In Vegas for Summer League: Day 3

Our final day attending the first weekend of NBA Summer League in Las Vegas was on Saturday, all at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The first game of the day was a must-see. Magic vs. Kings. Paolo Banchero vs. Keegan Murray.

We mentioned Paolo looking more polished than Jabari in our eyes after seeing the two play on Thursday night, and we felt the same after getting to see them both play again on Saturday.

Too easy pic.twitter.com/ZIc4Sn0XdX

— basketballin.net (@bballin_dot_net) July 9, 2022

This play reminded us of something we heard Jay Bilas say about Banchero during ESPN’s pre-draft show, as we were walking by the TV, catching the line out of context: “He has great feet.”

But the real story here was the wild ending to this game.

A Kings 3-pointer by Neemias Queta cut the deficit to just three with 4.3 seconds left. Then the Kings forced a steal in the corner.

Keegan Murray grabbed the loose ball and got to the 3-point line, pumped faked on both Paolo and R.J. Hampton and buried the 3 to tie it up with just 0.2 seconds left, sending the game to OT!

Neemias Queta cuts the lead to 3️⃣ and KEEGAN MURRAY TIES IT UP AND SENDS IT TO OT#NBASummer Overtime on ESPN pic.twitter.com/gQF8cWUbsi

— NBA (@NBA) July 9, 2022

This was one of those shots that we KNEW was going in. Stood up and raised the arms and everything.

The consensus ROAR of the crowd and the palpable buzz in the building was not something we anticipated getting to feel at Summer League. It was splendid.

Still tied after OT, we got Double Overtime Summer League Sudden Death! There isn’t much better than Summer League Sudden Death.

It was a bucket down low by Emanuel Terry (off a pass from Paolo!) that won the game for the Magic.

As good as Paolo has looked, you have to be excited about the enthralling ball from Keegan Murray so far if you’re a Kings fan. He belongs.

In Game 2 of Day 3, the Pistons straight blew the roof off the Wizards doors in the first quarter, hanging 39 points on the Wiz. But then Jaden Ivey got hurt, rolling his ankle when Isaiah Todd was in his landing zone on a 3. Ivey knocked down his free throws but left the game to not return, a definite bummer.

Isaiah Livers had his 3-ball dialed in, knocking down four triples en route to a team-high 20 points. Jordan Schakel was the game’s leading scoring with 24. Wizards rookie and 10th overall draft pick Johnny Davis from Wisconsin struggled mightily in his first game, shooting just 1-of-11 from the field.

This was the game that took FOREVER to end.

The marquee matchup of the day was Chet vs. Jabari in the Thunder-Rockets game.

It was surprising to see Josh Giddey out there. But his hair looked amazing as always.

Chet had a sick block in the second quarter and then he got dunked on just a minute later, a lefty power dunk by Aric Holman in transition. It happens.

Chet is tall and so long, and Jabari is, too. Jabari even had a block on Chet. And Chet had another big block on Eason that started a fastbreak. Both top-3 picks could be studs in the league for a long time. (And Paolo does seem like the safest bet.)

Giddey had a great chance to tie the game and send it to OT at the very end. Alas, his layup off the glass did not go down.

We stuck around for just the beginning of Pelicans-Blazers.

Even for NBA stans as stanny as us, 7+ hours at the gym is a long day, and nearly 20 hours in three days is a lot of hoops.

And we still had some sights to see on our last night in Vegas.

Our first trip to NBA Summer League in Vegas is complete.

Keep grinding.

WE LOVE THIS GAME!

In Vegas for Summer League: Day 2

Day 2 of our Vegas Summer League journey did not commence until the second game of the day at the Thomas & Mack Center between our beloved Charlotte Hornets and the Indiana Pacers.

We wanted to try out a different perspective, so we grabbed a general admission seat on the other side of the court. When we sat down, some guys behind us said, “Who is that? Is that supposed to be somebody?” Another guy replied, “I don’t know, but if it is, I don’t know why they would be sitting up here with us.”

