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i'm playing a weaker team tonight. to save minutes for later in the week, i had started several second stringers. they build up a 20 point lead going into the 4th. my bench (my normal starters) enter the game. they get outscored by the other team in the 4th. to add insult to injury, their two best players had fouled out before the end of the 3rd period. so, rather than get mad, i got to thinking . . .

i have noticed a team with a big lead "relaxing" in the 4th -- actually, to be outscored in the 4th when having built up a big lead is not an unusual pattern, in my experience. i wonder if there is a miniature "take it easy" that kicks in for the leading team in such a circumstance -- possibly something that could help modify enthusiasm.

i will be curious to see if others think there could be anything to this --

You offered one sample with your premise to back up your conclusion. That's a very small sample size to be able to come up with that conclusion.

Here's my experience this season . After 3 quarters, the number of times that the team that is up by 20 or more points:

Was outscored in the 4th: 3 (the teams the were up by 20 still won)
Outscored their opponent in the 4th: 11

So atleast in my experience, it looks like the team that was up kept being up for the rest of the game.

Last edited by kLepTo at 5/30/2010 11:50:22 AM

I accept your point my observation about actual results in the fourth is too anecdotal, but what you focused on was not really my point. It is not whether the dominant team actually scored more or fewer points with their scrubs in the fourth -- that I could see has many possible results, depending on, for example, the quality of the bench or substituting pattern or a dozen other variables.

No, what I was wondering was provoked by my team's individual player ratings for the game. I have a couple of players who predictably produce a game rating of x. They did not start, and thus much of their time (around half) in this game came during the fourth period. Now my bench players, my second string whom I had started for this game, had done well against their starters -- they were the ones, after all, who had run up the 20 point lead. Presumably, my starters would have added to the lead; additionally, since they were not going to be tired, they should have had at least as high game ratings as when they have played 40 minutes or more in past games. This was my thinking, my expectations.

Instead, my fourth period players played at a level of approximately x-1, and as a whole were outscored by the other team's starters. This is the part that I am interested in. I wonder if, as an explanation, the Game Engine has a built-in "TIE" for the team that is winning big time in the fourth period. This is not to say, of course, that such a team could not "win" the fourth, or that it would (as in my case) "lose" the fourth -- just that the GE would have my players jogging through the fourth, knowing the win was assured, and -- here is my speculation -- building up a little enthusiasm for future games.

I hope this makes my question a bit more clear.

As someone who has had quite a few blowout games this season, i can understand your question but i doubt very much that there are any mini enthusiasm boosts or anything like that.

I think what this particular case comes down to is just being plain old outplayed for a quarter. If you look at my last match against the Jets for example (20587485) i was playing a team of mainly my second stringers and expected the heavy loss that i got. Even though the lineup that the opposing team fielded was better than mine, it was a home game for them and they put more enthusiasm into the game, i still somehow won the second quarter.

You could probably find examples around the place that better match your experience but basically, it's basketball and anything can happen. Teams go on runs and put together good periods of play sometimes, it just happened to be in the 4th quarter this time. Think about how many times the Phoenix Suns bench rallied from behind against the Lakers to claw their way back in these finals :P


Oh and as far as your player ratings goes, i don't see anything too unusual here. Sure you might be use to pulling a couple of double digit player ratings from what i see in a few of your recent games but tactics, enthusiasm etc have changed from game to game as well so it makes sense that your ratings would differ slightly like they have.



Last edited by DireWolf at 5/31/2010 1:37:20 PM