Category Archives: Highlight Maker Hoops

HMH: PT Practice Game

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I randomly chose 2 coaches and 2 dozen players from PLAAY’s 75 All-Time Great Set and played a game.

The Teams:

Team Popovich (Gregg Popovich, Coach)
Starters:
Steph Curry
Michael Jordan
Scottie Pippen
Lebron James
Nate Thurmond

Bench:
Nate Archibald
Oscar Robertson
Paul Arizin
Rick Barry
Paul Pierce
Moses Malone
Willis Reed

Team Daly (Chuck Daly, Coach)
Starters:
Gary Payton
Ray Allen
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Elgin Baylor
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Bench:
Bob Cousy
Jason Kidd
Sam Jones
Dave Debusschere
Dolph Schayes
Bob McAdoo
Robert Parish

Final Score:

Team Popovich 163
Team Daly 108

Team Daly started off leading the game early, but then a switch was flipped and Team Popovich dominated both offensively and defensively, leading by as much as 70+ at one point.

This is the first basketball game that I really enjoy playing, mostly due to the way the PLAAY engine works.

I may keep these two teams intact, and randomly assign the rest of the set to teams and run a round robin tournament.

As if I didn’t have more than enough sports replays running.

Stay tuned!

Hoops Revisited

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After watching a play-through video, I see a lot of mistakes I made during that first game of Highlight Maker Hoops Prime Time.

So I’ll have to replay that one game I played between Cleveland and Boston.  I’ll call the first one a practice game.

In the meantime,  I’m going to run another practice game using the NBA 75th anniversary set, two teams of randomly picked players and coaches.

Stay tuned!

NBL: Games 1 & 2

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Last game played with basic Highlight Maker Hoops:

New York Guard @ Chicago Express

Express 118
Guard 103

First game played with Highlight Maker Hoops Prime Time:

Cleveland Nets @ Boston Commons

Commons 94
Nets 86

I’m sure I made some mistakes while learning how to play the new game, like inbounds after a time out and when to award free throws.

I’ll figure it out.

Upcoming Games:

St. Louis Bombers @ Cincinnati Royals
Denver Dynamos @ Tulsa Bandits
San Francisco Pioneers @ Phoenix Sunset
Kansas City Knights @ Los Angeles Stars

Stay tuned!

Highlight Maker Hoops Prime Time: The NBL

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Soon.

I could never get my head wrapped around any tabletop basketball game, until PLAAY Games came out with Highlight Maker Hoops in 2022.  It’s a quick-play basket ball game, akin to their Express series of games, which are scaled down versions of their full-play games.

From right out of the box I was able to play a couple of games, eventually replaying the Warriors-Celtics 2022 Finals series, where the Warriors won in 6 games, I think.  For some reason I don’t think I documented that series on this site.

Earlier last week I played a game using their fictional basketball league, BLAM (Basketball League of America), which I have renamed the NBL (National Basketball League).  The Chicago Express defeated the visiting New York Guard 118-103.

PLAAY has released a full-play version of Highlight Maker Hoops called Prime Time.  It arrived yesterday and I plan to continue the NBL season with the new expansion.

On tap for tonight: the Cleveland Nets visit the Boston Commons.

I should do what I’ve seen other tabletop gamers have done, use AI to create logos for my fictional sports teams.

Stay tuned!

2024 Goals

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  • Complete at least one baseball replay (1921/1971)
  • Complete the SCRAM 2012 season
  • Complete a hockey/soccer/football replay
  • Complete the Scott Bullerwell Heavyweight Invitational
  • Start a basketball replay

Lofty goals to be sure, but I’ve been putting shit off long enough.

Stay tuned!

Highlight Maker Hoops

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PLAAY Games came out with a basketball game called Highlight Maker Hoops.

I picked it up along with the fictional Basketball League of America (BLAM) 2021-22 season.

As usual I’ve started by creating a league.  It’s unnamed at the moment, but here are the teams:

Eastern Conferences:
New York Guard
Chicago Express
Cleveland Nets
Boston Commons
St Louis Bombers
Cincinnati Royals

Western Conference:
Denver Dynamos
Tulsa Bandits
San Francisco Pioneers
Phoenix Sunset
Kansas City Knights
Los Angeles Stars

I’m not sure if I’ll keep BLAM league name, but we’ll see.

Stay tuned!