As beloved Hornets stans, we always wondered why our old guy James Borrego did not play the young rookies of Kai Jones and JT Thor more last season. (And James Bouknight as well, but his recent pinky surgery will keep him out of summer league.) After seeing the game on Friday afternoon, maybe we now know. Our Hornets looked clunky, and that’s probably being nice. The spacing was poor and there were so many forced shots.

The Pacers No. 6 overall pick, Bennedict Mathurin from Arizona, looked like the best player on the court, drilling 3s, moving so smooth with the ball, and scoring a game-high 23 points. We love that he is rocking the 00.

The Pacers also had a fan favorite, the 19-year-old 6-foot-11 Chinese sensation Fanbo Zeng, who had a steal and breakaway lay up And-1 that received grand approval from the crowd.

Fanbo Zeng
PLUS. THE. FOUL. 😤#PacersSummer pic.twitter.com/o5lTnZqSwU

— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) July 8, 2022

And you thought there weren’t going to be Fanbo Zeng highlights.

The next game between the Knicks and Warriors had a lot of loud and energetic fans as expected.

Moses Moody balled out, a big game with 34 points. (15 of those came from the free throw line.) There was some back-and-forth action where Moody and DaQuan Jefffies of the Knicks were trading 3s and talking shit.

Quentin Grimes had the greenest of green lights, firing away 14 3-pointers and connecting on four. Jericho Sims had a lot of dunks, and the lesser known Feron Hunt did, too, including a fastbreak windmill jam.

Jonathan Kuminga had a forgettable game, shooting 2-of-10 from the field, but he did at least try a monster power dunk that unfortunately didn’t go down.

Mac McClung played well, and we were left wondering why the Lakers did not keep him around. Remember the last game of the season in Denver!?

As anticipated, the last game of Day 2 between the Suns and Lakers was the loudest the arena got all day, if only due to the amount of fans in attendance thanks to the close proximity of the two teams to Vegas.

LeBron and Westbrook were both in the building, but it must be duly noted that while Westbrook was sitting at the end of the Lakers bench, LeBron was sitting at the entire other end of the court along the baseline.

LeBron James and Russell Westbrook sitting as far away from each other as possible during the Lakers Summer League game … xoxo, gossip girl pic.twitter.com/Tut4nqFWOK

— Natasha Dye (@natashadye) July 9, 2022

There is reading the tea leaves, and then there is looking at what’s directly in front of you.

During the game, Kenny Atkinson was walking up into the stands right by us. (We had moved back down to our lower level seats by that point.) Eye contact was made and smiles were exchanged. We couldn’t help but say, “We’ll miss you in Charlotte,” with a knowing grin. He had a stunned smile at first, then let out a big laugh and said, “I really appreciate that,” as he dapped us up with a full bro-hug and everything.

Classic!

Another classic was @MaxIsNicee walking right by us shortly after our Atkinson moment. The opportunity to lean in and say a subtle and quiet, “Max is niceeee,” could not be passed up. He loved it and squeezed our shoulder with a big smile, nodding in full acknowledgement and appreciation for not blowing his cover.

How about another classic from Friday night?

Straight up got to meet the legend Shams.

His advice for an up-and-coming writer?

“Keep grinding, keep grinding. As many interviews as you can. Just keep grinding!”

Indeed we shall, buddy.

A final note from Day 2: Had a great time walking back to The Strip from Thomas & Mack with some Atlanta Hawks stats/analytics interns and talking hoops the entire way. It was rather alarming and illuminating, however, to hear that the shadow of Luka Doncic is quite prevalent in hanging over the entire Hawks organization, and it is apparently talked about within constantly.

< insert eyeball emoji here >

We love this game!

In Vegas for Summer League: Opening Night

Catching flights and chasing dreams.

We settled into our seats in Section 107, row BB (a.k.a. the second row) just before opening tip of NBA Summer League’s Opening Night in fabulous Las Vegas — at the Thomas & Mack Center for the Orlando Magic vs. the Houston Rockets.

The No. 1 pick Paolo Banchero vs. the No. 3. pick Jabari Smith Jr.

