Exciting stuff! Glad to see at least one series had some drama, hopefully the next two rounds will be closer.

Nashville Fugitives vs Philadelphia Row
Coming off a brutal 7-game series against New York, it was immediately clear Nashville didn’t have the energy left to compete with Philly. The Fugues managed just 74 points in Game 1, as the Row defense seemed to bottle up anything that came their way. Game 2 went a little better, but nowhere near enough to make things close. Game 3 would start off okay for Nashville, as they would go into halftime only trailing by 14, which against the Row this year, was practically a victory in and of itself. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t hold up, and Philly would blow the doors off in the second half and completely run away with the game. By Game 4, it honestly seemed like the Fugitives had given up. F/K Ray Thomas’s 39 points and B/ZB Kenton Snowberger’s 64 points assisted led the Row to a clean 200 points and another shot at a title.



Chicago Frost vs Texas Redbacks
Trouble started brewing for Chicago before the series even tipped off. Frost W/ZB Ben Haley had been looking rather sick during Game 4 against Toronto, eventually having to be replaced with W/ZB Beau Ferland. Of course, the Flakes won that game and advanced, but the problem had only just begun. B/C Ralph Rashke was the next to succumb to what would later be determined as a case of food poisoning, and along with Haley, would miss Game 1 against Texas. The game was tight, with the lead changing hands as late as the sixth inning, though the Redbacks would pull away in the final quarter to take a 1-0 series lead.

Before Game 2, however, the dominoes started falling. B/ZB Dewitt Golf, B/K Thorsten Winkler, and most notably, B/ZB Tony Bennett, all began showing symptoms. While Golf and Winkler would sit, Bennett insisted on playing, and with little chance of winning without him, he was allowed to play. Anyone hoping for a sequel to the Flu Game would be disappointed, though, as Bennett clearly wasn’t his usual self, and the Redbacks went up 2-0. In Game 3, Texas started speeding things up, daring the sick and/or inexperienced Frost to keep up. They did, at least for parts of the game, but it wouldn’t be enough not to go down 3-0. Even with Winkler back for Game 4, it didn’t seem to get any better. With the universe once again seeming to align in their favor, the Texas Redbacks have returned to their sixth straight NDLCS.

Last edited by ItDoesntMatter (11/08/2020 4:28 pm)

LET'S GO ROW...

For the first time ever, the NDLCS would feature the same two teams in two consecutive years. Texas was back, looking for their sixth consecutive title and eighth overall, and Philly was looking to cap off an undefeated season and reclaim the First Trophy for the 99%. (Of course, Philly was the last non-Redback team to win a title, all the way back in 2023, but they were clearly the good guys this time around). The Row had home-court advantage once again, and the Game 1 crowd was hoping for a different result than this time last year. What they got was one of the best games in NDL history. No team led by double digits at any point, and the lead went back and forth 41 times, an NDL record made all the more astonishing by the relatively low score. As these games often do, it would come down to who had the ball last, and with the score tied at 130 and just 18 seconds to go, the Redbacks would bring the ball up the court for the final time of regulation. With time winding down, it seemed the Row defense had Texas all wrapped up, but when B/K Semarias Garcia has the ball, nothing can be said for sure. Garcia threw what initially appeared to be a pass over the backboard but was actually a self-pass off the backboard, and having completely fooled Philly B/C Ben Elkins, had one defender in front of him with two ways to score. Unfortunately for Garcia, that defender was none other than F/K Ray Thomas, but fortunately for Garcia, W/ZB Larry Whitt had also gotten by his defender and into the 2-point circle. Garcia only had to get the pass away and Whitt had the easiest goal of his life to stun the Philadelphia crowd and steal Game 1.

Last year, when Texas had eked out a close Game 1 win at the Wells Fargo Center, the Row had responded by completely crapping the bed for the rest of the series. This time, they were determined to change that narrative. While they didn’t exactly blow the Backs out in Game 2, the 23-point win left fans feeling a lot more comfortable, and at least guaranteed that the series would return to Philly. The real statement win would come in Game 3, when the Row offense dropped 165 on a Texas team that hadn’t lost a home playoff game in over two years, largely thanks to B/ZB Kenton Snowberger and his 61 points contributed. They didn’t seem satisfied with that performance either, because in Game 4, their defense showed up and held the Redbacks to a measly 100 points, their lowest output ever in the postseason. To put things in perspective, Texas had now lost 3 consecutive playoff games; from the 2025 postseason up until this series, they had lost 3 total playoff games.

The Redbacks were now faced with a situation they hadn’t seen in over 5 years: an elimination game - and not only that, a road elimination game. Of course, being the Redbacks, they weren't about to go down without a fight, and the fans in Philly witnessed another classic. Texas got out to a good start, taking a 14-point lead into inning number 3, before the Row brought it back within 2 at halftime. The second half was almost a complete mirror image of the first; Philly went up 17 in the sixth before Texas started fighting back, and they would have one more chance down 3 with just 12 seconds to go. Once again, Semarias Garcia would find himself in the unenviable position of having to solve the Row defense, and this time, he actually would throw over the backboard, lofting a pass just beyond the outstretched hand of B/ZB John Evans and finding Larry Whitt to give their season at least two more innings. In the overtime periods, Texas had the momentum initially, growing their lead to 7 at one point in the ninth, but an Elkins-to-Thomas alley-oop got the crowd back into it and started turning the tide. Over the next ten minutes, Philly would respond, eventually taking the lead back about midway through the tenth. With a four-point lead and under a minute to go, Elkins redeemed himself for his Game 1 misplay, blocking a Garcia shot, scooping up the ball, and throwing the long outlet to F/K Chris Gray. Gray’s three-point jumper proved both the dagger and the final points of the season, and in a scene that definitely shouldn’t remind you of anything, the world celebrated with Philadelphia as the blue team took down the red team in a come-from-behind victory.

It's finally over. After 5 straight years of suffering, the Redbacks are finished. Of course, I say that, but they're still an amazing team that will be contenders for a while. I'm curious, did the expansion cripple them enough to give other teams a shot or was it simply age?