In order to fill out the 32-team tournament, we created two extra teams out of players who were left off their own teams' 3 on 3 rosters. Turns out those teams were pretty good. We slotted them into the 9th seeds in each conference, which turned out to be bad news for the 8 seeds.
In the East, a leftovers team of Brandon Jennings, Gerald Wallace and Roy Hibbert knocked off the Philadelphia 76ers threesome of Jrue Holiday, Evan Turner and Andrew Bynum. This was judged to be a very close contest by our panel of experts, who gave the Sixers a 48 percent chance of winning versus a 52 percent chance for the East Leftovers. Remember that the better seeded team, in this case the Sixers, is the important number for the dice rolls that determine the outcome, so in this case Philadelphia was looking for numbers of 48 or lower. Unfortunately, they were swept in two straight games, as the dice came up 76 and 66. The East Leftovers now move on to face the Chicago Bulls in the second round.
Out West an even more impressive group of orphans, James Harden, Zach Randolph and Pau Gasol, was put up against three Utah Jazz youngsters, Alec Burks, Gordon Hayward and Derrick Favors. The experts gave Utah just a 24 percent chance of winning. The first roll came up 87 giving the Leftovers a 1-0 lead. But the Jazz won the second in the equivalent of overtime with a roll of 24, forcing a game three showdown. The final score was close, but the last roll of 30 gave the West Leftovers the win, and they move on to face the San Antonio Spurs in the second round.
For a complete look at the SB Nation 3 on 3 Tournament, check back with this StoryStream.