The first round of the NBA Playoffs, which we affectionately dub the First Round Fiasco, had some furious action and some great Loserball play from some of the league’s best. We had glorious bricks instead of dunks, turnovers over assists, and instead of plus/minus we tracked minus/plus. While the playoffs feature the elite of the league, we celebrated their foibles and mishaps. Let’s take a quick look back at the highlights:

The good news is that the winner of all but three categories advanced in the first round so we can continue to ride those cold hands into the Second Round Shenanigans. In a shocking result, James Harden wasn’t the worst in any category in the first round. Perhaps we have to rethink his placement on the Loserball Mount Rushmore. Desmond Bane cruised to the minus/plus lead which was quite impresive considering he only played four games. The Thunder really took control when he was on the court.

Jalen Brunson has become one of the most complete point guards in the NBA but WOW does the guy miss a lot of shots! He played six games and missed an astonishing 84 attempts, which was ten more than his opposite in the series, Cade Cunningham of the Pistons, who finished second in this dubious category. We previewed those two as massive chuckers before the series started and they did not disappoint. Brunson missed 20 more than Stephen Curry, who even played an extra game than him. Keep an eye on Brunson in Round 2 to keep damaging rims in New York and Boston.  

Widely considered the best three-point shooter of a generation and maybe in history, Stephen Curry obviously lives by the Loserball NBA motto which is “just keep chuckin’”. If you shoot enough of them, some are bound to go in. After getting off to a rough start the first couple of games, Curry’s percentage got objectively worse and he ended up missing 45 three-point shots in the first round. He had to be the odds-on favorite to repeat that feat again, but his Game 1 injury against the T’wolves now takes him out of the running. He could have had a shot at the three-point percentage title also but someone has to take the ball out of Bennedict Mathurin’s hands behind the line. Where he missed an astounding 86.7% of his shots behind the arc. That is incredible confidence in yourself to just keep putting them up time after time and missing six out of seven on average. He should be a motivational speaker for people with self-esteem issues.

Unfortunately, the top seven turnover machines from Round 1 have been eliminated with Cade Cunningham on top with 32 and others setting tee times now (and Curry out). So who will be the new leader in the Conference Semifinals? Similarly with personal fouls, five of the top seven are from teams who are eliminated. Karl Anthony Towns will move on to Round 2 as he led the opening tilt with 27 and - we bet this one will surprise you - Draymond Green was right there, too, and has advanced. That should be a heavyweight fight of hackers coming up.

That gives you a quick rundown of the worst we saw to start the NBA Playoffs so please follow this link to sign up for the Loserball Second Round Shenanigans and may all of your picks do worse than you even imagined. Today is the last day to join!

Round 2 of the NBA Playoffs kicks off Sunday evening, and our latest cash contest is here too! This round we’ve tweaked the rules a bit so you can choose players in a specific matchup, and don’t have to worry about some series going longer than others. Eight teams have been sent packing and eight more have advanced, so on to Loserball’s Second Round Shenanigans contest, with a top prize of $200! While the top seeds swept through Round 1, there have been some good extended series. Here are some preview thoughts:  

Cavs/Pacers

A lot of this series for Loserball is going to be based around Tyrese Haliburton and Donovan Mitchell, the star point guards from each team. Mitchell was limited last series because the Cavaliers swept out the Heat, but he was still near the top ten in missed shots for the first round. Cleveland scores so many points that Mitchell takes a huge volume of shots. They crushed the Heat, which actually limited Mitchell’s minutes and he still averaged missing nine shots a game. That’s talent! The Pacers also play at a very fast…..well, pace (couldn’t resist). Haliburton must have hit every single inch of the rim on both baskets last series as he only had one game where he shot over 45%. Look for Mitchell and Haliburton slashing to the hoop a lot, and the big guys on both sides racking up the hacks for you and getting those personal fouls!

Celtics/Knicks

Oh this one is going to be fun! These two teams already don’t like each other, so that personal foul category should be great! Two of the most prolific brick layers — we mean shot takers — are in this series, as Jayson Tatum and Jalen Brunson rarely meet a shot they don’t want to take. While others have a chance in that category, those two are just on another level. The standings in the contests for these two teams will likely sway throughout the series as this, hopefully, will be a long one. The Celtics are the defending champs and the Knicks have their best team in a long time. Who will do the most bad things for Loserball will be great to watch!

Thunder/Nuggets

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic headline what should be another great series for Loserball fans. SGA is a major shot-clanker and turns the ball over with the best of them. Through the first four games of all series in Round 1, he was leading in missed shots. And Russell Westbrook advances and gets to bring his light up the turnover/missed shot categories against another former team.

