Thursday's pair of games in our hypothetical 3 on 3 Tournament pitted the No. 5 seeds against the No. 12 seeds. Did we get any March Madness style upsets? Nope.
Out East, in a showdown that our panel of judges thought was almost too close to call (49-51), the Atlanta Hawks' trio of John Jenkins, Josh Smith and Al Horford swept past Kyle Lowry, Terrence Ross and Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors. Needing dice rolls of 49 or lower, Atlanta won handily with back-to-back rolls of 3 and 16, and now advances to the second round where they'll face the winner of tomorrow's contest between the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets.
In the West, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Lamar Odom of the Los Angeles Clippers had to face a Portland Trail Blazers team comprised of LaMarcus Aldridge, Nicolas Batum and Damian Lillard. The Clippers were deemed to be a 71 percent favorite, based mostly on Paul's likely dismantling of Lillard, but dropped Game 1 when the dice came up 75 on the first roll. Needing to win two straight to avoid the upset, the Clippers came through on rolls of 24 and 52. The Clips now advance to the second round, where they await the Memphis Grizzlies-Minnesota Timberwolves winner.
For a complete look at the SB Nation 3 on 3 Tournament, check back with this StoryStream.