Recap

7:30pm – Peyton vs. Pauly P

One of the more intriguing matchups of this 2024 opening session, the two first-time captains trotted out their teams, both with that sort of “boom or bust” vibe to them. The real MVP Pauly P ran the offense and fed his guy Gersitz, who breezed his way to an 18/10/5 stat line on 60% shooting. Gersitz looked way more GAPEy than he did most of last session, reasserting his dominance as a top dog with 27 GAPE. Pauly wasn’t too far behind, as he matched Mike with 18 points of his own, frustrating the defense with that silky smooth left handed floater. Salvati, AKA Mike 2, had a forgettable evening, as he only managed to sink 2 of his 14 attempts, but he played some solid defense with 3 blocks. Helmet must have had a dream that he was Steph Curry or something, as he was letting it fly from range – he did connect on one 3 ball, but his GAPE of 1 left much to be desired. If Malicki can make his return and is even marginally better than the last time we saw him in action, this team could be an overwhelming force. But, until then, they will likely rely heavily on the two former MVPs to carry the bulk of the load.

Peyton’s team definitely has a theme – high volume shooters and ball handlers galore. For those who don’t know about the draft day debacle, somehow we saw our youngest Grinder weasel his way into securing Tommy for only $5. On the surface, this team should be capable of dropping 60+ every week. But there were some growing pains in their first game – primarily, perennial MVP candidate Jimmy seeing the least amount of playing time and the man who’s never seen a shot he didn’t like, Bryant. 21 points looks nice on the stat sheet, but then it gets ugly – 30 shots and 0 secondary stats outside of rebounds? Not exactly a winning formula. When Jimmy was in the game, he looked like his usual self with an efficient 8 points – but a GAPE of 8 feels like an all-time low for this guy. For the team’s sake they’ll need to get him the ball more frequently and let him do his thing. The $5 man himself, Tommy, couldn’t find a groove, outside of one of his signature scoop layup drives – 5 points, 5 rebounds and 5 turnovers is just so fitting for Tommy. Him and fives! He did have 4 steals and a block, but essentially canceled those out with 5 turnovers and a 2/9 shooting performance that included 2 airballs. Eric “Cuz” Carlson made his return, and we didn’t see too much hacking, but he did drill a three-pointer and added a steal. Peyton led the way in GAPE for his team with 13, and contributed 6 points, along with 10 boards, 4 assists and 2 steals. We will all be praying for him this week when he has to play de-facto “big” man against Cole’s team.