Finals Preview: 2018

#1 Chunky Monkeys (20-1) vs #4 Sour Snails (10-11)
We’ve seen this matchup before, with one team dominating all season long while the other one had to scrap their way to the Finals after an injury plagued playoffs. Except, this time the roles are reversed! In 2010, the first year of SlamNation’s cycle reset, Snails had LeBron James, Josh Smith, Gerald Wallace — and a young Steph Curry — leading the way against Monkey’s ragtag group led by Chris Paul, Darren Collison, and um, Andrea Bargnani. Evan’s team snuck into that final game with small ball and now Trieu’s done the same eight years later.

Of course, it was the Laker duo of Brook Lopez and newly acquired Julius Randle that gave Snails the nail biting win on Sunday, by a mere 5 PTS and one STL. The rest of the roster here is pretty injured, with Stephen Curry out and Isaiah Thomas similarly shelved. Kevin Durant made a timely return to help take down upstart Fob Stars, and Curry’s fill-in, Quinn Cook, was incredible all week long. And while Damian Lillard, the other recent Snails addition, had to sit out a game last week for a birth, he’s back to racking up huge numbers and should put some scare into Monkeys’ title chances.

In fact, if you compare H2H from last week, Trieu’s team wasn’t that far off. A four-peat would absolutely destroy the competitive world of SlamNation -- did we mention Snails are defending three-peaters? -- so it looks like all that stands between us and that catastrophe is Evan’s team, led by none other than LeBron James…

Oh yes, this time out, LBJ is playing for the other side, having made his way from Sour Snails to two other teams before finally landing on Monkeys in 2015 and starting off Evan’s contention seasons. After two years at the top of SlamNation regular season, it’s time for Monkeys to get some hardware.

I mean, despite building a powerhouse team three years ago, Monkeys haven’t sniffed the Finals yet, losing in the first round from 2015-2018, to a variety of foes. This time out, they waltzed past Team Thien in the first round, shoved past So Buckets in the conference finals, and generally had an easy time heading to their second Finals appearance. After only losing one game all year, it’ll a huge disappointment if Monkeys can’t take the title this year.

After all, the Monkeys have two MVP candidates in LeBron James and James Harden, an additional one-two punch of Kyle Lowry and pre-playoff trade acquisition Eric Gordon, alongside Marc Gasol and Clint Capela in the front court. This team is much deeper (not to mention healthier) than Snails and if the time isn’t ripe for a title, Evan might as well blow it all up next year! Good luck gentlemen, it's the two SlamNation juggernauts facing off!

A tidbit from 2010: "There was some controversy during the [2010] Finals week as the Monkeys made a clerical error and filled their lineup to the max, negating their Sunday games. Gracious as ever, Snails' owner Trieu offered to count the crucial last few games, even though going by the strict letter of the law would have ensured a victory."