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The fantasy basketball semi-finals (if you play head to head) are upon us. It's where anything can happen. Those teams who paid their dues and lounged away through the first round of the playoffs, as a reward for their "hard work" during the fantasy regular season, now have to strut their stuff one more time. This is where top seeds sometimes have to swallow the bitter taste of an upset and where Cinderella stories go down in the anals of beer and peanut fantasy chit-chat.
I made 2 playoffs out of the 4 fantasy head to head leagues I signed up for. Well 5 if you decide to count GMTR's Mock Draft League. Personally I don't, and not just because I didn't make the playoffs but because it didn't allow any in-season moves.
Anyway, one of those playoffs in particular is near and dear to my heart.This is the first time I joined a GMTR league and was quite nervous and excited to play with some of the "big boys" of fantasy basketball. This league is especially important to me because I started 2009 by joining the GMTR blog as a writer and I didn't want to embarrass myself with a ridiculously poor showing in my first foray in its premiere league. I was the laughing stock of the league when I became the schmuck who couldn't keep it in his pants, and drafted Yao Ming in the third round of the 12-man head to head, weekly changes league. For the most of the early part of the season my team was wallowing away in the league's cellar as it didn't have a clearly defined strategy and direction, not much unlike this year's real life Los Angeles Clippers. Ewww, blech!  Somehow, through my constant, automatic fire tactic of filtering through the wires for better guys; I was able to eventually redefine my team into a full fledged, proper big ball strat roster.
I squeaked into the 6th spot of the GMTR Readers League playoffs. In the first round I was fortunate to find my opponent, Nels of no less than Give Me The Rock, to have a lineup for that week riddled with injured key players like Troy Murphy and Rasheed Wallace. Sorry and thanks boss! I'll take my Ws where I can get 'em. I won our match-up 5-3, tying his team in the steals category.
Now, in the semis, I am facing a fellow blogger; Carl of Fantasy Basketball Jedi. He originally drafted his team to be a big ball team; and by the result of his getting a bye in the first round, it clearly was a good strategy that worked out for him.
So my stint in the semis is all about big ball versus big ball. I decided to battle Jedi cat for cat and am hoping to sneak in Ws in FT% and maybe assists. Here our lineups for this week:
Fantasy Basketball Jedi
PG: Jose Calderon
SG: Ron Artest
G: Monta Ellis
SF: LeBron James
PF: Tim Duncan
F: Anderson Varejao
C: Paul Millsap
C: Boris Diaw
Util: Ronnie Brewer
Util: Erick Dampier
Bench: Ben Gordon, Tyrus Thomas, Andris Biedrins
Points in the Paint
PG: Tony Parker
SG: Thabo Sefolosha
G: Mario Chalmers
SF: Jamario Moon
PF: Dirk Nowitzki
F: Brook Lopez
C: Yao Ming
C: Al Horford
Util: Lamar Odom
Util: Ramon Sessions
Bench: Allen Iverson, Joakim Noah, Paul Pierce
Clearly, we benched our Bulls and Celtics players because of their low number of games to be played this week. He is counting on LeBron James and Tim Duncan to carry his team, while I am crossing my fingers and hoping Yao, Dirk and Brook can outduel his big men and keep my FT% palatable and competitive in the process. I never thought I would see the day that my fantasy team would be counting on Yao Ming, of all players who hardly play half a season, to carry it through to the finals. This is an interesting matchup of mirrored strategies. We both want to win boards, blocks and steals; while giving up on treys. I don't have a LBJ-type of guy in my lineup but I am hoping that my guys' diverse talent array is enough to offset that. I'm wishing I can squeak through this week's big man slug-fest, come out on top, and hopefully face defending champ, Patrick of GMTR next week; thus sending Carl back to Jedi School...
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