Well well, here we go, Brother Bowl II! After a hard fought last couple of weeks — including one giant upset — we have Trieu and Thien facing off again. We last saw this matchup two years ago in 2015, with Trieu emerging from the week with the first of his back-to-back titles. Now it’s up to Thien to play for the safety of the league and stop his older brother from a threepeat!
But first, how did we get here? Well, for starters, Sour Snails had a pretty easy path to the Finals, even with Kevin Durant done for the season. He made short work of Fob Stars in RD1 and then dunked on Fat Jubas pretty easily with an incredibly efficient RD2 performance — behind 27.3 PTS, 7.0 REB, 10.8 AST, 2.3 STL, and 54.7 FG% from Jimmy Butler. Wowza! As for Thien, he was faced up with division rival So Buckets in his conference finals — after beating Team Spade by 1 STL in RD1 — and after a back and forth week, polished Josh off with nice outburst of 3PT and slightly lower TOs. Shout out to So Buckets though, who did the dirty work of dismembering top Russell seed Chunky Monkeys in RD1, using an incredible Kyrie Irving versus LeBron James matchup to pull out the tight win. But the upset magic faded out as this week wore on and So Buckets’ Finals dream ended.
So what are Young Gunn’s chances of taking down Sour Snails? Well, sadly, we’d have to say it’ll have to take an incredible upset for Thien to take his first championship. From what we can tell, they are likely going to lose both %s and STL/BLK. The good news is, they have the edge in 3PT and maybe PTS, and will have to fight hard in AST and TO to make this an even matchup. A lot will ride on DeMarcus Cousins’ health, as he could miss a game or two. But let’s not forget that this is one of the rare teams with enough firepower in the backcourt to keep up with Steph and Jimmy, as John Wall and Damian Lillard are both top guard options. Add in the firepower of Gary Harris and Jordan Clarkson and there’s a chance Young Gunn’s can match up against the three-headed monster of Curry, Butler, and Mike Conley.
Where Thien will really have to shine is with his big men though, as Cousins and Julius Randle are all he’s got going against Brook Lopez, Nerlens Noel, and Gorgui Dieng. On paper that’s an edge for Young Gunn’s but again, a lot will ride on Cousins. What Sour Snails has is versatility and depth on its side, with additional pieces like Avery Bradley, Richaun Holmes, and Tim Hardaway. It’s likely Al-Farouq Aminu and Jordan Crawford will both have to have great weeks for Thien to have a shot. And we really wish they had another piece inserted for the injured Rudy Gay, but it’s hard to wish for better health when Snails is down Durant and Dion Waiters.
In short, we’re projecting a 5-4 win for Snails, but a win in REB or STL could maybe garner us the upset all of SlamNation is waiting. We won’t mince words here, all the other fifteen SlamNation owners are rooting for Young Gunn’s, and hoping for a major upset!
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