Game 6!

 Hey everyone,

We've arrived at Game 6, and four series have come to their conclusion. Let's recap these before looking at the Game 6s on the horizon:

- Boston took care of business with the only sweep of the first round, defeating Brooklyn 4-0. I was touting a close series the whole time, and game 1 supported that theory, and then was proven completely wrong by the end. Fortunately I was able to get Durant picked, alongside everyone else, but lost Kyrie Irving. 

- Golden State defeated Denver 4-1. Not too surprising, as Golden State looked dominant throughout, but Jokic kept Denver in the last two games and made a bit of a series out of it. I got Jokic picked and steered clear outside of that, which is probably similar to most people.

- Milwaukee defeated Chicago 4-1. After Chicago played well in both games in Milwaukee to start, it seemed we might have a close series. However, for the final three games Chicago fell apart. I got DeRozan and Vucevic picked, but missed out on Lavine. Not a huge loss, particularly since I was planning to save Lavine for last and he would not have been available anyways for that final game. 

- Miami defeated Atlanta 4-1. Atlanta was pretty outmatched and it showed in a few big losses. I picked Trae Young during the play-in tournament on Google Drive and made the unfortunate mistake of picking John Collins at one point on both Google Drive and Fantasy Postseason. 

Now, let's look ahead to the Game 6 matchups!

- The big game 6 today that nearly everyone should be picking from is Dallas vs Utah. Utah has not looked like the team they were in seasons past in this series, and I think something might be off with the team chemistry. Just look at the weird stat that Donovan Mitchell only passes to Rudy Gobert an average of two times per game and that tells you something weird might be going on (although it could just be the way their offense is supposed to run). Donovan Mitchell has an injury concern but should be good to go for Game 6. Rudy Gobert is healthier and could be a nice safe pick. If Utah wins tonight, there will be a challenging decision to make for Game 7 as Luka Doncic is a must pick but if you expect Dallas to win, you can try to maximize your round efficiency by picking whichever of Gobert/Mitchell you do not pick today, although there might be other Game 7s to choose between. If you truly believe the Jazz will come back and win this series, there are two other games today to choose from.

- Phoenix will be in New Orleans tonight trying to close out this series. Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, and Jonas Valanciunas are all near must-picks, and I am fortunate to have selected all three at this point. I really need the Suns to win one of the next two, otherwise I will be in a lot of trouble. However, if that happened I would not be alone as nearly everyone else has also drained the Pelicans roster for picks. 

- The surprise game 6 is Philadelphia vs Toronto, as Toronto put up an impressive game 5 win on the road. The tide in this series is shifting, but there is no reason to pick from it today. By this point, you've picked all your best Raptors and there isn't much reason to pick a 76er ahead of game 7. Wait on this series and see if you will need to make a game 7 choice. As a Raptor fan, I am totally down for having to make that call later even if it isn't good for my DTTF game. 

- The only game 6 on Friday is Memphis at Minnesota. This series has been the tightest series in the first round, with the Timberwolves playing a lot of really good games and forcing Memphis to have to find a few miraculous wins in the fourth quarter. In fact, two of Memphis' three wins came at unlikely odds with a 4th quarter rally. I don't think you can be confident in the Grizzlies, but also you pretty much have to pick a Timberwolve player. Unless you want to go against the grain and sniff out a 7 seed upset over the 2 seed, in which case go for broke and try picking a Grizzly. I think it is a bad strategy to go that risky in round 1, but you do you!

My pick is Donovan Mitchell today and Anthony Edwards tomorrow (KAT on Fantasy Postseason, since I still have KAT due to the round multiplier in my league making me more hesitant to use studs early).