Week 6 Preview: Slaughter to Face Former Team as Warriors Gaming Squad Takes on Jazz Gaming
June 10, 2020
The NBA 2K League season rolls right along as Warriors Gaming Squad has another West Coast matchup on Wednesday night, facing Jazz Gaming (3-1) at 6 p.m. PST. The best-of-three series will be live on ESPN2, ESPN.com and the ESPN App, as well as the NBA 2K League’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
Return of Slaughter
WGS is headed to virtual Utah on Wednesday night with a note of nostalgia for first-year WGS center Slaughter. The 2020 first-round pick spent the first year of his career with Jazz Gaming after being drafted No. 32 overall in the 2018 draft. In Utah, Slaughter averaged 19.4 points, 8.6 rebounds, and 1.7 blocks per game, but went unretained after season one and subsequently missed the 2019 season.
The year off has hardly slowed him. Slaughter leads the league with 16.6 rebounds per game—more than two rebounds ahead of the second-place rebounder—and is also fourth in blocks per game with 3.1. Calm and collected, however, the new Warriors Gaming center isn’t buying too much into the hype of a return matchup.
“I haven’t really thought about it too much,” he said. “I’m just approaching it like another game on our quest to reach our main goal. They have a great organization over there. I met a lot of helpful, genuine people that made it easy to live and play in Utah and I wish them the best!”
It wouldn’t be right to leave out Slaughter’s play of the week from week five, where he put Blazer5 in a spin cycle for a ferocious slam dunk:
Showing off his SPIN move, @malikleisinger SLAM dunks one home in last week’s Play of the Game presented by @TanduayUSA! pic.twitter.com/E617z4bbUb
— Warriors Gaming (@WarriorsGaming) June 9, 2020
Slaughter need his spin and rebounding prowess against the Jazz, who enter the series on a two-game winning streak. Slaughter’s counterpart at center, 2019 top pick Ria, is fifth in the league in rebounding and also averages over 5 assists per game at center. Fellow top-three pick Yeah I Compete, the third pick in 2018, moved to lockdown defender this season after two years at point guard, but his offense hasn’t left him; Compete leads the league in three-point shooting with a scorching 73.7% mark from beyond the arc. The Jazz also boast 2020 No. 10 pick Splashy at point guard, 2019 first-round pick Lotty at shooting guard, and former Pacers Gaming second-round pick Lord Beezus at power forward.
A Different Note
The NBA 2K League announced the extension of remote play through week 11, as well as dates for the Tipoff Tournament—the one banner Warriors Gaming Squad has never won.
Week five’s marathon series victory against Blazer5 Gaming, recapped here and on NBC Sports Bay Area.
Head coach Mike Newton jumped on the Warriors Sound podcast with Laurence Scott to talk NBA 2K League, G League, and more:
Talking @NBA2KLeague + @GLeagueWarriors and more with @WarriorsGaming head coach @MikeChec1__2 on new @warriors podcast: https://t.co/whJxAnVON9
🎙️ Subscribe to #Warriors Podcast:
🎧 >> https://t.co/ohLgPMT7zm pic.twitter.com/2pzcLluhOY
— Laurence Scott (@LaurenceScott) June 9, 2020