Tied Up!

This has to be a historic first! No, not the two 8-1 drubbings in WK15—handed out by CHMK and KSKT—but the fact that we had three matchups finish up tied. Three!

It’s rare enough that we get one tie game per week, and maybe two happened in the past but I don’t remember, but three has to be almost impossible. For example, in 2024 we had a total of three matchups tied, two in 2023, and three again from 2022. You have to go all the way back to 2020 to find six tied matchups. So, to have three tied games in one week was spectacular and a moment not to be overlooked.

MELO (10-4) vs SOUR (8-6)

The top ranked team in Russell, MELO faced off against SOUR and the two were neck-to-neck in a few categories, as REB, STL, and especially PTS was rather close! (SOUR won PTS by two.) The final tying category was TOS though, which featured Malik Monk with ten total turnovers for MELO while SOUR had Miles Bridges giving the ball away eight times. This tie could have some playoff implications too, as SOUR is on the playoff bubble!

SCRM (10-4) vs SWMP (9-5)

Our two second place teams in each respective conference faced off in a big battle and came out all tied up, as they each swiped the ball twenty-nine times. (SCRM barely won BLK by one too.) It was a battle of James Harden versus Nikola Jokic, as they had eight and nine steals each, respectively. You would think the team with steals master Dyson Daniels would’ve secured this category win but Dyson + Harden wasn’t quite enough to pull ahead of Jokic + Christian Braun. Both of these teams are playoff bound, and the tie leaves them secure in second place in their respective conferences as well. Great fight!

BUFF (7-7) TRUO (3-10-1)

Of the six teams, only TRUO had already notched a tie matchup this year, so maybe they had the experience of playing in a tight game. This was also the only matchup that tied between a 0.500 team and a sub-0.500 squad. Their big category tied was STL, with BUFF narrowly edging TRUO by just two blocks as well. It was a team wide effort on both sides for steals, with BUFF’s Jalen Brunson leading all players with five, but with many players on both teams picking up four thefts apiece. TRUO has only three wins on the season in an injury plagued year, so this tie was at least a moral victory versus a team they could potentially face in the Toilet Bowl.