PACERS GAMING VS T-WOLVES GAMING & RAPTORS UPRISING GC – THE SWITCH 3V3

INDIANAPOLIS (April 4, 2023) – Ten months ago Pacers Gaming put on a historic display in capturing the NBA 2K League’s 3v3 2022 SWITCH OPEN Tournament championship with a dominating performance that included a 9-1 record in series played and a 30-9 mark in games played. Coach Cody Parrent and Co. were not quite sure what to expect as this season’s SWITCH OPEN began play Tuesday night with a totally overhauled roster for the defending champions.

Well, for at least one night, 2023 looked a lot like 2022.  The Pacers won both best-of-five series in convincing fashion Tuesday to begin the 2024 SWITCH OPEN with a 2-0 record. Indiana will meet Wizards District Gaming on Wednesday, April 5, at 6:00 p.m., before completing its week’s play on Thursday with a 9:45 p.m. contest against 76ers GC. The Pacers will play four more group-play games next week.  Each 3v3 series is best-of-five; first team to 21 wins but must win by at least two points.

“I am so proud of this team,” said Parrent. “They’ve worked really hard and our practices have been great as far as team-building is concerned.  They are really coming together as a unit.  They share the ball and play for each other.”

The defending champs wasted no time sending a message with its first series Tuesday night.  Facing a T-Wolves squad which just finished Runner Up in the league’s season-opening SLAM OPEN Tournament (losing in the final game of the championship series), Pacers Gaming dominated in a remarkable 3-1 series victory.  The Pacers stormed out to a 23-16 victory in Game 1 as CHESS (Kory Taylor) scored 13 points and JAYSNAGS (Julio Laboy) and BIGREIGN (Blaine Wilson) each recorded five points.  CHESS and JAYSNAGS each had two assists and BIGREIGN pulled down three rebounds.  BEARDABEAST led the T-Wolves with 14 points. Minnesota showed its skill and battled back to take Game 2, 22-15 behind BEARDABEAST’s 13 points.  CHESS led the Blue & Gold with 10 points and JAYSNAGS added five tallies.  In the most thrilling game of the series, the Pacers captured Game 3, 24-20 as CHESS (13 points) and BIGREIGN (nine points) combined for 22 points.  BEARDABEAST had 14 points for the T-Wolves.  The Pacers wasted no time closing out the best-of-five series with an impressive 21-14 Game 4 victory.  CHESS was seven-for-eight from the field enroute to 16 points. BEARDABEAST led the T-Wolves with eight points.

Indiana faced Raptors Uprising GC in the second series of the night and fell behind early, losing Game 1, 22-14.  MOOCH led Toronto with 13 points while JAYSNAGS scored six and CHESS tallied five to pace Indiana. The Pacers came right back with a convincing 22-14 victory in Game 2 as CHESS was six-of-six from the field for 14 points and JAYSNAGS added eight.  MOOCH went for 10 for Toronto.  As in the first series of the night against Minnesota, Indiana took the pivotal Game 3 against the Raptors, winning 21-16 behind balanced scoring: JAYSNAGS eight points, CHESS seven points and BIGREIGN six points.  And, with a major exclamation point on the night the Pacers took the series 3-1 with a dominating 21-10 conquest in Game 4. JAYSNAGS was four-for-four with 11 points while BIG REIGN had six points, four rebounds, an assist and a blocked shot.  MOOCH was held to five points for the Raptors. In the four-game sweep of Toronto, JAYSNAGS was 14-of-14 from the field, five-of-five from the three-point arc and scored 33 points.