NBA2K Daily Challenge Preview: 2010-11 Bulls vs. 1985-86 Celtics + FanDuel Plays | Monday, March 30

No new NBA games does not have to mean the end of NBA DFS action. We here at Awesemo are committed to bringing you contests while sports are on hiatus. And that continues today with Awesemo’s NBA2K Daily Challenge, which continues off with the 2010-11 Bulls taking on the 1985-86 Celtics.

Here’s what we’re doing: over the next few weeks, we’re giving away $20,000+ in prizes in FREE TO PLAY contests based on simulated NBA games that will air on YouTube and Twitch streams involving your favorite Awesemo personalities. There will be Daily Contests where you are asked to predict aspects of the day’s simulated game. Get the most correct answers and you’ll be eligible for great prizes. Prizes will vary from day-to-day and tonight’s prize is a EastPoint Sports Preston Foosball Table! Enter now (and every day) by clicking on the following link:

https:www.awesemo.com/nba2k-daily-challenges

Through April 3, we’ll also be running a $15,000 Bracket Challenge with $10,000 to first. You’ve made your bracket picks and if you get the highest score you could walk away with $10,000.

In addition, FanDuel is running a contest based on our streams! For full details and to make your picks, follow the link http://https://bit.ly/FanDueleNBA. We have included some FanDuel-specific picks below.

Additional details regarding both the $15,000 Bracket Challenge and the Daily Contests, including full Terms and Conditions, are available here: https:www.awesemo.com/nba2k
Thank you for supporting us and we’re thrilled to have this opportunity to give something back. We aren’t going anywhere and hope you feel the same.


You can catch the stream below, going live at 7:30 EST!



Now, let’s dig into a preview of tonight’s matchup between the 2010-11 Bulls and the 1985-86 Celtics.

The Teams

2010-11 Bulls

Starters:

PG – Derrick Rose

SG – Kyle Korver

SF – Luol Deng

PF – Carlos Boozer

C – Joakim Noah

The Bulls of the mid-to-late 2000s were a fun, competitive team that thrived with middling talent and hard work. They made a couple playoff runs, fired a few mediocre coaches and then lucked into some solid drafts from 2007 to 2009, including landing the No. 1 overall pick in 2008. That pick changed the fortunes of the franchise, as Derrick Rose supplanted the Ben Gordon/Kirk Hinrich era of the Bulls and became the their first true megastar since Michael Jordan. With Rose leading the offense and new coach Tom Thibodeau cementing the league’s best defense, the Bulls moved from perennial .500 team to the best record in the NBA.

Though Rose was the star, Chicago featured multiple solid scorers and decent depth off the bench. Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng both averaged over 17 a game and the team ranked 11th in offensive efficiency. However, their identity was Thibodeau’s hard-nosed defensive approach. Deng and Joakim Noah anchored the No. 1-rated defense in the league and that unit led the Bulls to 62 wins.

Come playoff time, the Bulls were still second banana to the new Heat superteam, despite boasting the East’s top seed. Chicago showed out with relatively convincing wins in the first two rounds, but Miami made quick work of the Bulls in the East Finals, as LeBron James shut Rose down and the Bulls’ supplemental scorers failed to fill the void. After losing to the Heat in five, Chicago would have modest success the following years, but never again get that close to a title under Thibodeau.

1985-86 Celtics

Starters:

PG – Dennis Johnson

SG – Danny Ainge

SF – Larry Bird

PF – Kevin McHale

C – Robert Parish

There is a very short list of teams that are universally included among the greatest single-season squads in NBA history. In fact, most of the time if you ask someone who they think is the greatest team ever, they will respond one of two ways: the ’96 Bulls or the ’86 Celtics. Sure, others may mix in the ’72 Lakers or the ’87 Lakers or the ’01 Lakers or maybe the ’17 Warriors, but most lean to one of the Celtics or Bulls. And, well, the ’96 Bulls are out already, so that leaves one team atop the mountain, at least in terms of 2K sims.

