NBA 2K Players Tournament Results: Sunday’s First Round Winners Include Devin Booker, Andre Drummond
Sunday night brought us the rest of the first round of the NBA 2K Players Tournament results. Matchups included Devin Booker vs. Michael Porter Jr., Rui Hachimura vs. Donovan Mitchell, and Andre Drummond vs. DeMarcus Cousins. While most games kept up the theme of one player dominating and lots of trash talk, viewers finally got to see a game go down to the final buzzer. Here’s a look at which players moved on to the quarterfinals.
NBA 2K Players Tournament Results: Harrell moves on with early rout of Sabonis
The Sunday 2K Tournament schedule tipped off at 6 p.m. Eastern Time with Montrezl Harrell against Damontas Sabonis on ESPN2. Harrell used his Los Angeles Clippers while NBA All-Star Sabonis went with his own Indiana Pacers in their matchup. That made things fun to watch as they made comments about themselves and their teammates throughout the game.
“This game is rigged,” Sabonis said when Myles Turner was too slow to chase down a player on a fast break. By the fourth quarter, Harrell had extended to a 60-37 lead as Sabonis was unable to find any success with his shots. Harrell kept the lead up as Sabonis eventually fell, 73-51.
It was another of those blowout wins and towards the end, even Sabonis admitted he just started playing the game recently. Harrell moves on to the quarterfinals now.
Hachimura vs. Mitchell provides entertaining matchup
The second matchup of the night was easily the tournament’s best so far. It was No. 4 seed Donovan Mitchell of the Utah Jazz and No. 13 seed Rui Hachimura from the Washington Wizards. Hachimura went with the Los Angeles Lakers and Mitchell went with the Brooklyn Nets. Of course, Mitchell had both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to use virtually, but that wouldn’t be the case in real life for the Nets.
The two players had a competitive first quarter, trading baskets, with Hachimura up 19-17 at the end. In the second Mitchell joked about Joe Harris guarding LeBron with “I love you Joe Harris, but I don’t think that’s the matchup I want,” before switching that defensive assignment up.
“I’m gonna start doin hack-a-Bron if this is the case,” Mitchell commented later on after LeBron missed at the line. It was 38-34 at the half with the Lakers shooting 70 percent. Hachimura asked Mitchell how often he plays and he admitted he plays mostly in NBA 2K20 Park mode.
As things stayed close, Mitchell kept switching up his defensive matchups for LeBron and AD. He’d pull ahead by a point in the third, but Rui came right back. In the fourth, Mitchell was able to pull ahead slightly, going up by four with over two minutes left. Things were tied with about a minute to go but Rui found a way to score with LeBron. Later, he used cover star Anthony Davis to score inside and get the foul to go up by five.
It got exciting as Danny Green hit one free throw. With just seconds remaining, Mitchell pushed the ball up the court and went for a last-second three, but ultimately missed. When all was said and done it was Rui moving on with a 74-71 win. Wow!
Devin Booker vs. Michael Porter Jr. results
In the third matchup of Sunday’s NBA 2K Players Tournament results, it was the Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker against the Denver Nuggets’ Michael Porter Jr. The trash talk started early as Porter Jr. suggested maybe he should take Nuggets and Booker just use his Suns. “Uhhhh..no,” Booker responded quickly as he realized that matchup wouldn’t be in his favor at all.
They went with the two best teams in the game as Porter Jr. took the Los Angeles Lakers and Booker used the Milwaukee Bucks. Things stayed close in this one early, but Booker was able to extend to a 10-point lead in the third.
Porter cut Booker’s lead to three with a minute to go in the fourth, but Booker nailed a three with his squad. Porter came back and hit a three of his own. With 32 seconds to go, Booker had a six-point lead on Porter’s Lakers and didn’t let his opponent get any chance at a last-second win.
In the end, the Suns’ All-Star claimed the first-round win by 10 points with a final score of 85-75.
NBA 2K Players Tournament results: Drummond destroys Cousins with Lakers
In the final NBA 2K Players Tournament results for the first round, it was the Cavs’ Andre Drummond using the Los Angeles Lakers. He took on DeMarcus Cousins using the Brooklyn Nets. The two were trash-talking from the get-go much like Booker and Porter Jr. did. While it was reasonably close for a while, Drummond showed superior skills in the end.
At halftime, it was 42-35 in favor of Mr. Drummond. Cousins said, “I don’t like that,” based on the results. Drummond got up by 14 points in the third quarter and kept up the work, scoring a turnaround jumper with Davis. Cousins kept admitting he wasn’t liking how it was going. Once the buzzer sounded to end the third, Dre was up 68-45.
That left the final six minutes of the fourth quarter for DeMarcus Cousins to attempt to win. Unfortunately for him, Andre Drummond wasn’t letting that happen. He’d absolutely demolish Cousins by a final of 101-49. Ouch! Drummond moves on in the bracket to face trash-talking NBA 2K phenom, Patrick Beverly.
The NBA 2K Players Tournament results were televised on ESPN2 with live streaming coverage via the WatchESPN website and compatible apps.
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