Week 4
Welcome to Console Corners’ NBA2k League Power Rankings. Week 4 of the 2020 Season is now complete and it was the most interesting to say the least. Kings and Jazz trash talked eachother on Social Media, People have blamed the Raptors success to their Internet connection, and the Blazer5 Gaming squad put on a record of a night before falling from the Top of the Standings. You can check out all of the action Live Tuesday-Friday 7 PM EDT on Youtube, Twitch, and the ESPN Watch App.
Don’t forget you can check out all of the NBA2k League Stats for both Teams and Players now on our website here.
1. Raptors Uprising GC
The Raptors finally had an off week and some much needed rest. Although they didn’t play they still ended up in the headlines due to someone reporting that other Teams around the League were crediting a ton of their success to their Internet connection. Now as they might have a really good internet plan set up in their facility and that plays maybe a slight part during the online remote play we fail to believe this. As Kenny, a front runner for MVP also said, this doesn’t excuse opponents PG’s from not being able to make reads. Cannot wait to see if the Rap’s can continue their success outside of remote play and see what people come up with then.
2. Warriors Gaming Squad
The Warriors are another Team who were able to rest up and not have to worry about matching up with any other Teams in Week 4. This team is also on fire still, and among the Raptors, the only two undefeated Teams left in the League. Nothing more to be said as this is just the same case as the Raptors, they have the meta figured out, the player chemistry and skills to make it all work as well.
3. Wizards District Gaming
The Wizards have proven they have found a gem in JBM who continues to light up the floor with his scoring ability and his passing. Newdini has proven he is the right fit in the lineup and continues to be on of the best PFs in the League currently. The team still has a ways to go to be on top but they have kept climbing after a fumbling in their first match up of the year. The Wizards were and still are showing how great they can play on offense but this past week against the Celtics they have shown they can play great on the defensive side of the ball. Dayfri and Awkward stepped up huge. Awkward with the consistent steals and Dayfri who was able to grab 9 blocks in Game 1 to gain some momentum for him and his team.
4. Blazer5 Gaming
Blazer5 Gaming had themselves a week to say the least. To start it off Game 1 of their first match against the Bucks Mama goes off for 77 points. Now although the bucks resorted to an interesting strategy we will talk more on during their time in this list he wasn’t able to break the record. However he did set the record for most points in regulation and most by a single player in a Quarter with 31. The team also scored 105 which is just 3 shy of the record 108, again set in a game that went to overtime. They then lost Game 2, something they have done weeks prior but have been able to keep composure and stay undefeated. Now comes the tricky part, them losing 0-2 to the Jazz who were flat out embarrassed the night before by the Kings. Like I said, interesting week for the Blazer5 Gaming Players. However we know they will and can bounce back, again they are the most successful team by regular season definition so we don’t expect them to fall so soon, although the playoffs may be a different situation so stay tuned.
5. Hornets Venom GT
The Hornets only had one match up this week being the Knicks and they were able to deliver. People praise the Mavs for having a good 1-2 combo among their Guards, and other Teams it is pretty easy to make stops on defense considering you just need to focus on the PG and C primarily. However, this is nowhere near the case for the Hornets. See Type is a threat on offense but he loves focusing more on his defense, so take away his offense and he isn’t phased as much which leaves Zae at the PF to open up his scoring ability which is what he loves to do. This makes Zae the highest scoring PF in the League and able to give other teams problems when not compensating for him scoring 24 from the PF spot like he did in Game 1 against the Knicks. The same can be said about Expose in the SG spot who added another 27 that same game. Also if you think you are holding Type in check, most of the time you are wrong. Type wasn’t the talk of the night due to Expose and Zae going off but Type still put up solid numbers, including a Triple-Double, something he has almost done on a nightly basis this season.
6. T-Wolves Gaming
T-Wolves made some huge lineup changes this week to better prepare for some match ups. Against the Pistons they moved Jmoney to SG and BigSaint to the SF and it seemed to work in their favor. They were however, blowing the Pistons out in Game 1 but allowed them to bring it within 14 at one point in the 4th. If this season has taught us anything it is that even a 20 point lead is not safe. The biggest success to this win over the Pistons was the fact that Charger kept getting himself in foul trouble especially early game which allowed Bear to open up his game and find scoring opportunities easier. They kept the same lineup going against the Mavs later in the Week and were bale to move themselves up in both the Standings and Power Rankings after defeating the Mavs. Sherm didn’t look comfortable against Bear and it showed throughout the night.
7. Hawks Talon GC
The Hawks didn’t play in Week 4 and hopefully have been doing two things. Recovering from the tough loss to the Raptors in Week 3 and watching the games in Week 4. Not that any of those games will help them prepare for Week 5 where their only matches will be going against the Warriors. Talk about tough back to back matches in the schedule.
