Milwaukee Bucks NBA 2K League affiliate Bucks Gaming cruised past CLTX Gaming in the first round of The Turn on Wednesday night.
With their playoff pursuit very much set to come down to the wire as the NBA 2K League season approaches its business end, a significant part of Bucks Gaming‘s focus will need to fall on the league’s remaining in-season tournaments and the lucrative prize funds on offer in those events.
On that front, no tournament will be more important than The Ticket, for which the winner claims a spot in the postseason, but a good run in this week’s The Turn is certainly something the Milwaukee Bucks’ affiliate wouldn’t turn their noses up at.
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As the games got underway on Wednesday, Bucks Gaming found themselves as the highest ranked team not to receive a second round bye, and therefore were matched up against Boston Celtics’ affiliate, CLTX Gaming.
CLTX Gaming have endured a particularly dismal season so far, with a record of 1-12 making them major underdogs heading into this contest with the Bucks.
The Turn adds a different wrinkle to proceedings, though, creating room for some added unpredictability and entertainment.
Regular 2K League viewers will be more than familiar with the importance of the positional archetypes that the players utilize in the league build of NBA 2K. Generally, a consensus will emerge from year-to-year on the effectiveness of certain archetypes, with those select few options then going on to become key tools that fuel the league’s best players.
What makes The Turn a little different is it allows the teams to implement bans on chosen archetypes, narrowing the options and taking some players out of their comfort zones.
For Game 1, the Celtics chose to ban Slashing Playmaker for Point Guard, and Glass Cleaner at Power Forward, with the Bucks opting for both Perimeter Defender and 3-Level Scorer at Small Forward.
With those options off the table for both teams, the Bucks still had their regular archetypes available for three starters, including star point guard Regg. Arooks and Squidris were forced into adjustments, but with that pair being among the league’s original veterans, such tweaks proved to be no big deal.
To CLTX Gaming’s credit, in spite of their overall struggles this season, they produced a strong first half in Game 1. Not only did they hold a four-point lead at the break, but they’d done so while edging both of the first two quarters individually.
The second half proved to be a very different story, though, as the Bucks ramped up their defense to hold Boston to just 11 points in the third quarter, and only seven in the final period.
That rounded out to a 64-54 win for the Bucks, with Regg contributing 18 points and 10 assists, Arooks adding 17 points, three assists, and two steals, and Ty chipping in with 13 points.
With one additional archetype each allowed to be banned for Game 2, CLTX took 2 Way Stretch 4 off the table, with the Bucks opting for Slashing Sharpshooter at the point guard spot.
That decision from Boston was a little surprising as it freed up Regg to continue on his preferred Scoring Machine build, if he desired, with the Celtics seemingly more intent on preserving options for their own point guard Fab, rather than stopping Milwaukee’s star.
In a shrewd move that will likely act as preparation for what will come in the rounds ahead, Regg proactively pivoted off of Scoring Machine to Offensive Threat, and put on a show all the same.
There was no repeat of Game 1 as the Bucks had a much more sustained stranglehold over proceedings in Game 2, with Regg turning facilitator and his teammates showing no issues in taking on their share of the scoring load.
The Bucks rolled off an impressive 105 points, with Arooks leading with 29 points, followed by Plondo’s 24 points and 14 rebounds, Squidris’ 21 points and five boards, and Ty’s 16 points and six steals.
That left Regg in the unfamiliar position of trailing his teammates in scoring with just 15 points, but that came alongside a truly remarkable 30 assists, which now stands as a new 2K League record for assists in a game.
Bucks Gaming couldn’t have had a much better start in the The Turn, and will hope to channel that into a second round win over Hornets Venom GT on Thursday night.