What a season it was for us. There were two crucial moments that would've ended our season early.
The first was our second regular season game against VB United, which I won at the buzzer after two offensive rebounds. If I lose this game, I end up with the #2 seed and lose to Shrugging Shlubs in the first round.
QFinals
I managed to defeat New York Legends only by 1 point for a number of reasons, but one BIG reason for sure. I used "Playoff Normal" effort. I mispredicted his strategy. I had two new players and had no idea how to optimize their skillsets. The biggest reason, of course, was Osker Marti getting injured early in the game and being out for the rest of it. Judging on how the game was going, we would've lost by a lot if Marti gets more minutes. The fact that this game went the way it did, told me I had to make adjustments going forward.
SFinals
I adjusted by taking Barnett out of the starting lineup entirely. I knew VB United was an outside focused team, so I decided to put Bellamy back at the Small Forward position and slide Inigo and Devore down to PF and C, respectively. While I thought Bellamy wouldn't shoot the ball well at all, he did bolster our overall Outside Defense by quite a bit. Bellamy ended up shooting somewhat decently and we won by 20, way more than expected.
Finals
Going into the Finals, I had no expectations of how close the games would be. Foes and I had only faced off once during the season, obviously, and even though I had Harvey Shah, we lost by 22 points. However, this game provided me with the information that we needed bigger upgrades come playoff time, but it also told me that the Foes were willing to use max effort during regular season games. Because I was doing my Player of the Game standings, I was looking at every box score. After this game, I paid more attention to everyone's effort level used during the regular season.
I decided if we are going to win this series, it's going to be because of effort level. I used TIE(Take it Easy) all season long and had only used maximum effort against VB United in the Semifinals. Fair Where Foes had multiple games during the regular season where he used maximum effort along with the previous playoff games, so I knew I had the advantage there.
Game 1 was intended to be informative. I would use minimal effort. If Foes predict this and go PN, as well, nothing changes. If Foes use max effort, it gives me a bigger advantage going forward. I decided to use the lineup from the previous round, because it worked well. Also, Figueiredo was the biggest offensive threat so the Outside Defense strategy comes into play here too. I was expecting Moody to be shutdown and Bellamy to shoot terribly, but I really didn't know what else to do. We ended up winning despite the predicted terrible shooting. More importantly, Foes used max effort so everything went as well as it could've.
Going into Game 2, I had a feeling Foes would change their game plan, but I wasn't sure so I decided to look at their previous two Finals appearances. They had gone Motion, Push the Ball and Patient in these games. NYL had used Motion to great success against me and VB United had tried it as well, but Motion offense was the oldest strategy in these previous games the Foes played. It seemed to me that Foes favored balanced offenses ever since. So I then decided it would be between PTB, which he used most of the season and in Game 1, or Patient. I decided to just predict the type and not the flow, because if I predict both and he went Motion, I mispredict both flow and focus. Because I won Game 1, I went with minimal effort again, but made one last change (literally 30 min before game time). I switched Bellamy and Moody's positions. I figured. Moody might be able to score easier, since Schumacher is giving him trouble. Bellamy can't shoot much worse, so even if Schumacher shut him down. I wasn't losing much. I won Game 2, with Moody and Bellamy b
Last edited by Matt D at 7/15/2018 5:07:15 PM