East: @BenitoSTARR and @Dan outperforming expectations with the Knicks, and even more so @sebsheep's Pistons. @Solius and @Skizzo make the playoffs with Orlando, but in 7th as last time. @hobbers rounds out the playoff participants, exactly where he was expected to finish. @V.O. was expected to make it, but barely misses out due to having a worse head-to-heard score (not even the results, which were even) than hobbers and the Nets. @Dr. Dwayne and @weetee weren't expected to make it and didn't, but got vaguely close. @Samid didn't get even remotely close with the Cavaliers.
West: only one Cafite didn't make it, and it was @reelworld with the Suns. He wasn't expected to make it, but then neither were @oneniltothearsenal's Supersonics and @P-Nut and @Stobzilla's Grizzlies, whose teams were expected to finish bottom of the conference. @altodevil and @The Cat nailed the top spots again, with similar records to last season. @Salt Bailly rounds out the top 3 with the Denver Nuggets - with a fantastic home record but a poor away record.
Important teammate injuries:
altodevil:
1st Round
In addition to the regular stats of points/rebounds/assists, I've added Field Goals (shots) taken and scored, to give you a better idea of how you actually played. I was about to ask if any of you actually read any of that stuff or if you just click down to the final spoiler and see the results, but I reckon I might keep doing it regardless. This might be the same part of me that used to run a football league in a notebook when I was a kid, with a full table for two divisions and fixtures that were resolved with dice.
We'll have two more Cafite match-ups in the 2nd Round! The Cat and Minnesota will face off against Salt Bailly and Denver in the West, and in the East we've got BenitoSTARR and Dan's New York up against Solius and Skizzo's Orlando. We've also got altodevil's Los Angeles up against Dallas.
Los Angeles - Dallas 93-74 | altodevil: 2/34/1 (1-1 FG)
Minnesota - Denver 93-100 | The Cat: 18/6/2 (7-11 FG) | Salt Bailly: 13/8/3 (4-7 FG) New York - Orlando 106-99 | BenitoSTARR: 35/10/11 (13-23 FG) + Dan: 9/7/6 (4-8 FG) | Solius: 50/4/8 (17-28 FG) + Skizzo: 6/6/3 (3-9 FG)
Solius sets a new RedCafe record for gamescore in a playoff game (47.9)
Los Angeles - Dallas 107-91 | altodevil: 2/28/3 (1-2 FG) Minnesota - Denver 106-95| The Cat: 19/8/1 (7-14 FG) | Salt Bailly: 10/9/3 (5-14 FG) New York - Orlando 115-114 | BenitoSTARR: 29/6/7 (10-23 FG) + Dan: 16/3/5 (6-8 FG) | Solius: 32/7/18 (11-20 FG) + Skizzo: 21/1/5 (7-13 FG)
Los Angeles - Dallas 94-111 | altodevil: 2/24/0 (1-3 FG) Minnesota - Denver 116-96 | The Cat: 23/13/2 (9-15 FG) | Salt Bailly: 4/8/6 (2-4 FG) New York - Orlando 105-98 | BenitoSTARR: 25/7/5 (8-13 FG) + Dan: 17/3/3 (7-11 FG) | Solius: 31/9/6 (13-31 FG) + Skizzo: 8/3/1 (3-6 FG)
Los Angeles - Dallas 97-90 | altodevil: 2/15/2 (1-2 FG) Minnesota - Denver 132-105 | The Cat: 12/6/0 (5-6 FG) | Salt Bailly: 17/7/3 (7-11 FG)
Los Angeles - Dallas 114-74 | altodevil: 2/28/2 (1-1 FG)
It's a repeat of last season in the West, with altodevil and the Lakers taking on The Cat and the Timberwolves. Last time Minnesota came out on top, and they would go on to win the title as well. We had a different result in the re-run of the 2nd Round match-up from last year in the East (New York vs. Orlando), but the winner will again take on Chicago. The Bulls are even stronger this year, and back then they took out Orlando. Will BenitoSTARR and Dan do any better?
We've got @The Cat back in the playoffs, with a chance at winning his 4th ring! He's up against a seriously strong Chicago Bulls though.
Chicago 107 - 125 Minnesota | The Cat: 17/13/1 (7-13 FG)
Chicago 103 - 94 Minnesota | The Cat: 5/9/3 (2-11 FG)
Chicago 115 - 127 Minnesota | The Cat: 12/3/11 (4-11 FG)
Chicago 111 - 82 Minnesota | The Cat: 18/4/2 (7-14 FG)
Chicago 105 - 86 Minnesota | The Cat: 12/10/4 (4-11 FG)
Chicago 118-105 Minnesota | The Cat: 15/9/5 (7-17 FG)
Close but no cigar for The Cat and Minnesota. Still, they had the 7th best record in the league going into the playoffs, so getting that close is quite the achievement.