The first thing that stood out was the size of the prized draft picks. They were clearly the biggest players on the court, both 6-foot-10 and looking NBA ready. Just like everyone said.

Paolo is listed as having 30 pounds on Jabari. That did appear to be the case.

Admittedly, we don’t watch a lick of college ball save for March Madness (simply no time when you watch almost every single NBA game), so this was a great chance for us to get to know the new kids on the block.

The second thing that stood out was the vast amount of NBA family in attendance. This was our first time going to Summer League in person, and it was great to see the wide range of the support.

The Magic fam, including Cole Anthony, Wendell Carter Jr., Markelle Fultz and Jalen Suggs, were sitting courtside with head coach Jahmal Mosley.

To the left of the Magic guys was The King of the Fourth himself, DeMar DeRozan.

In the row right in front of us was R.J. Hampton’s family, who could not have been nicer. His dad, Rod Hampton, seemed to know everybody.

Sitting along the left baseline were Tom Thibodeau and Brad Stevens, although not together. It was very surprising to see the always scowl-faced Thibs laughing and smiling for most of the night. A different demeanor entirely when he’s not coaching.

Lastly, sitting courtside in front of us was Mike Miller, who everybody was super happy to see.

The game had a lot of early turnovers which can be typical for Summer League, especially the very first game. Josh Christopher was called for several traveling violations, but he still had a solid outing with a game-high 22 points.

We asked the Rockets fans sitting next to us (who were in San Diego for vacation and cancelled their flight last minute to rent a car and drive to Vegas) if they knew the origin of Josh Christopher’s nickname, JayGup. They did not, but we have since looked it up. SI has us covered: “Josh also acquired his nickname from being the younger brother of Patrick, who is referred to as PatFish. So Josh is known by friends as JayGup, since a guppy is a small fish.”

Now we know.

Banchero outplayed Jabari, 17 points to 10, and he did look like the currently more polished player of the two, displaying a high level of passing, court vision, and a really soft touch. Paolo even hit an early step-back 3 with Jabari right on him, and he blocked a Jabari lay-up attempt as well. But we could see the potential and high upside of Jabari. It would be difficult not to. He found his shot a little bit in the second half.

And it was also just one game. (At Summer League.)

The speed of TyTy Washington jumped off the court. So did the size of Tari Eason. Listed at 6-foot-8 and 216 lbs, Eason looked and played bigger than that.

The Pistons-Blazers game got off to a high-flying start. Jaden Ivey lobbed an oop to Jalen Duren mere seconds into the game.

Ivey’s explosiveness was extensive. So was Duren’s size. Ivey had a play that wowed the crowd with a fake behind-the-back pass and then behind-the-back pass that had everyone exclaiming, “What was that!?” It was some Steve Nash shit, for real. It was super cool.

Not cool at all was Blazers rookie and 7th overall pick Shaedon Sharpe suffering a shoulder injury just five minutes in. He didn’t return which put a damper on things, especially for the Blazers who lacked the Pistons’ NBA experience. Isaiah Stewart (Beef Stew hit three 3s!), Killian Hayes, Isaiah Livers and Saben Lee were all playing for Detroit.

Cade Cunningham and Saddiq Bey were sitting courtside with head coach Dwane Casey. Cade was rocking some braids and a sick Detroit shirt.

Jalen Green was also in the house and looking fly as always. Contrary to the night they were drafted, it was Jalen who had the shades on.

Dame and Nurk were sitting courtside as well, but they were on the far other side from where we were sitting.

There was surprisingly enough Pistons fans in attendance that a couple of “Deeeetroit Basketballlll” chants broke out.

The funniest part of the entire first night was late in the Pistons-Blazers game when the last guy left from R.J. Hampton’s crew sitting in front of us pulled out his phone to record some game action for what seemed like the first time all night. It was one of the sloppiest possessions ever that ended with an air ball. One of the Rockets bros next to us yelled, “Did you just film that!?” as we all cackled in unison.

A classic ending to our first night at Summer League.

We love this game!