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NBA 2K20 Tournament of Champions: Championship rounds

By Duncan Smith

AUBURN HILLS, UNITED STATES: Chauncey Billups (R) of the Detroit Pistons gets around Kobe Bryant (L) of the Los Angeles Lakers during the second half of game four of the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers 13 June, 2004 at The Palace in Auburn Hills, MI. The Pistons won the game 88-80 to lead the best-of-seven game series 3-1. AFP PHOTO/Jeff HAYNES (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images)
AUBURN HILLS, UNITED STATES: Chauncey Billups (R) of the Detroit Pistons gets around Kobe Bryant (L) of the Los Angeles Lakers during the second half of game four of the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles Lakers 13 June, 2004 at The Palace in Auburn Hills, MI. The Pistons won the game 88-80 to lead the best-of-seven game series 3-1. AFP PHOTO/Jeff HAYNES (Photo credit should read JEFF HAYNES/AFP via Getty Images) /
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After chaos reigned in the second round of the NBA 2K20 Tournament of Champions, it’s time to see how things play out in the championship rounds.

When the field of 16 former NBA champions was set in the NBA 2K20 Tournament of Champions, it was a foregone conclusion that at least one of LeBron James, Michael Jordan or perhaps the Los Angeles Lakers would make it to the Finals, or at least the conference finals.

James had two entries, as did the Lakers, and Jordan had three entries. It would take an act of God in order to see all of these teams (seven of the field of 16!) fall short of the Finals, let alone the conference finals.

Well, this is 2020 and if it’s outlandish, bizarre and unbelievable, you might as well count on it happening because not one of those teams made either conference final.

The final four breaks down like this:

Western Conference

Eastern Conference

These series matched up a dominant Spurs team against a feisty upstart Mavs squad, and similarly on the opposite side of the bracket a 66-win Celtics squad matched up against a surprising Pistons team.

They are not the matchups we expected, but they should be fascinating nonetheless. We’ll hit “simulate round” and see what happens.

Outcomes

A wild tournament got even crazier. NBA 2K has a mind of its own and it is not for us mere mortals to understand its ways, but the conference finals produced an outlandish championship series but also a rematch of sorts.

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Western Conference

  • 5 2013-14 Spurs 4
  • 7 2010-11 Mavs 2

Eastern Conference

  • 1 2007-08 Celtics 0
  • 2 2003-04 Pistons 4

In this whole exercise, there was only one sweep over the course of the first two rounds. That was the 2013-14 Spurs who mercilessly vanquished the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks in four games. The second sweep in the tournament came at the hands of the gritty Detroit Pistons over the 66-16 Boston Celtics.

Honestly, your guess is as good as mine.

Sometimes a blessed Cinderella team just rampages through a tournament field and gets to the very end, and that’s what the 2003-04 Detroit Pistons appear to have done.

Observations

It was the Kawhi Leonard and Tim Duncan show for the Spurs in the West, while Chauncey Billups and Richard “Rip” Hamilton carried the day for the Pistons in the Eastern Conference. Leonard averaged 26 points and 7.8 rebounds per game to lead all scorers in the conference championship round and Duncan averaged 21.7 points and 15 rebounds.

Hamilton averaged 24.2 points and Billups added 22 points per game in their stunning sweep over the Celtics.

This sets up a Finals matchup between a Pistons team who went back to defend their title in 2004-05 but were beaten in seven games by that season’s Spurs squad.

The Finals

The Pistons jumped all over the Spurs in game one, routing them 110-77 thanks to an 87-49 run over the final three quarters of the game. The Pistons held the Spurs to just 33 percent shooting from the floor and Rip Hamilton led all scorers with 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting (he went 4-of-4 from 3-point range).

In game two, it was a low-scoring defensive affair. Once again the Pistons prevailed by an 84-75 score, bringing back memories of those 2004-05 Finals games between the two teams. This time Chauncey Billups carried the load with 27 points on 10-of-19 from the floor. Ben Wallace added 24 rebounds.

Related Story. Retrospective: 2004 NBA Finals Game 1, Pistons vs Lakers. light

The series shifted back to San Antonio for game three and the Spurs returned the favor from the first game with a 109-75 blowout. The Pistons committed 21 turnovers and the Spurs only committed six fouls in the entire game. Kawhi Leonard paced the Spurs in scoring with 23 points on 6-of-19 from the floor.

The Spurs took game four in another low-scoring slugfest, winning 91-86. Leonard once again led both teams in scoring with 24 points. Game five shifted back to Detroit and the Pistons won a classic 89-86 game with Rip Hamilton scoring 25 points on a rather ghastly 27 shots.

The Spurs won game six in another blowout, 122-96 and Leonard went crazy with 31 points, and finally, a road team broke serve when the Spurs won once again in game seven in Detroit by a 106-87 mark. Kawhi Leonard scored 36 points in a winning cause, and Tim Duncan won Finals MVP with averages of 15.3 points, 14.9 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.6 steals and 3.0 blocks per game.

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