8. Mavs Gaming
Very disappointing week for the Mavs if you ask me. They start off by losing to the T-Wolves in 2 and then beat the Nets. The Nets played well but again it was their first time playing this season and had to deal with a suspension and bringing in a new player so the Mavs should have been able to dispose of them easier then it was. Mavs are starting to struggle against other top teams as the season goes on and I have no idea what it it could be myself. Hopefully they can figure it out as they only have a few more weeks to go during remote play before things start to shift and hopefully it shifts in their favor.
9. Kings Guard Gaming
Now Kings Guard Gaming did move down in the Rankings by one but they have still been improving, just not as well as some other teams above them just yet. The Kings took to Twitter to talk some trash after beating the Jazz as well and in good reasoning. They swept the Jazz and at one point held their opponents to 7 points…in a HALF. Something I didn’t think was possible in a professional setting, even in the esport dimension. However, it has been done and everyone on the team has been playing much better since they first started. Bash is going crazy, Shots is starting to play even better at the Center while Yusuf is starting to find his groove along with the team when he is slotted in at the PF. To give you the full score breakdown, Jazz had only one Quarter scoring double digits which was 14 in the 4th.
10. Jazz Gaming
So how can the Jazz lose 77-30 to the Kings, only score 7 points in an entire half and still move up one spot in the Power Rankings? Answer, they beat Blazer5 Gaming. That is legit the only reason I can put behind this. If the Kings match were their only on e of the Week they would have fallen about 5 spots at least. Now of those 30 points, Ria had 13. That’s almost half and he kept that same energy the entire way, for himself. Game 2 they lost 62-60 but Ria put up another 23 himself with 13 rebounds as well. Then against Blazer5 he was able to hold Walnut in check, or at least enough to win the set in a clean 2-0 sweep. Ria put up a Double-Double in Game 1, 2 rebound shy of another in Game 2 and was a force on the other end of the court as well. The Jazz are not entirely bad it seems but either get slaughtered like they did vs the Kings or go down to the wire with other teams. Let’s hope as the Jazz probably are that the Kings match up was an off night.
11. Pacers Gaming
Pacers are back after some time off and pickup a win in their only match of the week against the Pistons. So the Pistons are bad and continue to show it even after picking up their first win but the Pacers are getting better, know how to defend and actually shoot from behind the arc. Plus they pulled some Hornets type plays that night finding success in giving the scoring option to Swizurk at the PF spot who dropped an impressive 29 in Game 1. If they continue to find success in the “Off-Meta” type of play the Hornets use then maybe they will be able to make a run late into remote play.
12. Knicks Gaming
Knicks got beat up a ton this week but showed a ton of promise during so. This team is full of newer players or people sort of new to the League that no one really wanted after the end of Season 2. That and Duck is going insane and keeps the ball game close even if it isn’t sometimes. Rob, Malik, and Duck just need to get on the same page due to sometimes it looking like they aren’t there together in the half court transitions. The better they get together the better the team will get overall as they are able to win games they have shown as well as score, create turnovers and force big leads themselves.
13. Gen.G Tigers
So the Tigers found another win this week. It may have been against the Bucks but a win is a win most people would say these days. Especially when there is literally no defense being played for most of the time. Now the Tigers started to pick it up on the defense as they gathered double digit steals every game but the Bucks were horrendous. It seems the Tigers have also found a way for Gen to find open shots and a lot more of those opportunities and it seems to work in their favor.
14. Celtics Crossover Gaming
Celtics had internet problems last week and everyone was hoping they would put on a show. Now while they did they started to fall behind as another storm took over, one being named Wizards District Gaming. The Celtics even came in with a different lineup by moving Mel East to SF and Easy was subbed out by TooxCool at PF. Both of these moves were pretty non existent as they both shot poorly, didn’t do anything to huge on defense and pretty much non existent on the box score everywhere else. If they keep this lineup then one of them needs to step up as we have already seen this years game is a 5 man game and nothing less otherwise you end up at the bottom.
15. Cavs Legion GC
So many good things are said baout Larry at Center but right now I do not see the things being said. The Cavs need to feed him the ball more and put some pressure on him to drop 30 a game because Strainer dropping 40 still doesn’t work for them. Godddof2k has pretty much non existent this season as well and not up to his 2k19 self. Lineup changes need to happen or a sub and if not then they need to start looking towards a potential trade. This team is losing games they should not be losing and the win against the Magic is proof of this. Goddd found himself wreaking havoc in the pockets of Magic all while Strainer AND Larry were dropping 20+. This has to happen every time in order to win, when it doesn’t they lose and even when it does it isn’t a guaranteed win due to no help from the other two guys.
