Knicks Gaming, a team that is ranked second to last in the regular season standings, are one game away from getting an automatic bid into the NBA 2K League playoffs.

The Knicks Gaming beat Cavs Legion GC 74-67 in THE TICKET semifinals, overpowering the Cavs’ Legion trademark 5-out motion offense and forcing 12 turnovers.

Cavs Legion GC began the game strong, leading by two in a quarter that saw both teams bobble and give away the ball often. Towards the end of the first quarter, Knicks Gaming’s GOOFY 757 caught fire and stayed hot until the halftime break. His teammates kept feeding him under the basket, where he was able to throw in buckets up and around Godddof2K and Turnupdefense.

GOOFY 757’s scoring efforts, along with his four steals, helped his team lead 38-27 at the half. Hood put up 18 points by this point in an attempt to keep the Cavs Legion in the game, but Cleveland’s turnover issues prevented them from coming close to the Knicks’ lead.

Case and point: the start of the third quarter, which was a pretty ugly sequence of basketball. There were three turnovers in 20 seconds, with two of them committed by Cavs Legion. Cleveland quickly called a timeout to try and calm themselves down, but the Knicks Gaming still seemed to be under their skin, continuing to splash in three-pointers and filling the 2K League studio with their energy.

At the end of the third, Hood hit a mid-range jumper to cut the Knicks’ lead to single-digits while also giving some momentum back to the Cavs Legion. They tried to slowly inch back into the game in the fourth quarter, but the Knicks’ gaming barrage of three-pointers put the game out of reach. IdrisDaGoat6 and iamadamthe1st were the main culprits of the downtown assault, combining for 40 points and 7-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc.

Hood will exit the tournament with 132 points across three games. He truly shone through as the Cavs’ Legion number one option on offense, playing as if he was the virtual version of a certain Akron-born superstar in the NBA. “LeHood James,” as he is called by some, carried this Cleveland team through three hard-fought rounds of THE TICKET, and will now look to lead this team through the homestretch of the inaugural NBA 2K League season.