from the star point guard, as Radiant nearly outscored all of Knicks Gaming (37 points) through the first 12 minutes. The second half continued much like the first, with Radiant ultimately claiming a game-high 54 points while missing just five of his 27 attempts from the field. Duck and OriginalMalik would try their best to keep up with the 76ers, scoring a combined 55 points of their own, but the one-man wrecking crew of a point guard proved to be far too much of an advantage in a 105-78 Game 3 win.