Week 5 Recap
May 20, 2019
Magic Gaming held off an upstart Pistons GT to take a 63-55 win on Wednesday during Week of the NBA 2K League.
Life was great for Magic Gaming (3-3) in the first half, starting with an explosive 20-9 first quarter. Reizey lit up the court with apparent ease, nailing threes en route to finishing the first half with 20 points. DT and KingCamRoyalty got involved as well, getting easy looks thanks to the attention Reizey commanded, using good spacing to spread the Pistons thin. There were some positives for Pistons GT in the first half, namely the newly acquired DevGoss nailing his first shot as a Piston mere moments after the tip-off. Other than that, though, the first half was rough.
The Pistons looked like a completely different team after the break, though, since they came alive and made what was looking like a stomp into a competitive game. iiNsaniTTy started to get into a shooting rhythm, which helped him get his teammates more involved. DevGoss was huge for the Pistons, providing 17 points and veteran leadership, while Joseph quietly put up 12 on 5-of-5 shooting. Taking the third quarter 20-11, Pistons GT looked set to make the comeback a reality, but Magic Gaming refocused in the fourth. KingCamRoyalty’s dominance of the paint was a crutch the Magic could rely on, with Cam finishing with a 12-point, 13-rebound double-double. Despite Reizey getting cold in the second half, only scoring seven and committing seven turnovers, he still managed to find open looks for his teammates and led the Magic’s resurgence as it kept ahead of the Pistons. Pistons GT looks promising with this new roster but, with a record of 1-5, will need to improve fast if it wants to make an impact this season.
T-Wolves Gaming handed Pistons GT their second loss of the day Wednesday with a 73-59 victory in the 2K League.
Pistons GT (1-5), who are not a very good three-point shooting team, came out firing from behind the arc with point guard iiNsaniTTy and the newest member of the team, small forward DevGoss, leading the way. It didn’t work out well, as Pistons GT opened the game going just 1-of-8 from three. But despite T-Wolves Gaming (3-4) looking like they were in total control for the entire first half, shooting 15-of-23 from the field and 6-of-11 from three over the first 12 minutes, some timely made shots from Pistons GT kept them within striking distance.
Unfortunately for Pistons GT, who was down just 36-31 at half, they didn’t get the same bounce in the second half of Wednesday’s contest, as T-Wolves Gaming wasted no time opening up the third quarter on an 8-2 run to build their lead up to 11 points. That sparked what went on to be a terrific offensive quarter for them, as they scored 23 points and entered the final period with a 13-point lead.
Pistons GT did open up the fourth with a quick burst that cut the deficit to just eight points, but that was as close as they were going to get, as T-Wolves Gaming quickly built their lead up to 14 points and were able to milk the clock from there.
After doing a lot of their damage from behind the arc in the first half, T-Wolves Gaming utilized points in the paint to ultimately pull away. Center FEAST, as a result, had a monster outing, posting a team-high 18 points to go along with 13 rebounds, six assists and four steals. T-Wolves Gaming also got an impressive performance out of its newest member, point guard JMoneyRep817, who the team acquired in a trade this week. The point guard scored 17 points and dished out nine assists in his debut.
Meanwhile, Pistons GT couldn’t get the same kind of performance out of DevGoss, who was also acquired via trade this week. DevGoss came out firing, but he ended up scoring just eight points on 3-of-11 shooting. The team ended up being a one-man show Wednesday, with power forward Joseph needing just 12 shots to score a game-high 28 points, as he went 5-of-6 from behind the arc.