So what made the Celtics so dominant? Star power is the easy answer, as four Celtics starters plus a bench player are currently in the Hall of Fame. Three made of them made the All-Star Game and their coach, another Hall-of-Fame player in K.C. Jones, coached the East. But more than just the talent, Boston was a no-nonsense two-way machine. They thrived with crisp passing, movement, strong shooting and dominant defense, and all together, those facets paved the way for the Celtics to win a league-high 67 games. Modern stats show just how dominant they were with the NBA’s best defensive rating and the third-best offensive efficiency. Of course, despite all that teamwork, they were still fully driven by NBA MVP Larry Bird. 

With Bird at the helm, the Celtics breezed through the East playoffs, sweeping a young Michael Jordan, knocking off Dominique Wilkins and the Hawks in five and sweeping Sidney Moncrief and the second-seeded Bucks. And in a twist of fortune, Boston did not have to face the Lakers, their cohorts atop the 1980s NBA, in the Finals. The Rockets defeated the Lakers in five games in a surprising upset, headlined by big men Ralph Sampson and Hakeem Olajuwon (fun fact: though the Celtics and Lakers are frequently linked and played each other in the Finals thrice, two of the Celtics three title wins came against Houston).

Fortunately, Boston’s duo of Kevin McHale and Robert Parish were well equipped to matchup with Houston. They jumped out to a 3-1 lead with Bird and McHale leading the way on both ends of the floor and eventually took down Houston with a convincing Game 6 blowout. In his third title of the decade, Bird nearly averaged a triple-double and took home Finals MVP honors, his second in three seasons.


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The Studs

Derrick Rose – PG – Bulls

Chicago’s rebuild culminated with one of the most fortunate lottery wins in the history of the format. Chicago had a 1.7 percent chance of landing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 draft, yet came out on top and took the hometown hero Rose. Rose immediately became the face of the franchise, winning Rookie of the Year in 2009, making the All-Star team in 2010 and taking home league MVP in 2011. Rose’s MVP run largely came down to being the featured player for the team with the NBA’s best record, but he put up strong numbers as well to the tune of 25 points and 7.7 assists per game. Rose’s inability to shake LeBron in the East Finals effectively hamstrung the Bulls’ championship aspirations, but for that one year, he was the most exciting Bulls player since Jordan.

Alas, the next year would spell the beginning of the end. Despite posting strong numbers again and the Bulls winning the most games in the league, Rose’s injury troubles would start to show themselves. He missed strings of games here and there due to various ailments. But none of those compared to what happened in the first round of the playoffs. Rose would tear his ACL in garbage time of a Bulls win, and they would go on to lose to eight-seeded Philadelphia. Rose would tear his other ACL a couple years later, and from there he would never be the same. His Bulls career eventually ended unceremoniously in 2016. Since then, Rose has jumped from team to team, eventually working his way back to fringe All-Star status, but he has never come close to those early Bulls heights.

Still, Rose’s 2011 season has served as the highlight of the Bulls’ post-Jordan era.

Larry Bird

Most players’ athleticism is quantifiable; they can run this fast, jump this high, change direction this quickly. But Bird is the rare super athlete who was not faster or bouncier than other stars. Rather, he was in tune with everything, had no wasted movements and was constantly in control. You watch Bird now and you do not see a freak of nature, rather a guy who constantly knew exactly what he was doing and exactly what his opponent was doing. As a result, he was one of the best passers ever, one of the best at playing passing lanes on defense, one of the best shooters, one of the most adept scorers, a top rebounder, an innovator and one of the few players who was both perfect for his era and perhaps before his time.

Bird’s run at the top was relatively short at just 13 seasons. However, in those 13, he averaged at least 20 points 11 times and the two times he did not he was at 19 a game. He loaded up on peripherals as well, averaging exactly 10 rebounds and 6.3 assists for his career as well as 1.7 steals. Bird was also the first ever member of the 50-40-90 club, doing it in back-to-back seasons in ’87 and ’88. And though his shooting numbers do not pop now thanks to the increased focus on 3-point shooting, Bird’s numbers were elite for his time, 1.9 attempts a game and 37.6 percent for his career, and he had four seasons where he shot over 40 percent from deep on at least 2.5 attempts a game. In today’s era where shooting would factor in more and he could play the stretch-four rather than small forward, Bird’s numbers could have looked even more ridiculous than they already do.

