Knicks SI 2K20 fantasy tournament: Team Lauren advances to championship game behind Kristaps Porzingis

A throwback pathway to victory

Welcome to the Knicks SI 2K20 Fantasy Tournament, in which eight of our writers drafted every Knick available to us in NBA 2K20 in order to simulate a winner-take-all single-elimination bracket of the greatest players to ever dawn the blue-and-orange. We will be posting results, interviews with the general managers and accompanying highlights with every game. Please note that if any jersey numbers that seem off or any players that weren't drafted end up getting minutes, it was due to a limitation in the game. Enjoy!

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Team Lauren, behind a frontcourt of two seven-footers and a shooting guard that attempted zero threes, flipped everything we knew about the modern NBA on its head in a 115-110 victory over Team Verts. She now moves on to the Knicks SI 2K20 Finals.

"It's always good to get a win, but from the beginning I said this was championship or bust, so we aren't done yet." Russell said. "We need to step up even more next game, I want to see 130 points scored."

130 is a lofty goal, especially for a team that shot just 15 threes (13 of which from Porzingis), but Team Lauren has met every one they've set thus far. 

"When I assembled this team I wanted to put the best players I could on the floor and I believe that's what I did," Russell said. "The three ball is definitely not a strength of ours but I believe we are strong enough in other areas to compensate for that."

The paint was one of those areas, as the combination of Patrick Ewing, Kristaps Porzingis and Dick Barnett scored 96 points on 34-59 shooting from the field.

Defense was another area, as Team Verts's once-vaunted offense hit a wall. Carmelo Anthony was the only one who showed out with another terrific performance: 45 points and 9 rebounds on 17-29 shooting. But J.R. Smith and Jerry Lucas struggled to score efficiently while the remaining two starters fouled out. 

We tried reaching their GM for an interview but he was found inebriated in a ditch rambling about how he should have drafted Frank Ntilikina.

Below are the box scored for both teams. Team Lauren will take on the winner of Team kris and Team Macri, coming up next.

Team Verts

Team Lauren