16. Bucks Gaming
“No more Bucks games on broadcast.” This is what my timeline on Twitter looks like in the past 4 days. First the Bucks get 77 dropped on them by Mama then resort to holding the ball until shot clock violations force them to give it up with 3 minutes remaining in a game on ESPN2 to not playing a lick of defense against the Tigers. The team got smoked 0-2 to start the season and I said wow they are pretty bad. Then Regg putson a show and they come back in the standings 2-2 and I say wait they are pretty decent and Regg is good. Then they get waxed again another 2 times but completely embarrassed themselves during it. So ultimately I really don’t know how I feel about this team anymore. Watching the Bucks again will have the same feeling I have when my mother made me eat food I didn’t like when I was a kid, it’s on my plate and I’m not allowed to leave the table until I clean my plate and I have no dog to sneak it too.
17. Magic Gaming
Watching Toxsik live tweet himself give away money on Twitter every 4 hours is more entertaining then watching them blow leads now. Sorry not sorry but how many times will the Magic build leads both in game and in match ups just to lose them by making the same mistakes over and over? One thing they don’t do enough is shoot more threes. They’re good at shooting too which is what makes me question what is going on. Toxsik was and still is shooting well, along with Reizey and May when he needs too. So why not do it more? They shot 6 times from behind the arc in Game 1 vs the Cavs. They won that game and made 4 of those threes. Game 2 they shot 9 threes and only 8 in Game 3. When this team actually shoots well from behind the arc they win games but you cannot tell if you are shooting well when you shoot under 10 times. There are other teams right now shooting 3 times as much in one game as this team is in one game! SHOOT MORE THREES.
18. Pistons GT
Hey, another team that doesn’t shoot enough threes! Well it seems they got the message since they increased the amount of times they are shooting deep per game. Maybe it was the fact that DemonJT moved to SF and brought in LykeaPro to play PG. Even when they were down 20 going into the half they continued to play tough defense vs the Lakers and shot more threes. This led them to go on a 21-5 run and in the last 2 minutes able to win the game. Like I said no lead in 2k20 is safe and it has been proven like this multiple times already. DevGoss being subbed out for LykeaPro and putting him at PG and putting JT at SF has been the sweet mark for the Pistons. Now they just need to continue playing tough defense and shooting more from outside and they will be able to hopefully pick up some more wins. Losing their 2nd match up this week was a blow but they can build from it still.
19. Nets GC
I mean the Nets played pretty well for not playing Weeks 1-3 and having to find a last minute replacement for someone who had been suspended literally a week ago. The player they brought in was Chess and I always thought he was a SG but he was seen playing SF so maybe I am wrong. He looked solid for being just added so I am not criticizing the team too much. Again, first match of the season, had to play the Mavs who although losing 2 already are still tough, especially with a new player, no chemistry and it being your first time playing and not watching.
20. Heat Check Gaming
Heat Check Gaming had their Week 4 match postponed for whatever reason but it doesn’t matter. The team is still struggling last we saw and it is unfortunate since they would have been most expected to beat the 76ers. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
21. Grizz Gaming
The Grizz got their first win of the season to no longer be in the same club as the 76ers and kept the Lakers in that distinguished group at the same time. This was a very interesting match up to be completely honest. See with the Lakers Sav scores everything so the Grizz just need to stop him. Now for the Grizz as we have seen no one on the team wants to score as if they think they are playing golf. Low and behold the Grizz were able to squeak out a victory behind the play of Vandi and Goofy. Goofy is a soft spoken man on Twitter but has some powerful messages, mostly how we need to be patient and he will exert his dominance. It seemed we witnessed this as he was monster on the boards, defensive paint and even scored at will it seemed at times. So yes Goofy we waited and we witnessed. Now just keep doing that and with help from Vandi on the scoring as well maybe the Grizz can climb themselves out from being the worst Franchise record wise.
22. Lakers Gaming
Sav. Just rename the team Sav at this point. He was scoring 30+ from the SG spot. Now most of the scoring in the league comes from PGs so the Lakers moved him to PG for whatever reason and he continued to do this. However, Sav can score 50 and the Lakers still lose. So in conclusion I have no idea what the point of moving Sav to PG was meant to do. It literally changed nothing. Didn’t change anything on defense or offense, Sav still scores and doesn’t pass the ball and the team still cannot stop opponents from scoring on them. I thought maybe their schedule was tough but when you let the Grizz drop 103 on you there is a problem. No offense to the Grizz but the Lakers only scored 56 that game, and yup you guessed it Sav had 30 of those.
23. 76ers GC
Even a postponed match cannot keep the 76ers from being at the 23rd spot in the rankings this week. Again this team cannot figure anything out last time we watched them in action. I will tell you this if you are a fan of them not all hope is lost, the Lakers are looking primed to take the 23rd spot from your boys in Philly.
Blu is a senior content writer for ConsoleCorner.Co. To keep up with all things esports, check out the website or follow Console Pro News on Twitter.