As it stands, his Hall of Fame legacy and place among the 10 best ever is secure: 12-time All-Star, 10-time All-NBA, three-time All-Defensive, three straight NBA MVPs from 1984-86, three rings and two Finals MVP. But more than the accolades, he along with Magic Johnson were the icons that helped make the MVP extraordinarily popular in the 1980s. Michael Jordan would eventually bring it to unprecedented mainstream success, but those two took the first steps to being true megastars, not just on the court but in culture as well.

Kevin McHale

McHale’s accomplishments speak for themselves, but there is one defining aspect of McHale’s legacy: the up-and-under. He featured an array of post moves, and opponents caught in his “torture chamber” were often made to look foolish in a myriad of ways. But the up-and-under was his go-to. Back to the basket, McHale would commit his shooting motion hard towards the lane, then quickly duck under the defender inevitably biting for the easy lay-in. Feel free to enter the rabbit hole of McHale up-and-unders HERE. Others have done it before and since, but no one, not even Olajuwon, has ever done it better.

McHale rode those incredible post moves to seven All-Star Games, but up until 1985, McHale primarily came off the bench. In fact, he won NBA Sixth Man of the Year both years prior to joining the starting lineup for good in 1985-86. But no matter when he entered the game, McHale always played huge minutes and his elite quickness for his size made him not just an offensive threat, but also one of the best low-post defenders of his era. Six times McHale made the All-Defensive Team to go along with five seasons scoring over 20 a game.

In the 1986 season, McHale missed some time with an injury, but he still started 62 games for Boston. He ranked among the league leaders in field goal percentage at 57.4 percent, averaging 21.3 points and 8.1 rebounds. In this matchup with Carlos Boozer, one would assume McHale will have his way in the low post as Boozer was one of the league’s worst defenders.

Robert Parish

McHale and Bird had short but eventful careers. In contrast, Parish was the master of longevity. His career spanned 21 seasons, 14 with the Celtics, and his 1611 games played are 51 more than any other player in NBA history. He covered a multitude of eras, from the Rick Barry Warriors to the ’80s Celtics and ending with Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Through that time, Parish established himself as a brilliant two-way center, big enough at 7-feet to guard centers and quick enough to close out on shots. He also was a steady midrange shooter and ran the floor well even as age caught up with him.

His career started in Golden State, but Parish took off once he joined the Celtics in 1980-81. He scored and rebounded consistently, averaging around 18 points and 10 boards through his first seven seasons in Boston, and he made the All-Star team all seven of those years. He was a perfect complement to Bird and McHale, as he could cut and shoot to help McHale out of the post and he could score down low as Bird stretched out the defense. He and McHale made a lethal frontcourt duo that could hang with the best in the game, and the two switched off as Bird’s No. 2 option throughout the ’80s. 1985-86 saw Parish average 16.1 and 9.5, the clear third option offensively, but still a vital piece of the Celtics and a superstar of his era.

Dennis Johnson

It was a tough call on whether to include Johnson here or in the Role Players section. Ultimately, the decision was that it seems wrong to exclude a Hall of Famer at the tail end of his prime from the Studs. Johnson is, unlike many of the best players of his era, difficult to quantify because he was not a dynamite scorer nor a stat stuffer with peripherals. Rather, Johnson was a good offensive player and an elite on-ball defender. His defense and scoring brought him a Finals MVP with the Sonics in 1979, earned him five All-Star nods (one with Boston) and a whopping nine appearances on the NBA All-Defensive Team.

By 1986, Johnson was a tertiary, yet still capable scorer with 15.6 points a game. His primary offensive role was distributor while he was largely tasked with defending the opponents’ best guards. And though Parish and McHale get most of the credit nowadays for Boston’s top-ranked defense, Johnson may be most responsible for their dominance. So though Johnson may not be a “star” in the sense of a larger-than-life legacy, he was certainly a Stud at this time in his career.

The Role Players

Bulls

Joakim Noah – Noah’s impact on the Bulls went far beyond the stat sheets. He never averaged more than 13 points a game, only hit double-digit rebounds four times and only once hit two blocks a game. And yet, he was consistently one of the best defensive players in the NBA, culminating in a 2014 Defensive Player of the Year Award, and served as the on-court conduit to Thibodeau’s feisty, defensive style. Noah was also a fantastic passer for his position, though he only averaged 2.2 assists per game in 2010-11.

