Expansion team NBL Oz Gaming beat Knicks Gaming 2-1 in the Eastern Conference finals on Friday and will face Warriors Gaming Squad for the NBA 2K League 5v5 championship on Saturday in Washington.
The Warriors swept defending champion Bucks Gaming 2-0 in the Western Conference finals.
NBL Oz and the Warriors will square off in the best-of-five final on Saturday. The winner will receive half of the $1 million prize pool.
The first-year Australian squad kicked off its Friday match with a 70-69 win over the Knicks thanks to a tiebreaking 3-pointer from Frederick “DjayTooCold” Payton with 2.6 seconds left.
Oz fouled the Knicks’ Ethan “Radiant” White with 0.6 seconds left, and he made both foul shots, but it wasn’t enough.
The Knicks bounced back for a 69-64 win in the second game, but NBL Oz dominated the decisive third game, prevailing 89-65.
Jyden “Jyden” McBath-Spencer paced NBL Oz with averages of 24.7 points and five assists. The Knicks’ Malik “OriginalMalik” Hobson put up 24.7 points and 7.3 assists per game.
The Warriors got past the Bucks 68-51 and 71-65 thanks to Charlie “CB13” Bostwick’s 23 points and eight assists per game. Mason “JohhnyRed” Bracken and Dayne “OneWildWalnut” Downey each averaged 18 points for the Bucks.
NBL Oz’s starting lineup consists of DjayTooCold, Jyden, Harry “HarryVZN” Spierings, Lawrence “LawRich” Mayberry-Jordan and Gerald “Sick One” Knapp. The Warriors’ starters are CB13, Nidal “Mama Im Dat Man” Nasser, Kenneth “Kenny Got Work” Hailey, Jeremy “Seese” Seese and Jaden “Nay” Bhopal.
–Field Level Media