T’wolves/?

Anthony Edwards is one of the most exciting young superstars in the game right now, missing shots aplenty. Now, if we can just get Stephen Curry through to Round 2 there will be plenty of ankle breaking moves with the ball, but also rim breaking misses that are sure to light up the Loserball scoreboard. If Houston wins their Game 7 against the Dubs there are no shortage of chuckers to choose from.

May the Fourth Be With You and Good luck in our Round 2 contest!

Welcome back Loserball Nation!!!! After the success of our first NFL season, Loserball has launched our first cash contest — just in time for the NBA Playoffs!

In true Loserball fashion, you’ll be rewarded for all of the bad things that happen in a basketball game. Bricks bring you bucks, fouls will be fabulous, and turnovers are terrific! While the playoffs feature the best of the best talent in the league, there will still be plenty of basketball badness to cheer for.

So let’s preview the Eastern Conference for our NBA First-Round Fiasco contest:

How you use your 1000 “Sparks” will be important. You can pick the player most likely to top each category of futility, but the payoff won’t be as much. Do you go big and pick a bit of an underdog, or play for the big odds and try to advance to the top of the Leaderboard with a guy who surprises folks with how poorly he plays in the first round? Also, when picking the categories that reward you for the sheer volume of bad stats (as opposed to worst percentage), you also should take into account how long you think the series will go — as the more games they play the more chances for fantastic failures!

When it comes to point guards, the East is loaded with talent at the position, like Memphis’ Ja Morant and the Pistons’ Cade Cunningham. We know what you are thinking, “Hey, these guys are elite, they aren’t going to help us in Loserball Land.” Oh, you don’t realize how wrong you are! Cade Cunningham was second in the league in turnovers with over 4 per game. Ja Morant fumbled it away nearly four times a game, and you definitely want to keep an eye on ball hogs like Jayson Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo as top turnover targets.

And while the Eastern Conference playoff teams have five of the top 15 scorers in the NBA, a lot of them are serious chuckers. Jayson Tatum missed an eye-popping 800+ shots this year — that’s Loserball GOLD! Cade Cunningham wasn’t far behind with 770+ (that’s two categories he helps you with), and even top-seeded Cleveland saw Donovan Mitchell miss nearly 740 shots this season. If you are more of a missed field goal percentage fan, the top teams in the East had over ten players that missed 55% of their shots or higher.

Finally, a guy doesn’t have to be on the court the whole game to help you win. Kyle Kuzma in Milwaukee only plays 30 minutes a night but is quite the brickslayer as he misses more than 56% of his field goals and is even stronger from behind the three-point line, tracking off-target on nearly 70% of his attempts from downtown, truly bringing his former wizardry to Deer Central.

Hopefully, you’ve now got a better idea of strategy and some “stars” for the Loserball NBA First-Round Fiasco. Sign up today, pick the guys you think will shine in each category and get ready to start popping bottles when basketballs go clanging off the iron!

Even though some really disappointing teams are competing for a championship, the Western Conference is loaded with Loserball leaders — say that three times fast! Outside of being a pretty good free throw shooter and not so foul-prone, James Harden should be on the Loserball Mount Rushmore.

We are so thankful the fantasy sports deities got the Clippers into the top six seeds in the West. Anthony Edwards? Same deal! Top 15 in turnovers, and missed nearly 900 shots this past season.

Last, but certainly not Loserball least, is Russell Westbrook. He is a turnover machine while chucking up bad shots game in and game out! Westbrook is also quite mediocre from the free-throw line, truly an all-around best bet.

However, in this contest, you can’t just rely on the top guys all the time. You have to use your Sparks wisely, and also take into consideration how long a playoff series might go, and not just how terrible a guy might play. Sure, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is going to throw up a bunch of bricks in the first round despite likely being the top scorer, but is Oklahoma City going to breeze through the soon-to-be-determined #8 seed, perhaps limiting how many shots he will miss? Luka missed 11 shots per game and turned the ball over 3.5 times every contest, but will the Lakers be taken into a long series by Minnesota? That will be the strategy that will determine the best choices for each category.

We hope this gives you a little flavor of what to expect with Loserball’s NBA First Round Fiasco. We had so much fun with football that we had to expand into other sports! So now, clutch missed free throws will be cause for celebration, and those ticky-tack fouls are fabulous! Turnovers are also tremendous in a totally new way to look at pro basketball.

Be sure to check out the rules, put your thinking cap on, and get ready to root for all of the worst things to happen to the players you choose as we gear up for high-stakes playoff action. Good luck Loserball Nation!