Luol Deng – Deng was Chicago’s real No. 2 in the Derrick Rose era. He was a solid all-around player, averaging 17.4 points and 5.8 rebounds while also being the team’s primary wing defender. Though he had played with the Bulls since 2004 and scored more points a game in earlier years, 2010-11 was Deng’s breakout year, as he took more 3’s and often handled the opposing team’s best scorer on defense. As a result of this breakout, Deng would make the next two All-Star Games.

Carlos Boozer – When the Bulls missed on the big fish in 2010 free agency — LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — Boozer served as consolation prize. And he was a reasonably useful player for Chicago, providing valuable scoring prowess in the post. However, Boozer’s defense would be much-maligned, and fans grew to resent him as he took up much of the salary cap without bringing the Bulls closer to a title. Still, Boozer had a decent run in 2010-11, recording 17.5 points and 9.6 rebounds while shooting 51 percent from the field.

Celtics

Danny Ainge – Ainge is the Forrest Gump of the NBA. While never being a star, he found a way onto some of the most successful teams of his era before settling into his role as Celtics GM and making some of the craziest front office moves in recent memory. His playing career included two titles with the Celtics in the 1980s, a Finals loss to Michael Jordan in Portland and another Finals loss to Jordan in Phoenix. Ainge was a useful player for a long time in many different stops, primarily due to his annoying, pesky defensive style. Later in his career, he would also become a strong shooter on good teams, but for Boston, he was a decent fifth offensive option and an agitator on defense.

Bill Walton – Walton’s Hall of Fame career is bizarre to say the least. He played in 10 seasons, six of which were quote “full,” and only three times exceeded 60 games. Yet, because of his MVP and title in Portland and his great college career, Walton is enshrined despite the worst injury history of any superstar ever. That injury history allowed Boston to snatch him up in 1985 and use him as third big man behind Parish and McHale, and Walton flourished in the role. In fact, he played 80 games that season — 13 more than any other year of his career — and took home Sixth Man of the Year honors.

FanDuel Plays

MVP – Derrick Rose – $15,000

The top spot has plenty of worth suitors with four Hall of Famers and a current-season NBA MVP in our pool. We have not seen Larry Bird play yet in this tournament, but presumably, his offensive ratings, particularly his shot rating, will be sky high. However, Rose is $500 cheaper and was the top fantasy producer in the Bulls’ last game, one that included John Stockton and KarlMalone. Dennis Johnson defending Rose is a mild inhibitor, but one-on-one defense lately has not seemed that substantial of a factor as stars have gone off. All in all, I am fine with any of the Celtics stars in here as well, but with Rose certain to dominate usage, he is the choice for me.

Star – Larry Bird – $15,500

Hakeem Olajuwon‘s performance in this tournament lends some credence to Kevin McHale’s place in the Star spot, since Olajuwon’s post mastery got him over 20 points last game and McHale’s game was somewhat of an Olajuwon precursor. However, I tend to think that Parish, Walton and McHale could split rebounds, while I see Bird lighting up assists and steals. Plus, he should be the Celtics top outside shooter and is the favorite to lead them in scoring. With those peripherals, I like Bird enough to justify the hefty price bump from McHale and Parish.

Pro – Luol Deng – $12,000

I rolled with Deng at Pro last game and he delivered with 15 points, four rebounds and one each of assists, steals and blocks. I do not see him as much of a downgrade at all from Parish and certainly not from Joakim Noah, both of whom are priced at least $1,000 higher. He matches up with Bird who will have the ball a lot, which could set up for some blocks and steals. Plus, Deng’s price means we do not have to fully punt our Utility slots, as we can still get to Kyle Korver and Taj Gibson to round out the lineup with decent depth pieces.


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Author
Sam Smith is a writer and editor with Stokastic and OddsShopper. He has been immersed in the world of professional sports data since 2015, while also writing extensively on the NFL for a multitude of blogs and websites. With Stokastic, Sam looks to blend his sports and editorial expertise with Stokastic's data to bring you the best fantasy information possible.

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