Uprising fall to Cavs Legion, 76ers GC to open season

It wasn’t quite the start that the team from the North was looking for.

For the second straight season, the Raptors Uprising will begin the NBA 2K League 0-2 after falling to Cavs Legion GC in a tight affair, before coming up short against the red-hot 76ers GC.

50 Raptors Uprising – 58 Cavs Legion – Full Box Score

All Hail Trey chipped in 16 points, but it wasn’t enough as Sick x 793 finished with a team-high 16 points of his own to help Cavs Legion GC get by the Raptors Uprising in a well-rounded effort to kick off the NBA 2K League season.

The Cavs Legion’s sharpshooting rebounding centre, Sick x 793, was impactful all night, including converting a massive and-one dunk with less than a minute to play that put the Legion up by four after the Uprising had cut the lead to within one.

And that would be the closest the Uprising would get, as a slow 12-3 start to open the game put the team in a hole in which they were unable to overcome.

“The foundation of the problem was that we had trouble getting to our spots and bringing the ball up court which resulted in us not being able to run our motion sets properly with enough stamina and time on the shot clock,” explained Uprising Coach Ogi after the loss. “We did better as the game went on.”

In addition to All Hail Trey, who finished four-of-five from beyond the arch — with his first and only miss from long-range coming at the 2:08 mark in the fourth quarter — the Uprising had a strong performance from pure lockdown shooting guard TSJosh in his first start of the season. Selected once again by the Uprising in the 2019 Draft, TsJosh chipped in with 14 points on a perfect four-of-four from the field in limited offensive opportunity.

NOTES: For the first time this season, the Raptors Uprising elected to roll with only one pure lockdown archetype in the backcourt as Kenny Got Work utilized a sharpshooting shot-creator build at small forward. Rookie OOC Slim was moved to the bench as TsJosh made his first appearance of the season at shooting guard for the Uprising.

Shooters were shootin but Raps open the szn with a reminiscent loss. #RTZ2K

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— Raptors Uprising GC (@RaptorsGC) April 11, 2019

73 76ers GC – 54 Raptors Uprising GC – Full Box Score

Entering Friday’s matchup as winners of six-in-a-row dating back to the start of the Tipoff Tournament, 76ers GC, led by two-time Tipoff MVP Radiant, picked up right where they left off.

Radiant finished with a game-high 28 points and nine assists on an efficient 12/17 from the floor as the Uprising didn’t appear to have an answer for the red-hot point guard.

“He has been playing really well recently,” said Uprising Coach Ogi on the 76ers GC star. “Running on transition got him a couple extra buckets as well — and he got it going early.”

The Uprising, who were led by Kenny Got Work’s 20 points, six assists, and three steals, fell behind early again in this one but showed resilience throughout.

“We had the looks,” reiterated Coach Ogi. “Sometimes all it took was an extra pass and other times the shot was right there. We were overthinking on both ends and that’s how they gained the lead. We got loose and finally started played our game and brought it to within seven points.

“We just couldn’t capitalize tonight.”

The Uprising came out storming from halftime and had an opportunity to cut the 76ers GC lead to four, but the sharpshooting team from Philadelphia had an answer on this occasion.

A ZDS three-pointer restored the 76ers GC lead to double-digits before a steal crushed all Uprising momentum and put this one to bed.

“I know my group of guys hate to lose and we’re going to bounce back,” said Uprising Coach Ogi. “It’s back to the lab; we have to work on every detail — the fundamentals. We beat ourselves, but it’s a long season and a lot of time to get us back to where we are supposed to be.”

All Hail Trey was good once again for the Uprising in this contest, continuing his streak of five games in which he has scored at least 10 points. The Uprising’s power forward finished with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the floor.

Notes: Despite the loss to Cavs Legion a night ago, the Uprising decided to stick with their game plan and run only one pure lockdown archetype (TsJosh). It didn’t pay off as much as they would like, but Uprising Coach Ogi did note that he noticed his team making progress in running sets as the games went on.

UP NEXT: This season’s schedule won’t be as treacherous as last year’s that had the Raptors Uprising out to a tough 1-5 start. Next week, the Uprising have a BYE week before taking on expansion franchises T-Wolves Gaming and NetsGC in Week 3.

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— Raptors Uprising GC (@RaptorsGC) April 13, 2019