Upset of the Year

I was beginning to think that this blog was a mistake.

After running off 13 straight, the win streak that ultimately inspired the birth of Right Analog Hero, I hit a wall. Beat PIFF973 handily, 83-57 in a game that probably wasn't even that close; lost to EnthusedKilla for the second time in two weeks, 86-81 (if you ever play him, apparently Brandon Roy and Rudy Fernandez are like Ray Allen and Steve Nash from beyond the arc respectively); barely beat sizedpope, 78-76 in a game that really pissed me off because he's lucky to be around .500 and stuck around due to his abominal internet connection; and got smashed by a solid player in chevyon26 96-84 (although I contend it was my first game ever with the Cavs and I couldn't find my range with their shooters).

If was after the chevyon26 game that I felt like I had hit the wall, that I would plateau and not get much better. Nothing against his game, but I without even looking at his record it was a game that I felt like I should have won handily. I almost turned the game off, but I decided not to and played Young TMAC01. Immediately I felt like I had made a huge mistake. He jumped on me and had me by like eight going into the fourth.

Click on his name and look at his record.

Fortunately, I was able to buckle down and tie it up with 1.6 second left. I pulled one of my pet tricks and switched Jason Kidd and Dirk Nowitzki (essentially having Dirk as my point), had the German pop out and can a three at the buzzer. Swagger back...

...until I lost to TWF1, going arctic cold in the 4th quarter. I think I went something like two and a half minutes without scoring. It might not sound too crazy in terms of real basketball, but anybody who plays Live knows if you go two and a half minutes without scoring you're playing horrible, either that or your opponent is playing that 'D. Given his solid record at 36-10, I'll say it was a little bit of both.


So, today I get home from an exhausting day working at Lowe's (stay in school, kids), and I decide to hop on for a bit since I don't have my daughter today. The first game I saw HappyManVan, and at the start I was really sluggish. Maybe it was the long work day, but I couldn't do anything right. Turnovers, missed open shots, forced drives... you would swear that this guy was a pro. He had 16-11 midway through the first.

And then, for the first time since alex rosheim stopped my streak, I went absolutely nuts, completely regaining the swagger that went missing eight and a half games ago. He ended up quitting in the second quarter down 14.

Good start, I suppose. So, I quick-ranked-matched it and found UCANTCMEnLIVE, who early on the in the NBA Live season has been consistently in the top two. He had come up once before, but I think I scared him off when I put Josh Howard at the four when we were adjusting our starting lineups. He didn't want it!

All jokes aside, I had only played one other person in the top ten prior to playing him, Kilirugi, and I had played him down to the last minute before I fucked up. I definitely wanted to play UCANT and see where I was at amongst the world's elite. He picked the Lakers and I picked the Mavericks (as anyone who follows my basketball blog I'm an avid Mavericks' fan). Probably not coincidentally, my recent struggles can probably be attributed to the fact that, thanks to Live 365 technology, I had been playing without J-Ho for the last ten games or so. This game would be no different, and I essentially started Jason Terry in his place since I normally start Gerald Green anyway.


He punched me in the mouth early on, scoring on a good mix of Kobe drives and Pau/Bynum pick and roll plays. I countered with Dirk going to the rim and a surprisingly accurate Green from the perimeter. He had me 25-19 after one, but having survived the utter shock and awe of playing someone ranked so highly, I knew I would be in this game.

It was extremely tight throughout, and after taking the lead 40-39 it finally dawned on me that I could beat him, something only 29 people had managed to do in around 480 games. Shit, he has twenty less losses than me in two and a half times as many games!

I entered the 4th quarter down by three, and that's when Dirk started ballin' for real. Two consecutive hoops put me on top by one, and for the next three minutes we basically alternated one-point leads.

Then came the play of the game.

Leading 81-80 with like two minutes left, Dirk grabbed a rebound off of a Kobe miss and found Terry streaking for a lay-up along the base-line (toughest glitch to guard in the game). Then, off the inbounds pass, Dirk intercepted the ball. My mentality is that off of a turnover, as demoralizing as a dunk or a lay-up can be, a three-pointer can break someone's moral. After Dirk picked the ball off, I made him step back and drain a three that put me up six.

Yeah, he eventually got it back to within one, but then I did the whole interception-three-pointer thing again and completely wrapped it up. I overcame some odd connection issues near the end of the game (UCANT???), made my free throws and sealed the deal.

I had beaten my first top ten opponent in Live '09.

In fairness, I admitted to UCANT afterwards that I had to play a close to perfect game in order to beat him. Maybe next time we play he'll crush me by 30 or something. Either way, playing him made me realize how much time you have to put in to be at that level. I respect his game and would definitely welcome a redemption match.

Until next time.

Current Rank: 382
Current Streak: +2